Goldie

If you mean the fluval robert. Any pet shop has them. They range from baby ones to the 404 I am using a 304 and Ira's drawings are accurate and I find mine excellent for the discus.

Welcome and ty kindly for your kind remarks re our beautiful land. My Texan friend has just set up a 100gal tank in which she has discus. She surely does not do things by halves LOL. Like you she is forever saying ya'all and I love hearing it. She denies having an accent, however when here she is outnumbered on that one. Welcome again.

Welcome Robert. I am just down the road in Ashburton and have a couple of discus. I see that Pet World had some wonderful ones in at wonderful price of $180 each and that Critter Kingdom in Blenheim Road are setting up with discus. Nice to see another mainlander here.

We have one in the tank at work (Veterinarys') and it is a "Geophagus jurupari" The one at work is in with the more aggressive fish and is a real gentleman (gentlewoman) never annoying the other fish and has become a firm favourite among the staff. To the degree that it is not for sale. It came from Brooklands. Really nice fish for sure.

Caryl that was awesome WOW so glad you shared it with us

Welcome from Mid Canterbury. Wow since irrigation the waterways around Ashburton have shrunk.

When I first started I purchased two at the urging of the sales lady(who avidly assured me they were passive and good community fish) to put with my angels and guppies. They grew so fast. One was chasing my angels and so I returned it to the shop and swopped for more guppies. All was well the the remaining one seemed fine and I grew to like his antics. HOWEVER my golden angel started being sick and nothing I did seemed to help until checking the tank one night I saw the Chinese algae eater sucking onto the side of him bearing him down. That algae eater departed this earth rather quickly. Fun fish however beware of what you put in with them for algae is not all that they eat in my experience. To this day I am racially prejudiced :-? against all ALL Chinese algae eaters. in case you had not figured I simply love LOVE the angel fish - they hooked me into fish keeping

Bill you could be so right for the little angel sure had an appetite and always gulped food even taking air in, for it was trying to get the food before it hit the water virtually. Feeding more often just caused pollution in the tank even with weekly water changes. An older fish keeper recommended once a week however I just could not do that. His fish were so healthy though I wondered if overfeeding can cause more problems for a beginner tankwise etc. Back again - just checked out re bloat. Could have been answer to spiralling however would she have died on the bottom from that??

she died. thanks for the help though. Fish in tank - one angel (adult) 6 neon tetra; 2 corydoras bronze(adult); 1 peppered catfish; 1 Siamese flying fox; 2 clown loaches (juniors) Tank size 29cm x 74cm x 34cm = 73 litres = 16 gallon UGF in place working well. I feed flake food alternated with blood worms (half a frozen cube) every other day. Just changed to community bites (pellets) today. Water changes 1/3 of tank a week. This is the tank I have the algae problem in - thus the flying fox. I now hesitate to get another angel until I can track down the cause. The deceased had been in the tank for 8 - 10 weeks and was growing well and settled in with the resident angel peacefully. All the other fish are fine.

Several months ago I lost my marbled female angel to unknown causes, the golden male is fine. She could not swim overnight and spun. Eventually over a long period of time died. Early this June I bought a small angel and she was doing fine until three days ago and I noticed that she was spinning at times, other times she swam normally and was seemingly healthy, doing what angels do. She will still feed if she can swim to food. My young angel is now in obvious trouble - lying for short periods at the bottom of the tank. She is red around the inside of her gills. All other fish in the tank seem fine. Any suggestions. Ph is 7.0 (normal for that tank) Nitrate, Nitrite both fine. Ammonia 0

Sooooooo hard to imagine such heat. Here I sit, all bundled up, with the heater AND the fire going to keep warm. Here in New Zealand we do not have snakes to worry about. So the goldfish only have to worry about such things as the kingfisher and heron (both birds). Not enuff room in my garden for pond however one of the club members has a half barrel and goldfish in that - see Caryls' photos. .............Maybe............I need a specially built, heated, air conditioned room just for the fish LOL. mmm

Ira have you seen the 'cheap' Air NZ fares at the moment. For almost the price of a bus ride you could fly down get the info and/or fish and be back in Wellington for tea.

Pegasus you are sooooooo bad LOL how about another story from you??????

I agree with Reef, Petworld in Ferry Rd Christchurch is a good place to go re marine fish and setting up. The owner is so helpful and knowledgable. So is Heidi his daughter they have both helped me a lot with the tropicals and I notice that the shop floor is giving much more space to the marine set ups and fish. All look healthy. Redwood also has some marine

Thanks Pegasus I checked it out and there I am on page two, truely I am a beginner and have only been keeping fish for a couple of years. Again loved hearing from you Rob and look forward to other members in this forum. :lol:

WOW Rob so nice to meet you. I stand (sit) in awe at your achievement in the tanks. I soooo identify with the "Hi I am fish-o-holic" for last Friday I spent some time in the Christchurch stores and wanted soooooo many fish. I settled for the flying foxes (2) and some neons. One of the flying foxes flew right out of the tank overnight and dehydrated before I found him (so inconsiderate of him). He had flown out of the corner (one inch) and between the tank cover and gap 1/2 inch. Guess I will have to invent some corner covers for I will be returning to christchurch to get anoter three for like you I have that algae in one tank - the remaining fox is doing great job. Whoops got carried away I just wanted to say great hearing about you and your addiction

welcome, is it warm enough to have tropicals withour heater in summer?? Again welcome.

Interesting informative thread. Moved from Beginners Corner. Mod Bill. H.... a student vet nurse requires information on the red eared terrapin:- 1) How does one transport them across town. 2) What are their feeding requirements. 3) How do you distinguish between male and female 4) How long do they live for - on average (BARRING accidents) 5) What routine health checks need to be done. 6) How would she know if it had diarrhoea or ecto parasites. Now a word from H... herself. She is going to register here once at home for she thinks the site is fantastic. Helen here. If anyone can answer these questions it would be greatly appreciated.

I agree wholeheartedly Caryl. My fluval is so quiet the airstones make more noise. Put pedal to metal in getting back to Retailer the wholesalers usually make good within warrenty period I have found.

Just what do you need to give a betta a comfortable, natural type enviroment??? I am thinking of a 10gallon aquarium, few plants, gravel and a small heater. A friend uses a heating pad under her tanks (not sure I can get this in New Zealand). Do I need a filter, airstone?

Trying to raise funds to buy more tropical fish (discus) of course LOL

Ira I do not know if this is any use to you. I have four books (yes I am a bookaholic as well as a fishaholic) As tropicals are "my interest" not marine I am willing to sell these at realistic price. 1. The Saltwater Aquarium Manual - Robert J Valenti - in good condition apart from slightly torn paper cover. 2. Keeping Marine Fish - Graham Lundegaad - in new condition 3. The Marine Aquarium for the home aquarist - R F O Connell - in good condition. 4. Marinie invertebrates - u. erich friese - just cost of postage for this one for although it is all there,one page is loose So if you want any of them just let me know.

:-? If you think the goldfish bowls are bad Caryl. Some sales rep persuaded our buyer (at veterinary clinic) to purchase cup size bowls set amongst castle, wizard or other similar objects to house bettas in. They barely have room to turn around in. I objected strongly only to be told the rep said because they are labyrinth fish it was ok. I increased by objections and to date none have been displayed that way although I suspect they are discreetly sold for the castle/bowls are incoming in orders I note. There must be a law against such cruelity. :evil: :evil: :evil: I digress. I got started with fish when getting stressed out working with cats n dogs and seeing how wonderful the fish were. Then I saw a betta splendens and was hooked. Now the angels and discus just enable me to relax and unwind at the end of hetic day of cats n dogs. :roll:

:oops: thanks Caryl - I found it and read it. mmmmm would love one of those under tank warmers.

Just out of curiousity - how longer does a heater last???? Mine has been in the tank for 2.5 years. Should I replace it. When does one replace heaters. I use the thermastat controlled ones. a 100w for the smaller tank and two 150w for the discus tank (being afraid after an experience of a heater just failing and not warming the tank at all - the fish survived thanks to quick actions of hubby in doing water change and putting my spare heater in the tank - not bad for someone who does not like the fish LOL)