Rob

Just a note that the Kribensis aren't livebearers - the females will lay eggs in a cave like structure, the male will come along after her and fertilise the eggs. Both parents will defend the eggs and fry once they've hatched.

Often fish breeding for the first time are bad parents - eating the eggs or fry. You could see about giving them another chance, or next time they spawn remove the eggs to another tank and see how they go without parental care (I've done this with dwarf cichlids with varying success). I also found that the time I had badis fry they never really swam in the open - always lurked around the bottom very camouflaged. As for feeding the young - I'd suggest either microworms or baby brine shrimp. As for time until sale - can't say for sure as I haven't successfully bred badis badis (got about 4 or 5 fry one time that went on to semi-adult hood) - I would guess about 4 months - badis badis can be more difficult to raise than dwarf cichlids as they are generally more picky eaters, prefering live foods or bloodworms. I know that I keep on mentioning about dwarf cichlids, while badis badis behave like dwarf cichlids they actually belong to the perch family.

Looks like Cryptocoryne pontidefolia (sp??)

In answer to the question about LFS's importing - very few of them do as they do not have the quarantine facilities or want to incur the expense. The only one I'm aware of that both imports and retails is Redwood Aquatics in Christchurch.

I probably wouldn't cycle with neons - just because they don't regularly eat off the gravel - so you're likely to accumulate uneaten food on the bottom of the tank. Since you plan on having cories anyway - I'd start off with them.

Some shops get a bit paranoid about letting customers seeing the actual lists (due to previous unpleasant experiences) - so I just ask my LFS to read out the catfish section.

@catfish_dude - alligator cat was around the $70 mark from memory. @suemack - the camera is a Canon Powershot A80 was in my price range and the good thing for taking fish pics is that it is very small shutter delay (if you start off with the button half pressed - it's zero delay). Remember that there are more pics at http://fff.corydorasworld.com/gallery/Rob didn't want to link in to all the images. I realise that some of them have got some reflections but I'm still learning with the camera and the pictures of the T-bar cichlids were the only ones I've got so far - I'll replace them once I get better pictures.

For the less common sucker mouth types there seems to be some vague price ranges of $35-60 for common twig cats, whiptails, royal whiptails, small clown plecos, $100-150 for some of the more exotic ones (Brazilian butterflies, larger clown plecos, cheaper gold nuggets) and finally around the $200 mark for rarer exotics or larger specimens. This is all very crude approximates. For types of cory the most you'd probably see them selling for would be around $50 most likely the Flagtails or C. barbatus if they ever come in again (I've only seen them for sale once and I was a poor student at the time so couldn't afford them). I've got five of the colombian plecos - no sign of spawning yet - hope they do (not only for getting baby ones but they're lip brooders, which I haven't seen before).

Most of my fish I get from the LFS, I do make an occasional visit up to Auckland to check out the shops there. For the more expensive ones my LFS wouldn't normally stock them - but he's quite happy to order them in for me once I know that they're available (so often I'll go in when it's quite and ask him to read off what's currently on the wholesalers lists). Works out well for both of us - he sells fish that he wouldn't normally and I get a good deal because he's got a guaranteed buyer. The only thing with this system is that you do need to have a good idea of what the different fish look like - as the system would quickly fall apart if I got him to order in stuff and then said 'nah - don't like the look of it'.

Finally got my digital camera and have been trying to get some good pics of my catfish. Here are a few, more pictures can be seen HERE Alligator cat - head shot Flagtail cory Colombian pleco - mouth detail Borneo glass cat

Well, finally got my digital camera - so now I can show Caryl what a male borleyi looks like:

Has there been a water change since the tank was set up? A water change can often reduce a range of evils (pH out of wack, nitrogen chemicals accumulating etc).

Unfortunately asking for stuff at the LFS and actually getting an importer to listen to them are two different things. In the last 2 years we've had two importers ask us what we'd like bought in - I've given them my wish list both times (complete with prices that I'm prepared to pay) - one importer even said that I was prepared to pay good prices for the fish I was after - still haven't seen a single one on that list. Admittedly some of them there would be a limited demand for - but I'm sure other people would like to keep little Red-breasted acaras (Laetacara dorsigera). The new importer doesn't seem to want my LFS's business anyway - I had the LFS enquire last week about one of the expensive plecos they had for sale - but they haven't had anyone there to answer his call. We've had what were called snowflake bristlenose before - but they just looked like a regular bristlenose with dandruff.

Not sure if it's applicable to Dark's monster bit of wood but you can also screw the bits of wood to old undergravel filter plates - then you've got a greater area to pile gravel onto and (hopefully) hold it in place.

Try going to Applesnail Net and see what info you can find there. There's also recipes if you end up with an over-supply

When I've had apple snails do their thing inside they fall back into the tank once the egg cluster starts to disintergrate - hence I would suggest putting them into water. Have the adult snails been outside over winter before? When I tried having brown apple snails outside over winter there weren't any survivors, further reading indicated that they really are a tropical snail rather than a snail that can manage tropical temperatures.

Siamese algae eater (also sold as Black-line flying foxes) are about the only fish I know of that will eat it. If you've got a heavy infestation then I'd scrape off as much as you can so that the SAE's can better control it. Alternatively I've been told the fertilizer supplement from Seachem: 'Flourish excel' will get rid of it (I've just started testing this out on one small tank - so far it's made the tips of the black algae go red).

How long it takes to get to saleable size depends on a variety of factors - how often and what quality food they're getting fed, how many of them a crammed into the tank, how often water changes are getting done. I would guess (VERY roughly) about 4-5 months but am happy to be contradicted. As for how much you should be expecting to get for them - about half the price they sell for in shops is a good rule of thumb. I think you should always be putting yourself in the other persons position and think how much you would be happy to pay for that size and quality fish.

To the best of my knowledge no one in NZ has bred them before. PlanetCatfish just states that they probably have been bred in the aquarium before but details are not forthcoming.

I would be feeding the fish during cycling - for two reasons - to keep the fish alive, and secondly so that they're producing waste material. The point of cycling is to get the bacteria colony established to break down fish wastes - if the fish aren't producing much waste (a what goes in must come out situation) then there isn't much for the bacteria to work on.

Hi think Alan's link stuffed up - the site has frames and what ever fish you're viewing it still shows the parent address in the address bar - so need to be a bit sneaky to get the address for particular fish. Haven't got the miniatlas as I prefer the Baensch books (haven't you got those back again - I thought they went with the editors job?)

I know that photos can sometimes change the apparent colour of fish, does it really have the orange on the fins, and orangey stripes along the body Caryl? If yes then it's not likely to be M. lacustris Have a look here at lacustris - admittedly mine will show some green or yellow depending on their mood. One problem with trying to ID rainbowfish is the colour variations depending on river system they originated from - so I can't pin down your particular type of rainbow. Some pictures of Glossolepsis multisquamatus I've seen in the past look similar to that fish - as pictured in the bottom photo(though unfortunately the one on the site I've pointed you to doesn't), but then the top photo of him have some similarities to M. herbertaxelrodi.

Yip Caryl that's C. borleyi - a female (or a juvenile - as they all start off with female colouring). Having another look at the second to last picture - I don't think it is a borleyi changing colour - it still doesn't have the depth in the body like my ones do - even the young ones I've got show a deep body.

Great pictures Caryl - now that I'm working a digital camera is on the wish list (along with more mundane things like a new washing machine and a fridge/freezer) From what I've read (about Malawi cichlids) Mbuna are the cichlids that keep close to the rocks and mainly graze on the algae on the rocks. The other group of cichlids are commonly called Utaka - they're more the open water swimmers - the peacocks (of assorted genera - Copadichromis, Auloncara, Haplochromis?) belong to this group and are more carnivorous. None of the pictures posted look like a C. borleyi - females are commonly silver with yellow fins (at least the ones I've seen in NZ - other colour forms has the female a brownish colour with 2 or 3 darks spots along her body), males have metallic blue head, with blue running into the dorsal fin and rusty orange body with some blue spangles. Also I'd expect it to be deeper in the body. Does depend on size though - the second to last picture could be a young male C.borleyi changing to adult colouring :roll: . That second picture down looks more like an Electric blue hap (Sciaenochromis ahli)

The supposed peppermint cats that I've seen for sale here have all been pale imitations compared to Mollyman's fish. If the ones here even came close to those ones in the pictures I would have bought some, the ones I've seen though have the common bristlenose mottled dark gray with minute whitespots (so that it does actually look like a case of whitespot) and no trim on the fins.