mr pleco

you can even get snails eggs in the water of the fish you bought ..

yeah bugger ! best to remove one now if you can, in shop tanks they have no real home just a holding cell but at home they quickly find the best spot in it and become very territorial towards each other have had two in a four foot tank well planted for a while but removed one as its life there just wasnt peaceful ... hope you have luck with this problem and the LFS wont always tell you the truth that stops the till from ringing but there are some good ones out there best plan is if you have a fish in mind ask in here about it before you buy two or more some even need a group to stay at their best so ask in here figure between us all we could cover most fish youd find in nz ..lol

agreed with above posts 2cm is the minimum around 3cm they look better and ship better anything above that and they are really in demand thou takes awhile for them to get to that size ...as a point ive just had 80 or so come out of their cave i wont move them for at least a month and then probably another month before i try and sell them ...trick is powerfeed with veges and frequent water changes hope this helps

thats afrikan and everybody well its at least a week and thought id grab some new pics so here they are can just see babies around top of dad as you can see he blocks the cave really well when i knows i want pics ...lol

well my setup is three feamles to four males bare bottom tank with box filter inside ,a heater thats it ...feed them up before hand ,introduce them then drop temp either big water change with 4+degree colder water or simply unplug heater overnight if females are conditioned well (i.e well rounded ) should wake up to them breeding .. sorry ahead of myself what kind of corys as this will determine the setup im talking albino/bronze corydoras .... juli or swartz corys need a different setup

best site to look at is this thread http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/sp ... ies_id=153 but about 14 inches cant believe yr thread said 6 inches mine is that already at least

yep great pleco !! got one of these lookng for a mate ..just a soon as i sex the one ive got they do grow large like a strong current thou not essential good water quality and heaps of veges ,like courgette (mine polishes off a 1/2 courgette overnight) they can be territorial with other plecos esp their own and some catfish high temp of around 29 celcius $130 is a good price payed 160 for mine but its a really nice specimen very popular fish all over the world one day hope to breed them

actually the point of the post was to get discussion on the matter which i did and to raise awarness of the need for BOTH lfs and breeder and to see what opinions both had of how they felt they were treated as for the retail side of things i run a butchery dept that has huge overheads and losses of (whereby what we get in is only sometimes 2/3rds of what we sell ) so we have to mark up % wise to cover these expenses and i realise i mark up does not equal a GP i put this in to enable LFS that responded to know i had knowledge on the subject and so was understanding of their position my department by comparison runs at around 300,000 plus a week turnover so im familiar with bulk buying ,buying power and dealing with small business identities i still hold to my point that there is room for both breeder and LFS ask any business owner about long term relationships and it has to be a win/win situation the breeder has to survive and so does the LFS all my question was is do both parties feel that balance is there for them

i understand jansens henderson has two ask for jake aka catbrat he has some too and works there i think there is a couple at jansens mt roskill too but aprophecy can confirm that or not

chit thought i wrote 102 my bad ilah lol ...

excellent response and i respect yr honesty thanks for the input brad

this may sound weird but did you wash the sand before adding it in theroy a may have somrthing to do with it but wouldnt last this long one would imajine no nitrates ? what filters are you using and how many ?? isuggest taking yr water to an LFS and get it checked for all minerals and trace elements possible, this may give you a better idea never had this problem so i am clutching at straws have seen it in new tanks that havent fully cycled but not for 6 mths

really depends on how much bracing / how thick that bracing is rusting metal dosent sound good and how thick the glass is ..also note where it is to be put and what reinforcing the floor has hell of alot of water in one spot

how old are the fry very young around a week old can get sucked up if you use too big a vacume hose you can but it pays to check the bucket before you biff it .. i would say most if not all will get out of the way as a rule mine that are 2 weeks old will but ones that just came out of the cave the other day tend to be a bit slow so i take from mid water till they are a bit stronger and wiser lol

point taken freakyfish and thanks for your input and its not about the breeder selling cheaper elsewhere, usually , for more than he got from you but less than what you are retailing them for and i also agree that its less hassle to sell 50 in one go than 2 fish 25 times over but can you agree that its far better to buy 50 fish every month at say $3 than to buy 50 one month at $2 from a breeder and then 50 at $4 from the importer and because your retail price would fluctuate yr sales the second month would decrease while maintaining the same profit allowing for the fact that you put the same mark up on both items yet your expenditure for both months has stayed the same so in theroy you are making LESS money the second month by doing this and to answer yr question about replacement of stock i would and i have, if i feel it was genuine i have had an LFS claim to lose 20% everytime i sold to him only to discover he was selling them and trying to claim death to make better margin ...it does happen but not in every LFS and i do give benefit of the doubt ..and that was a long time ago havent had that problem for ages .but if there was a problem i would replace the fish as my intention is repeat business as is yours isnt it ? And to buy in quantity is rewarded with better price but my question to you is for the same quantity off an importer would you get the same price ? also like to note that while some breeders will sell for $2 they are usually ones that come and go , and have inferior (at times ) quality ..yes you are in the business of making money and good on you for if it wasnt for ppl like you we wouldnt have the types of fish that we have now i realise ppl can expect to get unrealistic prices for fish when selling their thought probably is "well i payed $10 to get it so $7 to sell it now it has grown a bit is reasonable like i said i am in the retail trade and understand margins GP etc and this thread in now way is intended to intimidate i still will sell trade to LFS its just a discussion on the issue to get some feedback

yep gannet i agree its not a question of why buy more from impoters than breeders but you know as well as me the price difference between what you WILL pay for imorted and what you tell the local breeder you are prepared to pay for local bred fish there is always going to imported fish and ihave no problem with that but when faced with buying local at least give local a decent price as examples show above the diference can be huge in one case i was literally threatened that if i sold to that LFs and he saw my fish on TM he wouldnt buy from me again as i was making him look like a theif on TM with 1/2 price fish ,i told him if the hat fits then he should wear it !

cheers shane good to hear about yr royals ...mine first breed for the royals so ill get them eventually lol ... if i wanna get nasty i could ask if ya found a male L104 yet huh

yeah was out there today ilah they looked good

ok wanna start a thread to get some feedback and start a little discussion . i will state this is not a witch hunt nor a lfs bashing just a topic thats close to my heart ,so id like to hear from both sides of the coin if poss because maybe im looking at this all wrong . For years ive bred fish as a hobby, and to make a little money to help that hobby survive has always been great.My passion is in the breeding and rearing of the species not capital gain But my concern is raised when it comes to the selling bit, see for a breeder to set up properly and maintain good quality of fish he has to have a few tanks, this all being at a cost ,he has to raise young to a breedable size ,breed that species and then raise the young to a saleable size all at a cost , which when selling he hopes to recoup some of it .Now it is far greater an advantage for me to sell 50 or so fish to an LFS rather than 1or 2 to a private seller at a time, but i feel this at times is taken advantage of by the LFS to literally screw the price to an unrealistic value... case and point ... as you know i breed plecos, and at times alot of them. For me to sell 3cm to 4cm BN i have been offered as low as $2 for them and as high as $3.50 ea yet a 2cm BN from the importer which usually IMO is undernourished and undersized for its age is like $4 ea and the LFS sell these for like $8.99-$9.99 ea but when faced with a$2 fish they sell it for $6.99ea great for the LFS but the breeder goes home with a little over $60.00 for 30 fish and the LFS makes $150 for nothing . now some of these LFS can go thru 50 of these fish or more a month at that price, which puts demand back on the breeder who soon runs out , and the LFS is back buying from the impoter paying $4 a fish and retailing for $9.99 till the breeder can recover My question is why cant the LFS pay a resonable $3-$3.50 a fish keep the hobby alive and well in NZ sell slightly fewer a month (retailing $7.99-$8.99 ) but still make the same profit i know its about competition (i work in a supermarket as a butchery manager .so i know about cost analyisis ,wages,overheads,grossprofit and net profit and all that ) but i reckon alot of breeders get out of breeding for the sheer reason is they cant recoup some of THEIR losses. i dont want to make money (but it would be nice i admit ) but at that price its hard to break even ,and the customer goes from one week fish being 6.99ea to the next week 9.99ea dosent it make sense to even out the seemingly unbalanced ..??? as most on here have stated its better to buy local bred as they are healthier and usually bigger ....i realise if i dont like the price then use your feet and i have in the past , but it seems to me more shops are taking the approach where you can screw the local breeder either to make better margin or to increase competition ..my response would be what would happen if nobody decided to breed locally where would you buy then ...trade me is getting bigger and bigger and i note if LFS dont address this soon they maybe the ones crying foul in the future ... p.s this is not a threat nor indeed intended to accuse anyone of such action just a topic for debate and feedback would be appreciated happy breeding

sounds like fun gannet what did you do after lunch lol :lol:

thanks ppl yep im still bouncing off the cei ling funny thing is now im finding it really hard to stay away from the tank (typical huh ) just a waiting game now .its day two dad is still doing his job did a little cleaning up in tank today very minor just a quick water change got the 24 / 7 water dripper doing that for me now anyway ... babies still look good no further developments fingers crossed and a bit of yeah gatito the pic is of adults so around 9-10 cm i would guess dont get any bigger ,these are wild caught

wel done and cograds adodge pics when you can get them lol

welcome choc .. sounds like yr gonna be the gourami expert round here lol

well heres the best i can do at the moment you may be able to just see orange under his belly of the wrigglers ....maybe heres a tank shot of the setup you can see the overflow pipe in the corner which allows 24/7 water changes if needed and heres the other end with the powerhead on top of the UGF final try at wriggler shot

sure blue/kim thanks for the replies ppl im still wrapped as far as i know flatfish this is the first spawn in nz i think they have been spawned in aussie but havent seen pics to confirm this anyway to let you know what i did so far after dry season of 10 days without feeding and no water changes increased the powerheads from one to two for ten days water changed with rainwater that was at least 8-10 degrees colder and had sat in a bath with rotting leaves and stuff (low ph and full of mossie larvae and very tannic ) increased feeding , feeding included mangoes from peru which i might add were never touched in fact went mouldy almost but its worth noting huh also shrimp,mysis shrimp ,adult brineshrimp ,shrimp pellets ,and discus tucker ... the tank never had a light on it and i turned the room lights on for only 5-7 hours a day added extra bamboo for caves three days ago gave big water change on tap water about 1/2 a tank removed 2nd powerhead thats about it cave that spawned ,saw a female lurking there about a week ago very interested in cave but never entered (while i was there anyway ) caves are positioned horizontal to water flow so water flows past but not into cave as such there is another cave that i havent checked yet not sure if theres anything there or not .. biggest thing i think was i never really bothered them or looked inside caves. occasionally shone a torch at the caves to make sure they were ok but never really disturbed them much except to feed them and vacume up any debri which was probably once a week at most to be perfectly honest i have seven of these plecos aand i have to be honest i can only ever see four i really have no idea if the other three are ok or not that kinda tells you how much i have left them alone and in darkness .. n.b the tank is at floor level in a garage /come fishroom so gets very little movement except by me hope this helps as they are an awesome little fish ... one little note which i find quite hardcase when i originally put in the first cave it was facing the front glass and had a male present and fanning at one point i saw a female swim around the cave (bamboo by the way ) then turn and literally ram the cave and spun it till it was facing away from the front glass it was almost like she knew i would look in if it was facing the glass and wanted more privacy .. poor bloddy male inside musta wondered what the hell hit him lol