Naz_Nomad

Yeah, like Spidersweb said, it's definitely a female you have there, no doubt. The bars in her colouring change once she's ready to spawn. Keep them seperated til the "first egg" shows - this is actually the female's egg tube thing. Once that shows and the male is all excited and flaring at her you can remove the divider. There will be chasing, but make sure there is a hiding place of two for the lady fish. Eventually he will entice her to the nest, she will become submissive and swim head down about 30 degrees or so then they'll get it together under the nest. Once eggs are seen in the nest and he's busy collecting the falling ones, remove her from the tank or he'll get aggressive trying to defend the eggs from her approaches. Once the fry are hatched and free swimming, remove him or segregate him or he'll be having fry for breakfast, especially when they start to develop male/female characteristics. Good luck with the breeding!!

Them there ferltiliser balls are quite naughty for water colour changing. Once the fish have dug up a couple (and they will) the water will have a brownish tint all the time regardless of water changes and cleaning. Mind you, plants like them so they can't be all bad, and they don't seem to make any difference to water chemistry.

If the fish are happy and the water parameters are pretty good and stable, then it's probably just the new tank white water thing. It should clear in a few days. As for filters, I use a small UV internal on top of an Eheim 2215 for a similar sized tank. As this combination works very well for my tank, I am happy to recommend it to anyone with a similar sized tank and stock level.

That'll be because they're a predatory fish then. But like any predator, you can keep them with things that they are unable or won't try to eat. Another eel is a good start. Or a live possum. Apparently.

Nothing much - don't ask me to explain the chemistry involved, but white water will happen after a new tank is stocked too quickly. I think it is part of the cycle becoming unbalanced and needing to settle in again. It may re-occur for a few weeks afterwards too. It generally clears up by itself as the tank settles in once again with the new load.

You'll occasionally get milky water with a new tank that is stocked too quickly following cycling. If this is the case, it should settle on its own after a few days and you're as well leaving it alone so long as the fish don't seem to be suffering. Test your water quality regularly and make sure there are no problems in that area. If there is free floating algae, get yourself a UV filter to add to the tank - perhaps replace your sponge filter with one with UV. Cheap ones for a 50 gallon tank cost as little as seventy or eighty bucks - I paid $72 for mine for a 45 gallon tank and have few algae problems even with sunlight hitting the tank in summer. Make sure you use a water ager before adding the water following a water change too. As an afterthought - did you put fertiliser under your gravel? If there is an area where the fertiliser is leaking directly into the water, you'll sometimes see some funny discolouration. I know I get occasional clouds after a vigorous vacuuming if I have dug too much. If this is the case, just have a poke around and cover the leak and let the tank settle. Good luck!

It might be worth buying a test kit for Ph, hardness, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and phosphates and posting the results here, then you might get some more specific advice if there's a problem with the water quality. I hope everything turns out well. Good luck!

Thanks for the tips guys. I think I'll be aiming for Barbs once the thing is dug (for which I have my permission slip from the Mrs to follow our wedding in early December). All I want for Christmas is a good spade... Does anyone heat their pond in winter? And finally... Any tips on hardy plants suitable for a new pond? I'll try to remember to photograph each stage of construction and post here for advice and criticisms.

I think Golden Barbs would prefer warmer water than a garden pond in New Zealand. In the two websites I checked, both gave their lower temperature range as 18 celcius which, even allowing for seasonal variations and night temperatures in their natural habitat would be above what they would have in my garden Paradise fish are a possibility as the google result I found gave them the same temperature tolerance as Rosy Barbs i.e. down to 14 degrees, which by my reckoning is acceptable for a pond in Auckland as long as there is a heater for the bottom for winter. WCMM temperature tolerance is listed as down to 16 celcius and there are reports of them being kept successfully year round in New Zealand ponds, but I would prefer to have advice on heaters for winter before I start digging. Anyone out there have experience keeping fish other than WCMM and goldfish/koi in ponds in the Auckland climate? Would Danio's survive outdoors?

I have been reading about Rosy Barbs and ponds. Are they suitable for a pond in New Zealand (specifically Auckland)? According to some sources, they have a much better cool temperature tolerance than WCMM's. According to others they don't. Would the pond need a heater in winter if Rosy Barbs were in there? Would they actually survive in a pond as information about their temperature tolerance is conflicting and confusing. Apart from Goldfish and WCMM's, what are the other options for NZ ponds that are commonly available? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Keyhole Cichlids are perfect for every community tank, full of personality and very friedly. I have five of them and they love everybody. they apparently don't do well if there are other more competitive cichlids in the same tank.

Add carbon to the tank, for some reason that type of algae hates it. Go to your lfs, buy Excel Flourish and add double the recommended start up dose. Watch your fish, and turn off the CO2 if you have it. If the fish rise to the surface and look like they're gasping do a water change. (For my 190 litre tank, the double dose caused no problems whatsoever. ) The hair algae will turn darker after a day or two and will scrape off easily with a magnetic brush and won't reappear. Good luck!

Serpae Tetra. http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile75.html

And do you manage to maintain a relatively algae-free environment without adding chemicals to your tank? With no live plants to remove nitrates, sunlight and lots of light, surely algae is a bit of a problem?

I would go close to rollergirl's recommendation. Bolivian Rams are very nice fish and quite peaceful. Personally, though, I would recommend Keyhole Cichlids. These are so full of character and always busy with something and very peaceful in a community tank.

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/genera ... um_images/ Hope that helps

My question would be about the two golden algae eaters. these guys get quite aggressive. I have just had to extract one from the chase-the-cichlids tank into a smaller less populated tank for the sake of world peace. If the tank isn't large enough for two of these to be happy, they will also scrap among themselves. Of course, you may be lucky and get a couple that aren't going to scrap and chase, it's the luck of the draw. Can I ask a silly question? The siamese fighters - one male and one female right? or two females? With a strong filter current, wouldn't the male have problems building and maintaining a bubble nest if that is your plan for your fighters? I have found Siamese fighting fish to be the most peaceful and beautiful fish to have in a community tank, although my experience with them has been limited. The only aggression I have ever seen is male against female after spawning whilst he is trying to look after the nest and she gets too close. Give her some hiding places and enough room to run and she'll be happy, if a little tired. Good luck with the new tank!

Or turn down your CO2. Either will work except turning up an airstone will help dissipate CO2 faster if you're adding it to the tank at all, making it less effective.

Assuming the Jebo is the same as the Aqua One, the grate thingy contains activated carbon bits. Some folk say stay clear of carbon, others swear by it.

Pupuke Aquariums in North Shore, Aukland has one at present, at least he did a few days ago. They aren't seen too often.

Cheers guys. It wasn't the fish so much as the Mrs getting stressed. I realise that the fish don't really care when the lights go on and off. I was a little worried about two periods of light for them, but it seems from your answers even that won't matter too much. With the tank only being about 3 months old, I won't be leaving the lights on for more than ten hours or so a day, but have adjusted the lights again so my spousal unit can enjoy the fish and the fish can enjoy their beauty sleep. Cheers!

Lights... How do folk arrange their lights? My Mrs has been moaning that turning mine off in the evening spoils her enjoyment of the fish. I suggested we get more aquariums, but she didn't appreciate that and asked for a bigger house. Anyway, I have rearranged the lights on their timer so that they come on at 6am, as usual, then go off at 11 am, coming back on again at 4pm until 9pm. I am hoping that doing things this way, I won't be encouraging algae and will not stress the fish. Any other suggestions to keep the Mrs and the fish happy? Cheers.

Have you tried asking your LFS? I had troublesome fish that were causing damage and the LFS was happy to take them off my hands and sell them on, giving me shop credit in return.

Seems these are quite difficult to sex, judging by my Googling! Of course, my search fu is not strong, but this may help:

Probably not. Here's a quote from Wikipedia... And... And finally from flowerhorn.co.uk...