Rob

As Andrew as said they're very nocturnal and don't seem to need company but they will live quite happily (ie without aggression) in a pair/group. They're one of those fish that you wonder if they're still alive in the tank because you don't often see them eating but they just seem to carry on. Listed size for them is 22cm and I have seen some in NZ that large. The females get very rotund and can hoover up large amounts of food (I watched one of my larger ones inhale about 10 sinking tablets in a couple of seconds).

Alot of the blood fins are of the genus Aphyocharax. One of the types of bloodfins (that some shops have called red bally/belly tetra) that has been in recently was A. rathbuni - the males of which have white tips on anal, dorsal and pelvi fins. At least you've now got a starting point for further searches.

Please see the full details in the Private Trade and Exchange forum.

Caryl's comment about rainwater brings to mind the saga of one of our local club members, hopefully his story will help other people. He's on a farm and has two sources of water - rainwater from roof collection and bore water. Keeping with conventional wisdom that rain water would be better (particularly since he was keeping discus) he used rainwater for quite a period of time with no problems. Then he starts having fish deaths for what appeared to be no reason - a mixture of symptoms that didn't really point to one definite source. The long and the short of it was that it had come around to topdressing (not aerial just the regualr truck/tractor spreader) time and the fertiliser dust had contaminated the roof water. So he swapped to the bore water (not ideal but needs must) he then got into a cycle of his discus being happy enough to spawn and then a few days later looking like they were going to die. All the standard water tests got performed, numerous medications used, fingers pointed at the locally collected rocks - much frustration and head scratching. As a last resort he got some town supply water and used that for a water change - problem fixed - discus continually looking happy and busily spawning on a regular basis. We're still not sure exactly what it was in the bore water (not pH, nitrogen compounds or hardness) that caused problems - possibly just exessive (non-hardness) minerals, the bore water does have a high iron content - whatever it was, it's not something that we normally test for.

Thanks for the recipe Dark - just something for those how may not want to make there own and have larger tanks - buy the pond strength Melafix instead. Why - the price is not that much different compared to the aquarium strength but it's 5 times as strong (ie 5ml Melafix for 200L water).

As has been mentioned, a species tank is a good idea, also the majority of them seem to be pretty picky eaters either live food only or if you're lucky frozen blood worms.

I'm curious - were the two new guppies imported or bred in NZ. I know the local fish shop refuses to stock imported guppies as they cause too many problems with disease. He's also been told by wholsesalers that if they could elliminate guppies from the lines they import that the loses during quarantine would halve.

As Ben has said Leopard Fish (Phalloceros caudimaculatus) are available here but from what I know don't orginate from Mexico (my reference says from Rio de Janeiro south). Ben's right in saying that Mosquito fish are from Mexico (along with other places) but Mosquito fish are NOT Leopard fish. Mosquito fish are Gambusia affinis, are designated a pest fish in NZ and are illegal to keep. Perfectly legal to keep Leopard fish though. The mollies, platties and sword tails all originate from Mexico and are readily available I've never come across an out of the ordinary type of livebearer in 9 years of keeping fish.

Sounds possibly like mouth fungus - starts off looking like a dusting of icing sugar over the lips of the fish, possibly some cottony growth then the lips rot off. I've only had it with livebearers before but it was definitely nasty - currently it ranks has my most dreaded fish disease. I know that if I see a livebearer with those initial symptoms that it's automatic euthanasia for the afflicted one, 50% water change and in with a medication cocktail. I've never been able to successfully treat a livebearer that had started showing symptoms and it spreads too rapidly to leave the infected ones in the tank.

I'm not sure about rare on the world scene - but as far as not commonly seen in NZ that I'm actually keeping at the moment: Corydoras robinae (Flagtailed cory) Agamyxis pectinifrons (Spotted talking cat) Peckoltia brevis (Spotted clown pleco) Farlowella henrieqi (Alligator twig cat) Zonancistrus pulchar (Brazilian butterfly pleco) Chaetostoma cf. thomsoni (Rubber lipped pleco) Loricaria sp. 'Colombia' (Colombian pleco) Hoplosternum littorale (Clay hoplo) - anyone got a lone male one they'd part with? (you'll have to excuse mis-spelt scientific names, haven't got my books with me)

Hi there Count, You could see about registering your breeding only if you're member of a club/society affiliated to the FNZAS.

Just one point - pH and hardness are not the same thing. As people have pointed out peat will lower both though. Another thing - you've mentioned that your tap water is pretty much neutral but it seems that your tank pH is higher - this sort of indicates that either the gravel or rocks in the setup may be raising your pH a little (not really a problem, as you say there's no problems with your current fish - but if you go for discus possibly you'll require more peat than you'd thought to soften the water). The natural tendency for tank pH is to become more acidic. Because the water here in Hamilton comes out of the tap reasonalby alkaline but softish I only really want to adjust the pH (not doing anything to the hardness) so I adjust it with sulphuric acid (I've figured out how many drops I need to add to the water change bucket to get the desired pH - I don't really want to add concentrated acid directly to a populated tank).

Yes Andrew - I had a trip up to Auckland after you mentioned seeing them and managed to liberate 3 pairs of them (they were a little ragged thanks to the dwarf puffers in the tank with them - but have recovered well and are currently sequestered in a nice little breeding tank). Andrew your first on the list to receive offspring since you provided the intel. and actually knew what they were.

As Alan has said all types of Rainbows are allowed in NZ (unfortunately that doesn't mean that they actually get imported). Just to clarify what I mean by all rainbows: Melanotaenia spp. (Austrailian/Papuan rainbows) Glossolepis spp. (Austrailian/Papuan rainbows) Pseudomugil spp. (Blue eyes) Rhadinocentrus spp. (Ornate rainbows) Telmatherina spp. (Celebes rainbows) Bedotia spp. (Madagascan rainbows) Iriaterina spp. (Threadfin rainbows) Currently I'm keeping M. herbertaxelrodi, M. lacustrus, M. boesmani, M. splendida, M. exquisita, P. furcatus, P. gertrudae, G. incisus, B. gaeyi, T. ladigesi. I've bred the Madagascan rainbows and Gertrude's blue eyes in the past, the various australian/papuan rainbows I've got spawn most mornings in the community tank however I'd never collect eggs from such a situation as rainbows readily crossbreed - which I consider is undesirable. I've seen threadfin rainbows available at the moment - though only males so I haven't been inclined to buy any.

I've come across people that use dried sheep pellets - just inserted periodically in the root zone of the plants. Not sure how much a sack of them is but should provide a multi-year supply.

A bit off topic - but adding to Dark's comment about electrical communication and oscilloscopes - I've seen this sort of setup with an Elephant nose during a uni open day - unforunately there was no conveniently placed plastic lobster to guage a reaction. Could also be interesting to see if fish can recognise the containers with their favourite food.

Hi there Sue - the most recent import of these was miss-labelled as borelli, they're more commonly sold as blue-faced agassizi. It's not borelli or a form of agassizi. The Baensch atlas of South American Dwarf Cichlids indicates that it is an (as yet) undescribed species that should more correctly be sold as Apisto. sp. 'Steel Blue' See if this link is what you've got.

Fertile cory eggs should go a darker colour over the course of a couple of days as the fry develops. Infertile ones will go white and fungus. Often the eggs from the first spawning are infertile (thought to be due to being too long inside the female). Cory eggs are reasonably robust - in the past I have removed them from the glass (just using my fingers) and transfered them to an icecream container of tank water - which I then secured inside the tank (so that they stayed at a tropical temperature) - remove any white/fungused eggs as they're noticed. Just be aware that the cory eggs are sort of soft when they're laid (ie easy to damage) but become tougher after a while (so unless something was eating them straight away I'd leave them perhaps an hour(??) from being laid before I tried to shift them).

Could try hanging a St John's wort teabag in the tank :lol:

You only get a certificate the first time you breed something and a permanent record is only kept of initial breeds. The re-breed record is 'zeroed' at the end of the breeding year (1 April - 31 March). There are seperate trophies for the most new breedings and the most re-breedings in a year. Also both new breedings and re-breeds contribute to points for your club to determine which club receives the club breeding trophy, re-breeds contribute less points. The FNZAS system doesn't use different points values for perceived difficulty of breeding - it only acknowledges that you have successfully bred a particular species of fish.

I think most people use a razor blade (or similar) to cut the seams on the tank - usually cutting betweent the two pieces of glass - can be a bit tricky if the pieces of glass are touching (rather than having a layer of silicon between them). As to which silicon to use I'm sure people will recommend different brands - but things to make sure of is that it is ACID cure, not neutral cure (acid cure smells like vinegar), also don't use silicons designed for use in bathrooms as they often have anti-mould chemicals in them. In the past I've used sellys window and glass with no problems (haven't used it for larger tanks though), can't remember what brand I've got at the moment (it's one that I got from a professional tank maker though). As for Hamilton tanks to visit - PM or email me and we can organise a time to have a nosey at my tanks.

I'm not sure about other locations, but at particular times of the week the Pak n Save fresh fish departments here in Hammy will have good sized polyboxes for sale at $2 each. So may be worthwhile checking with your supermarkets if you need polyboxes.

I guess either I'm getting a good deal or you're getting ripped.

Ideally you'd want a range of fish that you rear - bread and butter ones that the shops have a high turn over of and then some more interesting bits and pieces that perhaps you don't breed as often. The breed and butter fish that I would concentrate on (if I were doing it) would be guppies (well coloured and grown), white cloud minnows (these could be done outside though), perhaps platties, also bristlenose plecos (depends on your local shops - the best shop here in Hamilton pushes bristlenoses as prefered algae eaters - so I could hock of 20-30 a fortnight (just little 3-4cm ones)). Then there would be other bits and pieces that you'd not call bread and butter fish. Different types of cory's, perhaps dwarf cichlids, more exotic plecos (if you can afford the breeding stock). As was suggested previously - it's really look at what there is a demand for. I presonally wouldn't bother with convicts or kribs as they get bred that often that I think you'd find it difficult selling any you'd bred. Like wise there are only a limited number of people who want to own Red Devils. Of course these suggestions are biased by what I'm interested in. Also if you're going to be doing a reasonable amount of breeding make sure that you have sufficient rearing tanks - this often gets neglected, if you've got high stocking rates in your grow out tanks then it's likely that growth rates and sizes will be reduced. Also as far as what prices you should be expecting - half the price of what the shop sells them for is a reasonable guide line.

What's the pH of the tank like, should ideally be above 7 for platties.