Simian

I agree with the others, the leeching process can be accelerated by boiling it in a big pot for 1/2 hr drain and repeat(for a small piece of wood) or chuck it in a hot bath (no bubble bath:P) to soak, drain, soak a few times. Unless you have africans, go with the stained water, do regular water changes and it will go away in about a month or 2

Correct Spoon, the elements on your stove are controlled by switching on and off at variable rates not by temperature, they are called simmerstats. Call a registered electrician. call out rates should be between $50-60 per hr. tell him your make and model of the stove when you make the call, suggest it may be the simmerstat and that way he wont make 2 trips. Oh and give the stove a clean before he comes, there is nothing worse than fighting through dishes and old grease to fix a stove, he will appreciate it and the job will go faster.

Cue the Barry White and mood lighting. That's great man!

All feedback is helpful

Hey all. Here in the Waikato Aquarium Society we are looking to move venue's to something a tad more comfortable, along with this comes the question what would people want from the meetings. I have my theories on what people would be into but would like these confirmed. I especially want to hear from non FNZAS forum members, what would get you off your butts and along to a meeting once per month. Perhaps you could give feed back on the following. Availability of refreshments, meals, espresso coffee, licensed venue Time of the week, is the weekend suitable in today's world or would a weeknight be better? On site aquarium/s essential, desirable, not important? Table shows? Would you be willing to bring along your fav fish for all to see? For sale table, people bring fish/plants/stuff along to sell/exchange Social aspect of the meeting Technical advice aspect of the meeting Learning about Judging standards, showing fish etc Guest speakers

Have any of you inspected the tumors with a microscope? It will help if you can ID the problem properly. Mark and Felicity at World of Water in Hamilton have a great scope which can record what you see. they are also very knowledgeable. I'd freeze one when it dies and get it over to them, they could get some pics of the tumour and provide a positive ID. I'd be happy to help out as the middle man, as I'd get to play with their scope and learn something too

Here's some porn for Johannes The only decent fish I have ever caught

That is of little help to people who are new to or not active in "The Community" I myself am relatively new to keeping fish, and certainly am not involved in "the old boys network". for all anyone here knows I may have in my garage a whole swag of fancy Plecos, with no idea that they are rare or that there are very few females of that type around. We are now like it or not in a closed loop with regards to many fancy plecos. Certain fish will only become rarer or more inbred because it will be the same old people who will be carrying on the bloodlines, the whole idea of creating a very simple reference list of who has what will allow people who are successfully breeding them to add new blood their lines to avoid the deterioration of a species. "Oh hey Bob I see you have a mature male L18, how would you feel about an exchange, I am at the second or third generation and want to inject some new blood where did you get yours from?" Where is the harm in that? I cannot understand how secrecy will benefit the hobby, just last week an experienced fish keeper lost most of his collection due to a plug getting knocked out of the wall. It is so easy to lose an entire blood line in this game, I would hope that the "old boys" would be more willing to participate in the continuation of our mutual passion. No doubt this will upset many of the old school fish keepers with me stirring up these issues, but I am also hearing from a lot people who agree with what I have to say. We very much need your help Mr Pleco and the silent others or my kids will only be able to look at the pictures of these great fish in books Rant Ends

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with the way it came out, I even had the Convicts spawn on one of the ledges amongst the grasses. the fry didn't live but I think thats down to lack of proper food for them...or that the male did a suicide dive over the back (really must get around to making a proper lid) :roll:

Yeah you guys are prob right, I will have to decide what to do with Tex. Oscar can look after him self but the smaller guys and the severum don't stand a chance, its a shame hes such a pretty fish Ill try and split the tank in half with decorations and see how that works

Thanks man, I promised Caryl I'd do a DIY article for the mag, I just need to get off my butt and get it written...and do some progressive shots ( didnt do many pics during construction)

Bigger pic for idea of depth The Jeweled hides on the top ledges now since Tex got really crazy

looking good man Heres mine finished

They live a long time and take a long time to grow out fully, females are smaller than the males too. How big are they atm?

Oscar 15cm, Bichir 25cm, Jeweled, convict, 2 Nicaraguans 15cm, gold sevrum 20cm In a 5' plenty of room and filtration, just aware that they will grow

Ditto

ops :oops: sorry Dixon scan reading the replies

Where did the clowns come from? Anyway the male will be guarding the eggs I occasionally see free eggs floating around in a cluster. They will take 3-4 days to hatch, the young will have a big yolk sac attached to em. that will last for 3-4 days, when It has disappeared they are ready to take food. I would scoop up as many as you can put them in a net with an airstone gently bubbling lose by to make sure the water is well oxygenated. You will lose some to the community fish but as long as there are plenty of places to hide some will survive. My only concern is you dont know who the mother is, if you have both types of BN they will cross breed and weaken the lines, they will be happy and healthy but consider not passing any on if you are not 100% sure of their parentage. Good luck

You cant force anyone to list them, but it would be a shame to lose a species iin NZ when "bob" in Dunedin has a male and "jane' in Invercargil has a female, both grow old and die, and little did we know they were the last 2. This is something I think that will happen more and more as natural habitats dwindle, it is the same reason that Zoos have exchange programs going. It keeps the blood lines clean and ensures the continuation of the species. We can only try to do this and hope that people can see the long term benefit clear enough to put aside petty rivalry and share their knowledge and resource.

Lost all but 3, which I have moved to a floating container in my Cichlid tank, they seem to be doing fine I have 3 batches of eggs atm so will try a little experimentation with these ones, maybe its a cursed tank? Bacterial bloom or ninja guppies? Who knows, onwards and upwards

Bichir-Berty Oscar-Oscar (what else?) Texas Blue- Tex Big Male Ancistrus-Daddy Biggest Fmale Ancistrus-mummy Haven't named the others they are just what ever type they are

Man I gotta come over and see those guys for real

that look like a simple enough format? Anything I've missed?

Ok It would appear that Brazil is shutting down export of fancy plecs, lets do a quick census to determine what we have. Keep it simple we don't need a full life history Common name: Scientific Name: L number Male #'s Female #'s Successfully bred Y/N

Settle boys n girls The whole point of this thread should not turn into a slinging contest, who cares who did what and when. We (all of us not just those involved in the FNZAS breeding scheme) need to identify what fancy Plecos we have, are breeding sucessfully, sexes etc. If this is a closed shop now, this will be our only shot and securing these very cool fish's future in NZ. So "can it" unless you have something constructive to say :evil: I am going to start a thread so we can have a census on fancy plecs. contribute if you want