tukituki

yes the tank is heavily planted has lots of caves, this morning all 4 of them are fine, the young male is looking more himself. perhaps it could work until wednesday morning when we all move to the south island. the large male is far from aggressive, perhaps this has something to do with it. they are all related too.

we are about to move house and are down to just one tank for the next 7-10days (tank is about 160L). we've had a large male fighter and 2 large female fighters in the tank fine, but have now had to add the small male. this small male was in a breeding net but he's starting to loose condition so has been set loose by my other half. things seem ok, is it alright to leave them all together? the tank is very well planted, other tank mates are just some guppies and bristlenoses. cheers.

there aren't many fish left in my community tank! we are moving from hastings to dunedin so decided to sell most of them, and start again once we've got the tanks up and running again. in the community tank are some bristlenose catfish (i think we'll be keeping 5 of them), 1 flying fox, the 2 female fighters, 3 khuili loaches, and a bunch of guppies.

you think he'd be ok? he's bred fine with both of the females, and the tank is about 1m wide and well planted. i really like this male, he's a really doting dad, so don't want the girls to give him a hard time!

the female fighters are HUGE and will eat him for breakfast! they are now the only fish in the tank that aren't hanging out on the bottom. 2 female fighters, and some catfish.

good to hear they are about as i don't really have the time at the moment to construct one! i must've seen it in one of the other shops, 3 to go to one day this week eh!

i currently have 3 tanks, and am going down to 2 for the next few weeks. i have 2 female fighters in a community tank, one large male fighter on his own in a small tank, and one young male fighter in a tank full of bristlenoses. the bristlenose tank is the one to be shut down as we are moving to the other end of the country... so i would like to put the young male in one of the other tanks (only keeping the breeding pair of bristlenoses, but they'll go in the community tank fine) but feel a tank divider would be best (i hate those little breeding net things, too depressing for the fighters). does anyone know where you can get one of these? i swear i've seen tank dividers somewhere in hawkes bay before but have looked in 2 shops today with no luck! do you have to get them made?

tank temp is 26, a water change was done just a few days ago so i can't see why ammonia levels would be high (leftover food taken out each morning). we were just using a filter before but have since added the air stone/strip, perhaps this is why the oxygen level was low do you think?

we've cleaned the filter last night, put in a long air stone this morning, given cooked zuchinni, and they are not at the top this morning so hopefully they'll be happier now. how much should we be feeding them per day (bearing in mind there is the fighter, baby guppies and parents)? its not possible to move the parents as the other large tank has lots of bottom feeders and this tank (the one they are in now) doesn't, so would like to keep it that way.

we have 30 odd bristlenose babies that are approx 1 month old, a few days ago they were all hanging out at the top of the tank, although the water was pretty clean we did a water change, now 2/3 days later they are all up the top of the tank again. any ideas on why they might be doing this? the other tank mates are the parents (who hide in their cave most of the time, perhaps breeding again), a siamese fighter and a few baby guppies.

yes very kind

i have bloodworms, if i ground them up would they still be too big? thanks for the advice adodge.

its hard to tell but they're about 1cm approx. i wouldn't know where to get the microworms from as i live in the sticks. i only tried the ground up flake food for the first time yesterday, they were on liquid fry food beforehand. should i leave the flake food for now until they're bigger?

i have a few fighter fry, they are about 5 weeks old now i think and still really small. i had been giving them liquid fry food, yesterday i gave them some ground up flake food, i saw one of them eat a bit, is this ok for fry of this age? what else could i give them? hopefully they will get a bit bigger soon.

the net is quite fine so i can't see them being sucked out. we have raised fry in it before but just guppies who might be a bit bigger. how big are the bristlenoses when they hatch? i'll probably move them to the other tank once they've hatched, i haven't done this at the moment as i'm paranoid the snails will eat the eggs if i move them now!

thanks. i've just noticed a few more eggs with the big male inside the cave. i think you're right that he fanned to hard and some flew out! should i return the eggs that i've put in the breeding net back to the cave? or just leave them where they are? from what i've read they take 5-6 days to hatch, then they eat their egg sac for the next 5-6 days and need fresh veg, is that right? its very cool that they've bred at long last i've had them almost 2 years i think! once they've hatched i can put them in with my siamese fighter fry (i think i have 4 or 5) in a separate tank.

hi, we've just been feeding our fish and noticed a clump of orangey coloured eggs just beside one of the caves. i am pretty sure they are bristlenose eggs. a few of the other fish were quite interested in them so we have put them in a breeding net at the top of the tank, we have a filter that circulates water over them. did we do the right thing? the very large male (who i'm sure must be the father) is still in the cave but it was only the golden bristlenose (who would be too young to breed i would have thought maybe 7 months old) who were paying an interest. what should i do with the eggs? they couldn't stay where they were as there are gouramis, loaches, golden apple snail, bolivian butterflies, female fighters etc that would probably eat them, unless the male was being subtle in guarding his eggs (that weren't in the cave!). thanks.

i think the tank is 32L. i have the liquid fry food, frozen blood worms, some sort of dried worms & the usual flake food (as well as various bottom feeder foods), anything else i'd have to get tomorrow!

a liquid fry food got from LFS

thanks, some are able to swim up and down but none horizontally yet. yes he seems to be an awesome dad, i'm very impressed! shall i start feeding them once they swim horizontally? cheers.

the eggs have hatched and you can see the little fry (who seem motionless), at times fall to the bottom of the tank, our male scoops them up and puts them back in the bubble nest. when is the right time to feed the fry and when should they become mobile? we'll remove the doting dad then eh?!

she's gone back to her other tank, cheers.

thanks Cam! i'm very happy they have spawned! so i should take her out now as she's hiding in the plants at one end of the tank, he is under his cup at the other end?

Hi, I setup my 2 fighters for breeding 2 days ago, they were released yesterday afternoon and we've just notice them spawn. The female released the eggs and the male caught them in his mouth and put them in the bubble nest. All is good. My question is when do I take out the female? and how long should I leave the male in for? Thanks.

well i never! the whole set up with tank, filter, stand, several ornaments etc was less than that!