go4itgirl

Hi there is there anyone going from Nelson to Greymouth in the next week or so who could assist someone by taking some fish down with them.

thank you very much. Yes I now have heaps of these guys all growing at a very rapid rate. Live food for something anyway

Nest meeting 15 May Friday Stoke Hall 7.30pm. topic Filtration presented by Helen. gold coin, subs are due. Helen 547-1595 or Amanda 5458046

Hi there can you advise what fish these are please

Hi all After the discussion progressed to angels etc I finally found some time to add these few pics. the babies are what mine looked like when I got them and they have since changed into the yellow ones. Very typical ciclid look with the elongated fins on the male and the lips are definitely 'botoxed' full in fact more so than these photos show. there does seem to be many variations even so with these cichlids the photos came via the web from midas-cichlid.com Can anyone advise definitely on these.

Hi Not too sure as they were ordered from the Federation a few weeks ago now and until they arrive can not say. However do have one called Creating an Aquarium and another on cichlids. do you have any handy

the meeting is at 7.30pm and we start with general club business for about 20 mins max and then we usually have a talk by one of our members on various aspects of fish keeping. always looking for suggestions on topics and also guest speakers. Questions and answer time and general discussion will follow this, tea and coffee available as well. Usually finish by 9ish. Stoke Memorial Hall Main Road Stoke just down from the Turf Hotel. Is normally Friday unless there is a tank crawl or social event. Tried to see if another night suited more people but not many on the uptake there so Friday it is at present. Marlborough Club also combine with us on occasion. Hope that is of help to you. Being held at 467 Main Road Stoke this time only as hall was not booked as it was intended to have a tank crawl during the weekend but then not enough members wanted or were able to participate so (due to other events being on) so hence the DVD evening. Love to see you. Regards Helen

How are things going over there, and how's that wee one doing

HI to all Next meeting 17th April at 467 Main Road, Stoke (one off change from Stoke Hall - Room will be unavailable). topic will be a DVD night. all present and new members welcome. Helen 547-1595 or Amanda 545-8046

These have been idenitified as Red or Midas cichlids by Paul Billingsley. sorry I didn't make that clearer in an early posting

Just to say that I now have many many of these fish and the parents make superb parents taking their own food and crushing it and spitting it out for the babies. Fascinating to watch. wee one loves watching "her babies". Feel sorry for parents chasing all those littlies through the weed. LOL. Dad is starting to get a raised forehead but they are still both definitely a gold colour.

HI there Hopefully some one can supply some suggestions as to death causes. Have bred several batches of these delightful catfish. I seem to have not trouble keeping them alive but have heard back from one chap I sold several to that he has lost most of them and has had fish from the last two batches. He says that the stomachs are very white when they die. Mine have a very basic diet of cellulose, flake, pleco pellets etc and of course there is always wood in the tank. Temperature around 24-25 in my tanks and not too sure about ph though. I have these in most of my tanks without any issues although I did lose a couple of older ones (about 1.5 years old) since Xmas. They are about 3 months when he got them (each time) and I have kept a couple from the first batch and still have them and my tanks don't get any special treatment. He takes very good care of his fish and I cannot fault his feeding, housing etc of them except perhaps being in with his discus may be way too hot for them. any suggestions would be gratefully recevied as while there is some of the last batch left he is very reluctant to get any more without getting some answers to this. Many thanks

Hi there time will tell of course but it appears that these fish are probably midas cichlids and when this site is viewed there are some that are similar. These are obviously very young still but will wait and see if the head lumps appear. It just goes to show that fish shops do not always know what they are on about and it is possible that they were mislabelled (as small baby's) at the original importers. who knows. They are certainly happy and very active in the tank moving all the stones around. http://www.midas-cichlid.com/midas_pictures.html Have a couple of Satanoperca Jurupari in another tank so may well have to source a couple more to enable a pair. thanks everyone who had a suggestion :bounce:

thanks for all the suggestions. Was a bit concerned about these fish and although I love them have never tried keeping them as always thought they were too difficult. However have had them in my care sincec July anyway so must have been doing something right so far. They are in their new tank and appear to be very alert and eating. Just trying to sort out some tank mates thought maybe a GBa or two.

Yes have put some guppies and swords in now. the intention was for these discuss to spend at most a week in the two foot tank but circumstances (that are not of my making) have dictated somewhat different and now the owner has decided they don't want them back so hence the need to rehouse. Understood that discuss were very susceptible to PH fluctuations and there is a massive difference between the two tanks so will start with water changes in the two foot to bring it up gradually to around 7 anyway and thought to put some peat in the filter to reduce the ph in the newer much larger tank. what is an ideal range for discus and if it is a lower p then will the peat be sufficent to keep it down.

Hi. Have a couple of very nice discus that I was just looking after. they are smallish still and in a 2foot bare tank with several other fish. However I wish to move them to a bigger tank (150L) which is gravelled and planted with mainly java and amazon sword and some plastic plant. Also has some wood which has been in other tanks for some time. However the small tank has a ph of 6 and the new tank (filled 2 weeks ago and has no fish yet) has a ph of 7.2 to 7.6. although I can take the water from the 2 foot tank with them the ph will be much higher still than they are used to. Suggestions please as to best way to handle the shift to ensure the discus don't get too stressed? Though I would keep some gba's with them.

to help lower PH

Hi Wanted to get some peat to put into my filter. Can peat moss be used. Can not seem to find peat by itself and not sure if peat moss is same thing

Yes it is illegal to remove sand from all beaches unless you have a special permit which usually requires resource consent from the council concerned

could well be correct regarding the hybrids. Bought from a pet shop in centreal Nelson and was told that they were geophagus brasilius but then when I went back to follow this up they just said they only came in from the christchurch supplier as geophagus. I am going to change their tank as they were in a holding tank until a month or so ago and had not changed colour nor were they so skitterish either and see if there is anything in the tank which is stressing them out etc. Temp was 25 and ph was 7 maybe 7.1 and nitrate was 0. anybody got any suggestions as tank conditions. Many thanks for help so far.

they have been together in the tank for at least 4 months and they have plenty of cover, plants flower pots tubes etc. the yellow one is rather fuzzy unfortunately and does seem to be the boss and would be close to being the biggest. they have changed colour and initially I thought they were surinams but can not find anything on google that will agree with that. Have severums and they are nothing like that. Guess if no one can help will just have to watch and wait. bit of a shame really as I particularly wanted the mouth brooders. Have got a video now so if you are coming over for next meeting Caryl maybe you can throw some light on them.

heres another go

Thks for that. thought it might be coz the photos were too big as well.

Here goes with some pics Have had these littles since May 2008 and some guys who came to conference saw them at my home and said that they were not geo brasilius but could possibly be red hump ones. http://images2b.snapfish.com/232323232%7Ffp53458%3Evq%3D3373%3E454%3E247%

Am working on it. Am taking a video as well of them they are just so skittish and keep hiding on me.