Rob

No I didn't get any albinos - I'm not keen on albino anything.

C. metae (Bandit cory) are cheap compared to C. adolfoi at the moment. Only Adolfoi's I've seen for sale have been about $45 each.

The way I hatch them is in a soft drink bottle - I personally cut the neck of the bottle off at about the 'shoulder' of the bottle (others I have seen leave the lid on and cut out the bottom instead). Put some regular tap water in and then clamp inside one of your tanks (that way you don't have to have a seperate heater) add the salt (roughly about 3tsp per litre), an airline (that goes right to the bottom of the container) and brineshrimp eggs. In one or two days you should be ready to harvest - I then remove the airline, take the bottle out of the tank and sit it somewhere by a light source (the shrimp are attracted to the light and concentrate themselves close the the light) then syphon or syringe them out. Bits and pieces to note: Having the hatchery in a heated tank speeds up the hatching. I haven't had any problems hatching the eggs just using rock salt or sea salt from the supermarket - other people claim they only get good results when using sea water. If you're wanting to raise the shrimp to adults you will have to use sea water or an artificial seawater mix you can't raise the adults using just some salt chucked into water.

Unfortunately I don't have E. annulatus anymore. So the breedings in Otautau only yielded males?

I very much doubt they were peppermint bristlenose's at that price $149.50 I'd believe - if they are $14.95 I'll be taking the day off work and buying about 6. The only out of the ordinary bristlenoses I've seen recently have been A. claro (Matto grosso ancistrus) and L71 (White spot ancistrus). By peppermint bristlenose I assume you're meaning something like A. hoplogenys (jet black, white spots, white trim on dorsal and tail). I've only seen a male of these once years ago at Pupuke awesome looking fish - haven't seen any recently. The L71's that I've seen have been OK in a ho-hum sort of way - I'd have been a lot more interested if they had a black base colour rather than the grey that the ones I saw had.

Binkles - I find that it does take the glass cats a little while to get used to a new tank. I think it may also be one of those situations of the more cover/hiding places their are the more you see of them (since they know that there is somewhere to hide if required).

I know that Environment Waikato has now banned all types of vallisneria in the Waikato. No it is not because they're mistaking if for Giant Vallisneria. It's because people have been deliberately establishing vallisneria populations where it hasn't been found before. Also there has been vallisneria getting 'exported' from the Waikato (I assume) to the South Island - this in itself isn't a problem at all but the vallisneria was getting collected from a lake that had Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) in it. Hornwort can grow from very small bits and is something they definitely don't want making it into those nice South Island lakes. The guy I talked to didn't know if the ban was going to made nationwide or not. I don't like the idea of banning all vallisneria but it's being caused by members of the public's unthinking/uncaring actions rather than a MAF/DOC/NIWA mistake (this time).

Hi there EVLGTZ - Sue's got us heading the right direction. Brown algae (I'm assuming it's just a brown film on the glass/plants etc) is usually diatoms - they're usually the first algae that show up in a newly set up tank - they make use of silicate in the water that comes from the gravel. After a couple of months the brown algae usually disappears (because it's used up the silicate in the water). At this early stage I'd just use an algae scruber to clean it off the glass (probably do that just before a water change so then you can siphon some of the crud out as part of the water change). You don't mention what fish you've got but I'd be inclined to get a little bristlenose to help control the algae (can't remember if they eat brown algae - but you're going to get other types of algae as the set up matures so the bristlenose will come in useful). Interfecus has said about reducing light levels - that is true if green algae is a problem (or your tank looks like pea soup) but brown algae can somtimes indicate not enough light - in this case (since you've got the lights on for 12 hours) I think it's just the diatoms using up the available silicate. I don't think it's worthwile using an algaecide.

Hi there Doc - the most likely culprits are those lumps of limestone (assuming the shop knows there stuff). Unless you want to keep african rift lake cichlids take them out. Your 50% water change probably will have dropped the pH (assuming your tap water pH is lower than 9) but as the limestone continues to dissolve it will carry on raising your pH. The hardness of the water will also be getting affected by the limestone (ie getting pushed up). I'm curious about your comment about the 'dust' from the plant food - is it actually added as a powder or as a liquid? If it's a liquid I suspect that the high pH is causing it to precipitate out of solution - if this is the case I'd suggest not using any more fertiliser until the pH is sorted out.

Glass cats are mid water swimmers and will normally hang out in a group (it's recomended that you get at least 4 or 5). Generally they're active during the day - but it's often just hovering in place with the odd tail flick to keep them in position. My ones feed well - normally by intercepting flake food while it's drifting its way to the bottom of the tank. Healthy ones should be pretty well transparent except for the sack with their innards jsut behind the head. If the body starts going cloudy then their starting to get stressed/sick.

I've got a couple of these guys - I find mine go crazy over frozen blood worms and also white worms. The problem is that they don't really like coming off the glass onto the gravel (I suspect that it's unnatural for them, their habitat is fast flowing streams so they normally stay stuck fairly firmly to rocks) - but if the worms fall on the gravel close to the glass they will venture onto the gravel.

Hi Alan - I know which fish you're talking about - I've seen them in at Fee's as well. The closest match I found for them was Melanochromis joanjohnsonae. I'm not sure of the ID. If you go digging around on the net and find pictures of males you'll probably think that I've lost it. Try and find a picture of a female though - they've got the blue stripes with red/orange inbetween. When I saw them at Fee's they were still quite small and all had the same colouration - on the assumption that they all start off looking like females I didn't think my ID was too way out - but could go out the window once you've got a dominant male showing his colouring. Hope this helps.

I don't think your clowns would have too many problems with the other fish that you've got listed (now that the bichir as been eliminated) - does depend on the relative sizes of the fish that your getting - clowns can defend themselves if required - they've got little switch-blades just below their eyes. My personal preference (if having to start a tank from scratch) is to cycle with common bottom feeder such as a bristlenose or common type of cory (bronze or peppered). People may disagree - my reasoning is that these two are both pretty hardy in my experience and I don't need to worry about uneaten food on the bottom of the tank (a possible problem if you have a mid-water swimmer as your cycle fish - not a problem with lifebearers though since they'll happily eat of the bottom). I guess it also ties into my general philosopy of having what I call the 'maintenance crew' (ie something that will at least keep the algae down and something that scavenges along the bottom for food) established in the tank first. Glad to see that you intend to get (at some stage) a group of clown loaches rather than a single or pair - they do like to be in a group. From what I've seen of pictus cats you'd probably want to get two of those as well since they do interact with each other - can look like agression - but I've never seen any damage done to each other. As you've mentioned your list does appear to be only bottom dwellers. You could consider some of the larger tetras (congos, african long fin, bleeding hearts), a group of barbs (tiger, arulius etc), rainbowfish (depending on how rich you feel) as mid-water swimmers. Some of the more placid cichlids may be an option as well - blue acaras perhaps? Just suggestions - come the end of the day it's what's compatible and what you want to see in the tank.

I have to agree with Cat that I personally wouldn't use any of those fish to cycle the tank. Not only a cost thing but also the sensitivity of those fish - otos can be sensitive to conditions at the best of times, while the scaleless nature of the clown loaches means that they're often more succeptable to chemicals. I wouldn't want to include the otos in that mix of fish anyway - they'll end up as fodder for one of the others. I'd opt for one of the larger algae eaters: bristlenose, common pleco or redspot/sailfin pleco - yeah the common pleco and redspot pleco can grow big but then your bichir is going to get 1.5-2 foot long. Do you actually have access to an ornate bichir or is something that you'd like to have?

I have replied to Straps apologising for my lack of contact - letting them know that the breedings have been registered - I just need to get the the certificates printed. Would have been nice to have been contacted personally with the complaint.

I've heard once before about albino cory's showing a bit a blue colouring - in that case it was the food that they were getting - the tank was getting a mixed flake (you know red/brown/green flakes altogether) but the surface and mid-water swimmers for some reason only ate the red or brown flakes leaving the cory's only ever eating the green flakes this eventually led to them showing a bluish colour. Once the were getting a more balanced diet their blue tinge gradually faded.

Live foods I'd consider culturing for cichlids would be white worms, earth worms, meal worms, wax moths. Whiteworms are cultured in damp soil (or something similar like commercial compost) and most people feed them soggy bread, though they can also be feed things like soggy cat biscuits. They need to be kept somewhere cool as high tempterature will kill them. I would think someone in the Hawkesbay club could give you some to start a culture. Just be aware that white worms are high in fat so should be fed sparingly. Earth worms are said to be an ideal live, containing a good balance of protein, fat etc. You'd want to try and culture the regular red earth worm rather than the tiger worms (supposedly the tiger worms have some sort of nasty taste to them thta fish don't like, tiger worms are the ones that you're most likely to find in a compost heap and are also the ones most commonly sold/used bu worm farmers). Depending on the size of your cichlids you can feed them whole or chop them up. Mealworms are the larvae of one of the larger flour/bran beetles. They are cultured in a container of bran flakes, getting fed a slice of apple every now and then - they'll get to about 3cm long before they turn into a pupae. Make sure there is adequate ventilation for the container (my first culture was in an icecream container with holes punched in the lid - it went mouldy from the moisture in the apple slice and not enough ventilation. I still use icecream containers but have a mesh held in place by the outside of the lid - the rest of the lid has been cut away). Waxmoths are a smallish moth but we're more interested in their caterpillars. The caterpillars get to about 2cm long, are quite chubby and their body is soft (unlike mealworms that have quite a hard outer surface). They seem to be easy to culture - once you get the recipe for the culture media sorted out that is. The first media recipe I tried was small dog biscuits soaked in a water/honey mix - I didn't have any luck with this though - media went mouldy and I didn't see any evidence of the waxmoths reproducing. The recipe that I know use is a mix of baby cereal, bran flakes, honey and glycerine - this is working well, no mould and the waxmoths are happily reproducing. I will have to put them in a new, more robust container as there is signs that some have eaten their way through the icecream container - they've also eaten though the material/cloth mesh so will have to see about getting some metal mesh. You could also try culturing daphnia (water fleas) for the cichlids - depends on the size of the cichlids your keeping.

Yip - the advice was from Brian at the Goldfish bowl - saved me from killing my fish with a background I'd painted with acrylic paint.

The only thing I can suggest is to let her out of the breeding trap as the trap can add to their stress - probably shifting to another tank would be too stressful though. I've come round to the opinion that having floating plants in a livebearer tank is probably the easiest way to go - provides both the mother and fry with some place to hide - yes some of the fry are likely to get eaten but it's better than having the adult females stressing out in the breeding traps.

In regards to plecs sucking the slime off discus - I'm beginning to wonder if this is a bit of an urban myth - admittedly I've never kept a common pleco with a discus but I haven't had any problems with ancistrus, clown plecos or brazilian butterfly plecos with discus. The only algae eater I've ever seen latch onto the side of a discus is otocinclus which I find really amusing as they're the ones that normally get recommended for discus tanks. I can think of other reasons for not keeping a common pleco with discus though - distruction of any aquascaping and plants, tendancy to blunder about a tank disrupting other inhabitants etc.

Polyurethane once dried/cured is non-toxic to fish. I've had a polystyrene tank back ground that I polyurethaned in one of my tanks for over a year now with no ill effects. It was also what the local fish shop told me to use (the guy's been in the fish business for more than 20 years and is someone I trust). Just be aware that polyurethane under water looks a bit cloudy.

The Frontosas aren't on the allowed list to my knowledge - there is no banned list anymore only the allowed list. There are still numerous things that come in even though they're not on the allowed list - it's my personal suspicion that young frontosas get bought in as similar appearing fish (at least when they're young)that are allowed such as Neolamprologus tretocephalus possibly.

Frontosas seem to be available in the South Island - haven't seen many here in the North Island. Zebra plecos seem pretty scarce at the moment (due to high prices making it unattractive to import them).

Well I haven't got as much experience with planted tanks as some but I'll offer my suggestions. Fine sand is not generally recomended due to compaction and anaerobic areas. Best choice is coarse sand/fine gravel (about 3mm diameter from memory). Then comes the debate over what to have under the gravel - clay, aquatic potting mix etc. I personally use red clay (that I can get locally from a road cutting), others in the club have used potting mix with success (though I suspect that this has the potential to cause problems). I seem to recall that Warren doesn't use any thing under the gravel - the argument being that what nutritional benefit the plants get from the sublayer diminishes with time and therefore he opts for regular insertion of fertiliser pellets into the gravel. Admittedly I also use substrate fertilisers - so I'm not really relying on the substrate too much. Remember when selecting sand/gravel that it doesn't have a calcareous content otherwise your pH and hardness will be a continual problem. For substrate fertilisers you can use the commercial products or the other one I've heard of people using successfully is dried sheep pellets pushed into the substrate. As for how deep - my planted tanks have a total substrate depth of 5-6 cm though some books recommend more (~8cm). I guess the thing is that if you can actually see that depth of gravel it may look a little weird (so perhaps have the facing of the stand/cabinet raised to disguise the gravel substrate bed). I personally haven't opted for CO2 - I freely admit that a well setup and maintained CO2 tank looks awesome - but it seems that these tanks discourage the use of stem plants since they're rapid growth means that there is a high level of maintenance required to keep it from looking like an overgrown jungle. I also get annoyed when people having problems growing plants think that CO2 will solve all their problems when I think getting adequate _quality_ light and fixing nutrient imbalances/problems should be their first port of call. Also the quick fixers neglect the whole CO2 level/pH/hardness relationship (sorry guys - one of my pet peeves). From personal experience I wouldn't include clown loaches in a nicely planted tank - I found that they disfigured my sword plants by putting numerous horse shoe shaped holes in the leaves (which I found so annoying that I took the clown loaches back to the shop). Just my thoughts - Rob

I've experienced it but can't really offer any explanation. My ferns, while getting pretty hammered by it have always come away again.