morfin

Okay - I've searched alot of web pages but none of them seem to say how long it takes for a fish to be fully grown. So can anyone tell me if these guys are now at their adult size and will stop growing? Bristlenose - biggest is 17 months old Ottos - 12 months old Angels - 14 months old Blue Rams - 5 months old (these guys seem to grow slow) Black phantoms 5 months old Lemon Tetras 16 months old Give or take two or three months as they were all store bought. any help gratefully accepted.

I thought it was a borneo sucker - are they same thing?

I wouldn't even have to have all of them, just one or two or five or six would do me Check it out

Hi David R - this is what it is all about you are right - making informed decisions for what you do and where. And I agree with you that some people go for the breeding and some don't, we have two pure breed cocker spaniels straight from the breeders simply because we know what we are getting. I guess the point is that as long as the decisions are informed then that is fine. My query is what happens when you buy your fish from the LFS - you may have all the best intentions in the world, in that you are getting two 'normals' or two 'gba' but you don't actually know that these aren't 'hybrids'. And I for one when I first entered into fishkeeping didn't even know about forums and buying fish from breeders so when you first set up you go to your fish store and buy your fish. You think you are doing the right thing by breeding two the same but in fact end up with some gba. In that instance what do you do? There was also discussion about brothers and sisters breeding - is this best for the species as well or should this not occur, in which case you are better not to buy two or more from the same lot. And these are honest questions which I find confusing around this whole debate.

sorry for some reason the photos won't work, but feel free to follow the links

Hi all got them on the 31st of May so thought would update how they are getting on. Also can someone confirm for me that the last two pictures (they are the same fish) are a girl ram? Cheers and enjoy

ha ha yes they are, a litle bit of homework wouldn't go astray now would it! :oops: :roll:

Hiya, we have two otto's in our 200 litre tank, along with many other tank mates of course, they are about 9 months old but we only just realised they were still alive as they hide all the time. are Otto's a fish that do better and come out more in bigger numbers? We have a good bit of algae on the front of the tank but they don't really have any interest in it, instead they would rather clean the algae off our plants, so should be good to support more, just wondering if it was an influence or not. Cheers

Okay this is weird. We have two angels in our tank, about 10cm body size without fins, four times today he has gone to the top of the tank, always in the same spot just to the side of the heater. He (or she of course) then goes to horizontal and then flapped his fins crazily to make splashes before shooting away from the water. It's odd but it looks really cool. he/she isn't flashing or anything like that so it doesn't seem to be flukes - although he isn't actually brushing against anything when he does it anyway. In 200litre tank with lemon tetras, black phantoms, two baby rams and bristles. Once he is finished flapping he usually chases the other angel for a bit then settles down again. Again, I actually don't know this is a he, but it's easier that way. any ideas what little man is up to?

Are you measuring the ammonia etc with a liquid test kit or with dipping strips, they can make a difference

Heya, yep have seen the little girl following one of the angels round nipping at the bottom of its flowing fin. But then I have seen the angel following one of the bristlenoses round and pecking at it's back. The phantoms do dart around at each other a bit, was just a bit bothered that it's started happening to the angel. Maybe one of the phantoms just thought he was a "big brother" and got a bit carried away. Hasn't been happening yesterday and have been watching closely. Mind you you know what they say about a watched pot and all that

heya They are the ramirez rams not bolivians. maybe it's just a case of them settling down

Hi Dixon, thanks for that, there are the two angels who I have seen have a go at each other, there are 7 lemons and 7 phantoms. I have seen the little girl ram follow the angel round and try to get at it's long flowing fin at the end, but for the fairly large rips it has now it seems like something must have had a go. seems strange that the other angel is still perfect, maybe they are getting grumpy at each other.

Hi All. My dream was recently realised in that we got two blue rams, one looks to be a girl, one a boy. They are still small only about 2.5cm each. They are in my tropical tank with 2 angels, school lemon tetras, school black phantoms and bristlenose. Two of my black phantoms have splits in the their top fins, however there is debate in our house as to whether they were like that when we got them. The phantoms are still babies as well at about 3cm. However one of my angels now has splits in their bottom fin, in about four places. The phantoms and the blue rams were introduced two weeks ago at the same time, so who would more likely be the culprit. The angels and lemons have been together in the tank for almost 6 months. So are blue rams fin nippers, and is my dream of having them with the angels coming to an end? tank is 200litres, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate between 5 and 10. Do a 50% change every week.

That is stunning, just stunning, discus are my biggest wish, you have an amazing tank well done.

My beautiful babies. Cross fingers. although they have only been in tank one day and were eating this arvo, that was encouraging.

thanks for your feedback guys, was going to post some pics but can't figure out how.

Hi All I have been in the fishy game about nine months and have ALWAYS wanted a blue ram. I know they can be tough to keep alive, so I have waited till my tank is really cycled and mature to try it out. so today I got two blue rams. My husband just commented on how they are different colours - oh no they aren't, one has a red tummy and one doesn't. One has more black stripes than the other, so I am thinking a boy and a girl. They are still quite small, so I'm gonna cross fingers that they succeed, I have done alot of homework and the tank has the right params for them. So let's hope. In the meantime this is very very very exciting for me. they are just stunning.

Hiya We want to add a school of cardinals to our community tank, and know that the lemons and odessas will be fine with cardinals but will angels actually eat them. The two angels we currently have are about nine months old and beautiful, but I'm not going to sacrifice any fish "just to see if it works". Their mouths don't really look big enough but I figure they probably aren't fully grown yet. Tank is nine months old so will be mature enough and big enough at 190 litres for the cardinals to be happy. Your thoughts?

Hiya, have a 190 litre bowfront corner tank. Established seven months. Ammonia 0 until two weeks ago - it measured 0.25. Ph is 6.8, nitrate 5-10 and nitrite 0. Temp is 28C. filtered by a Fluval 405 which is 5 x's litrage per hour and an additional sponge filter. thought it might be the filter so cleaned it out, it had alot of poo in it. then moved a bit of drift wood on the weekend that I hadn't moved in a month and got an additional two buckets of poo. Do 50% weekly water changes with full gravel siphon. I'm thinking that I need to clean the sponge filter as well, but maybe I am overstocked? There are 7 odessa's, 7 lemon tetra's, 2 angels and 4 bristlenose. And yes they all live happily together without any one fighting with each other. Is it possible this is an excess poo thing - anyway any suggestions gratefully accepted. Don't quite understand why it went from perfect to ammonia detected.

Yep you're right, I couldn't destroy the babies anyway, got no stomach for that kind of thing. I will do something about it before they get frisky and make the decision for me!

interesting they are in a community with odessa barbs so did wonder if the babies would survive, but this is interesting because i never had any intention of trying to breed them- assumed if it happened it happened - or ever selling the fry. but still will think about it

Geez talk about feeling bad. right so the girl needs to come out, at least it might stop the boys fighting over her - and it's a good excuse to get another bristlenose - normal obviously.

So then theoretically I couldn't sell the GBA anyway, because I can't actually guarantee that it is a pure GBA - selling it as a female GBA could actually be leading someone else to continue a hybrid?

I wasn't aware that the two couldn't or shouldn't interbreed, nor was it something that I was worried about. Also when I read Mikes aquatic pages he states that Being a recessive gene it can be present in a fish without the fish having any external appearance of having the gene. So it is possible for two seemingly ‘normal’ looking ancistrus to produce some GBA offspring if both parents are in fact GBA/Normal hybrids carrying the Amelanistic gene So then if this is the case, how do you know whether a GBA is pure or not? We got ours from the LFS so have no way of knowing if it is pure?