Joe

So its changed again? Last time I looked on his wetsite it was Danio erythromicron. It's so annoying and confusing how latin names keep changing :roll:

Yay thanks heaps Sophia If you are in to Apistos, I could send you some if you want when (if) they breed

Yeah I will when it's autumn and I am able to collect some And if I have any money left over from buying other stuff for this tank I'll get Indian almond leaves off of trademe.

Wow excellent work Jennifer !drool: I wish I could bake something that good. I'm only good at curry though

Did you buy it? :bounce:

Any new photos of its growth? If it stays that small then it will be some type of dwarf crypt, however I'm thinking it may just be pups of C. willisii. If it is C. nevillii or C. parva then I'd be interested in buying some off you when it you have some spare

Christchurch, and you're in Auckland so there's not much point in purchasing from Petworld. Try Greg Kingston, he does really nice tanks apparently, and for really good prices too. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Tanks2u Greg Kingston Auckland Quality custom built aquariums, sumps and trickle filters. Can be shipped from Manukau Auckland to anywhere in the country. Phone: 09 273 4121 Mobile: 021 900 727 Email: [email protected] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- :thup:

I love the copperband, he's so cool !drool: I want one :happy2:

I got the tank custom-made by Cam at Petworld

Finally I have my new tank. It's 650x500x490mm with 10mm glass thickness, and is mainly made out of normal float glass, except for the front panel which is starphire/low ion glass. The edges have been beveled and polished, and the base is internal like ADA tanks. It's sitting on my couch at the moment, but I have a table for it to go on (although the table is a hideous bright blue but if I wait until I can afford a nice stand then this tank will probably not be set up for a very long time!) Starphire compared to float glass. For the substrate I'll just use sand from Mitre 10 Mega, and JBL balls for any plants that I put in. I will try to get a Hydro ETH 200w Inline Heater for this tank as I really don't fancy using the 300w Jager sitting in the closet because that's for emergencies only. Luckily I haven't had to use it so far. Lighting will be an Aqua Medic Ocean Light 150w HQI Metal Halide, and for filtration I'll use my Eheim Classic 2213 from my current tank, and then I'll just put a pump in the other tank to circulate the water as I don't want to use my unused Eheim 2211 canister filter because that is for the high tech nano tank that I'll hopefully be able to afford if I manage to breed a relatively large amount of Apistos and sell them. Yes, the tank is going to be stocked with Apistos. I still have my trio of Apistogramma macmasteri which I'll try and breed until I can find a male Apistogramma trifasciata to go with my female. Then I'll have a go with those instead as they're my favourite Apistogramma and I would really love to breed them. And of course I need to get some twiggy branches and peat and/or alder cones otherwise it won't be blackwater So hopefully I'll be able to get this tank set up soon, and there's no excuses now as I have the tank and most of the stuff

Nice! !drool: Did you save me any?

The petshop here has a whole heap of them and they've been acclimatized to freshwater. They've had them for months too and so far doesn't look like any have died

Wow gorgeous fish! I love the peckoltia, and the cichlids in the 2nd and 6th photos. !drool: That is weird and disturbing. What on earth has that guy been smoking? :roey:

With mine I just chucked them in a net breeder and within a few days I had about 30-50 or so fry. Didn't have to do anything. However I didn't know that they needed regular feeding, so I lost most of them because they only got feed a couple of times a day :oops: :facepalm:

I need to get some again, they're such a cool little fish and ridiculously easy to breed! Well done Sophia, great job :thup:

Good news - she appears to be getting better. She's eating, the swelling has gone right down, and I haven't noticed any slimy excrement. I added some API Melafix yesterday before I posted on here because I wasn't sure if it would help or not.

Thanks for the info everyone.

Hey everyone, Just noticed that my trifasciata female doesn't look 100%. She is slightly fattish and is excreting a fine, white slimy substance. She also has a slight pine coning of the scales. I googled dropsy in Apistogrammas and read on Apistogramma.com to treat with tetracycline which kills the bacteria, and metronidazole which kills protozoans. I have no idea what either of those medicines are, where to get them, how expensive they are, or what on earth protozoans are. I have API Pimafix and Melafix, and can get tonic salt from the pet store tomorrow and I'm pretty sure they also stock Furan-2 if that's any help. She is still active and came to the surface of the tank wanting to be fed when I entered the room just before. I also have a spare tank which I can move her to if it is necessary. Any help in saving this beautiful fish would be greatly appreciated Thanks, Joe

+1. The greener the better :thup:

@ Squirt, Sadly no. Why can't we get anything cool in NZ? It sucks looking at all the tanks overseas and drooling over all the cool plants, fish and invertebrates and knowing that I will most likely never be able to keep any of that cool stuff unless I move overseas which I really do not want to do. Maybe I should work for MAF biosecurity or something like that and get a degree at Uni for it and do that for a living? I could then maybe have my own quarantine facility and make it really cheap to get stuff imported... Yeah, wishful thinking :roll:

Do they breed at 26C? Also do they eat alage like cherry red, crystal red and amano shrimp?

Yeah but they can only be kept at 20C maximum, and my tank's 26-28C. No chance of them breeding in my tank!

I found this video on youtube and I just can't stop watching it! It is so cool! I love the little shrimp. It's so cute :love: I wish we could get them here :tears:

Kelvin rating is unimportant in aquarium bulbs, but is useful in standard industrial bulbs. It tells you the colour temperature of the light. However, this can look completely different depending on the spectral output of the bulb. For example, Arcadia Plant Pro tubes have a colour temperature of 7,5000K, which should be a cool white colour. But the actual colour is pink, because they have high peaks at the red and blue end of the spectrum. Spectral output is measured in nanometers. This is sometimes displayed on the packaging of the bulb, mainly aquarium bulbs though. You will unlikely find it on an incandescent bulb or industrial flouresent tube, because they aren't sold as aquarium bulbs and so the people who use them only care about lumens and how bright the bulb is, and they don't care about its spectrum. Sometimes though if you go on to the website of the brand you will be able to find a graph of its spectral output. Plants like blue and red light, and are most sensitive to 430nm (blue) and 650-680nm (red). The red light improves the colouration of the plants, but also the stem elongation too. Using a bulb that is high in the red end of the spectrum leads to very leggy growth. That's where the blue comes in. It promotes healthy leaf development and bushy, compact growth. Generally, 0-5,800K is displayed in a orange-redish light, meaning that it is high in the red end of the spectrum, and 6,000K-10,000K is blueish, slowly becoming more blue the higher the colour temperature. They also tend to have a lot of green in the spectrum. A lot of aquarium bulbs have the spectral graph altered, which is why the colouration of the bulb is different to what it states the colour temperature is. This is designed to look pleasing,to grow plants, or both. So when you get normal bulbs, a colour temperature of 6,000K - 10,000K is fine for growing plants, and generally has a good amount of blue light. You could mix a couple of bulbs that are 6,500K-10,000K with a bulb that is 3,000K-5,800K, so you have a rough idea that you are providing a good amount of blue light for the growth, and a bit of red light for colouration. HTH

Wow that's such a cute little setup, excellent work :thup: