Simian

Yeah those pectoral fin spines are wicked and sharp, perfect for sticking in a throat.

Dont skimp on insulation and make sure its well sealed around the edges, I made that mistake on mine, you should see the condensation in my garage now :roll:

Questions: Do they only lay small numbers of eggs? Initial spawns will be small, I find my groups lay over a few days Do they spawn at dawn or dusk? Both :roll: If I leave them should they spawn again? How often do they usually spawn? once they have spawned once they will keep on keeping on, 2-3 week intervals seems about right for mine, but IMO its more aligned with atmospheric pressure drops, if you have some bad weather coming do a 50% cool water change give them a feed of bloodworms and they should go for it. Or should I do more large water changes to try to get them to spawn again? I have found Trilineatus eat thier eggs so removal is best if you want to get a good survival rate, get some microworms ready to feed the fry. HTH Owen

Fun tho if you can scratch up the bits

Send in the marines! :lol: BOOYAH! Looks like we have a tererrium (spelt wrong sorry) entry now too.

any marines out there?

Just got myself a pair a few days ago, didnt have space for them straight away, so I put them in a heavily planted tank with some swordtails.....can you say "shredded" kiddies :evil: not terminal but bad enough. They are now on their own. The Goldfish Bowl still has some I think, give Cliff a ring, he may still have some girls for you P44. I'm still trying to decide what to do with my pair they were a impulse buy. :roll:

I have seen them used before, would suggest not if you keep plecos tho :roll:

Nice one, tie the moss at the base so it looks like a hairy beast rising from the depths

Murray and Lochlan Holt will be entering their tanks and a pond, most of you will not have seen these new members tanks, they also will be entering their ponds.

My Cories breed in 500x300x300 tanks, keep the water pristine, I try for 2x 40-50% waterchanges per week. Good aeration is a must.

Update, another 2 eggs from adolfoi, may have interupted them in the act when cleaning tank , still happy tho. Each species has its own preference re-temps, my heaters are removed for summer and the tanks sit at 24 deg. Some sp like spawning in moss and long fake grass (think healthy dwarf sag size), others only lay on the glass or floating fake grass. soft very clean water, very thin layer of soft sand on the bottom 3:1 m:f ratio is best and groups of min 5, ideally a dozen makes a good group. Feed em well with quality sinking granuels & bloodworms every 2nd feed, mix in the odd white worm, afew 40% cold water changes (approx 4 deg lower than tank temp) or a low pressure weather front and if you are lucky presto eggs! Some will spawn easy as other will show no inclination, NZ bred ones will go super easy, imported or wild caught, prepare to be patient. I have groups that spawn super regularly and others that wait months, some like my skunks simply dont spawn :evil: batch sizes change from sp-sp as well. HTH

Dont cry Darni We have one each month, you can come next time

Adolfoi fry doing well, one escaped while doing water change, hopefully he will show up later only small cories in that tank atm. Lost all the Red Spot Sevs eggs, most turned white about hatching stage, many actually had a little tail hanging out :-? unsure why... will try higher temp and more acidic ph next time, currently at about 24deg and ph 7 which works for my Cories, maybe not Sev's. Had a few wigglers survive but floating container got hooked up on an inlet and sunk....yum yum says mr Swordtail. Better luck next time. Any suggestions?

Levamisole FTW Its great stuff.

7 Forth Cres Glenview Hamilton 7.00pm Wed 3 March All are very welcome

Never had any issues with fleas on my cat..fish, sorry I couldnt resist

Update, usual hatching period average 3 days, took over 24 hrs till last one hatched. 4 Wrigglers, floating in container 2x big water sloshy changes daily. Red Spot Sev's saved spawn Thursday, nice big spawn on rock, eggs are oval floating with airstone meth blue same water change regime as above, a few infertile at this stage, will keep up meth blue till wriggler stage, for fear of fungus wipingb out whole batch, I really want to save these ones,, and let the parents try it naturally and see how long it takes em.;

I usually dump my swordtail culls into my 5' tank and watch em dissapear over a number of weeks, to a month. Hadn't done a cull for a while so chucked in 5 2"+ female swords without the hifin Lyre gene showing about 10 o'clock last night. This morning we are down to 1! and Bertie the Bichir is looking rather slow with a massive belly, I'll try and get a pic, but as I have a poos camera, and he's laying at the back of the tank it might not happen. That was after he gorged himself on cichlid pellets and algae wafers. He's such a pig :lol:

nice shots, just sittin here watchin my plecs scoff some corgette, wish I had a good camera :roll:

I think its best if you just send them up to me now KP you will be far too busy with your other cats. Any sign of those red whips pairing up yet?

Not yet, a long way to go before I'd acept that honour Diane, If I can successfully establish these guys in NZ again I'd be pretty happy though. It will take a lot of spawns this size before I even get my group to a size I'd consider safe.. This one was a sheer fluke, no waterchange or anything...the only thing that may have triggered it was a new air pump on the box filter I am running in that tank, flow is up considerably.

:bounce: only a small spawn, 20 eggs max and only 4 fertile at this stage, but its a start :bounce: They are big eggs spawned on glass, floating fake plants ignored. 24 degc

IMO 2cm would be the min size to move yr little uns into a community tank, they would survive at 1cm but growth rate will be really slow, keep up the microworms, thats teh best food for little cories, but start introducing new foods about 3/4 cm, they will eat sinking tabs when really small but waste is going to be the biggest issue, they will be sensitive to waste buildup on teh bottom of your tank for quite a while, crumble up a small amount of pellet and see how it goes. Apparently many young cories are sensitve to deep water (never had any issues myself tho) and losses can be expected if they are moved to a deep tank too soon. If you have a white worm culture, selectively feed them some small ones (its great fun watching them slurp up a worm 1/2 their size) Well done with teh sterbai fry, my group spawns occasionaly but none of the eggs are ever fertile Owen

If no chance of toxins I'd suggest high temps, even commercial suppliers cant deliver atm due to the high temps, leave the culture alone and when teh wheather cools I'd suggest they will come back on their own.