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Hey Ceasar, Nice looking fish! I wasn't aware that we had Endlers in New Zealand, so that was a pleasant surprise - they're a fish I wouldn't mind having at some later stage. I have a few males who have the Endler look to them, but someone else told me that when guppies are in-bred too much they revert back to their wild roots, and they look similar to the Endler. Have you tried obtaining Female Endler's or seeing if anyone imports them? They would certainly be beautiful if you could. Good luck! :bounce: :bounce:

Hey Bedazzled, I have a brackish tank with Sailfin mollies, and another tank which I used to breed my guppies in. The guppies were not purchased to breed from, but seen as how they did it themselves, I went with it for a while, and it was a joy and a pleasure to watch my females give birth then raise the fry. My mollies I purchased just because I have a brackish tank, and I am waiting for some more exciting brackish species to come my way. My feeling is that if you want to try and breed them, you should. There's nothing saying you have to breed them and sell them on for others to breed from, why not just try for a breeding certificate? Or, you could move the babies on to other community display tanks - there are a few people who have tanks set up in retirement homes and kindergartens/daycares that have fish just solely because they are nice to look at and have nice colours. My theory is if you like them, buy another female just to relieve the pressure on your first one, and you may find they do it all by themselves - just keep an eye out for when the female looks fatter than normal, or of you see fry so you can rescue them. Some of us breed accidentally, but there's nothing that forces us to sell them or encourage others to breed from what we produce.

Hey Dixon, I believe I may have Scarlet Badis in my tank. I purchased a few quite a while ago, and they coloured up beautifully - a lovely red with brilliant blue stripes. Unfortunately, the one I had left ended up a little unwell looking, so I put him in a breeding net so I could keep an eye on him and spot treat him. In another unfortunate happenstance, one of the Panchax I had decided he looked pretty good too, and when i came home one day, the Panchax had jumped in the breeding net and eaten my lovely badis for breakfast :evil: . Needless to say I was not impressed. I went to my LFS and asked them to keep an eye out for some more, and they got a shipment in not long afterwards. They didn't look anything like the one I had, and I was a little worried they would be normal Badis badis which are a bit larger than I like; but, the ones I purchased seem to have coloured up to an orangey red with touches of blue here and there. They're no where near as pretty as my first ones, but they are still pretty and it's fun to watch them change colours. If I can get my hubby's STUPID camera working, I'll post a pic or two of my ones. Hope that helps!

My daughter Cadence was named after some car stereo equipment my husband saw in a magazine! :roll:

Can anyone help me to identify this cichlid please? He belongs to a friend of mine, and we are undecided as to what he is http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn10 ... ns/006.jpg http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn10 ... ns/005.jpg Fingers crossed the link actually worked! We thogut it could be a Red Devil, then a Severum, then a Midas Cichlid, or a red parrot Any ideas? :-?

My stepdaughter cut a pic from a magazine that had a little tank about 2 inches square that you attatch an I Pod to, speakers and all, with a betta in it! She thought it looked cool unitl I explained about everyone and every fish having their own space. I threatened to lock her in the linen cupboard with a stereo on full for three weeks to see how she liked it! She gets it now...

OH MY GOSH!! Has anyone noticed that there are a heck of a lot of younger people on this forum?! AAARRRGGGHHH! I can't even load a photo on the page, which makes me feel old, but I'm not even that old, but you young fullas make me look old even without posting a pic!!!!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!Maybe we should start an oldies club.......

LAUGH OUT LOUD!!!! lol in kid terms! In my case Paul it would be a 50" TV with a lazy boy at one end, and the washing machine and kitchen sink at the other! (the lazy boy being my husband that is!)

I bought my original 8 from you via Trade Me, but unfortunately I think the 2 of the 3 females I had died before I moved them in to their new home :oops: I've since picked up two more, and I think (well I thought..) I may have two females, but I'm just not one hundred percent sure... :-? If I could just get the 6 of them to line up at the front of the tank at the same time so i could get a good look.....................

Perhaps i don't have the two females i thought I did :-? Mine don't actually seem to be doing much of anything, other than hiding from me when i walk in the room! :roll: Hopefully I'll be able to get hold of some females soon and they might be able to get these guys going a bit! Thanks Paul!

Thanx Zev, just what I was looking for! :bounce: I have 6 CPD's now, possibly 2 females, but as yet I haven't seen any eggs :-? A-Town: I bought my CPD's from Trade Me, but there are actually a few people here on the forum who are breeding them, including the guy I bought mine from. I discovered a picture of them on Google one day and fell in love with them, and as soon as I saw them come up for sale, I decided I wanted some! They are still a little bit hard to come by in NZ or at least in my area, and a little pricey, but they are so much fun to have and to watch; when they come out that is! Thanx again for the pics, just what I needed so I know what to look for :bounce:

I'v been to Animates Melling a number of times and seen three or four tanks out of commission because the fish have whitespot. I was in there a little while ago and saw another fish in an unquarantined tank that had it, went and told one of the staff, and he turned around and went" What's that?"!!!!! :evil: He told someone else but they didn't really seem to appreciate being told their fish had white spot. You really do have to watch where you go....

Hey Cam, I have Badis which are really cool and small; GO THE PYGMY CORY!!!! One of the most awesome small fish I have and I love them to bits! My BB gobies do ok, and I have them in both type of tank. Sparkling Gourami's are cool too, and they don't get too big - very pretty! Hope that helps!

Hey everyone, an update on my fish situation.... Thanx Cam for the offer, I will keep you in mind. I went out at the weekend and purchased more fish :bounce: - just about broke the bank!!! Dixon, you'll be pleased to know I managed to get more bumblebee gobies - they had 7 in the shop so I took all they had - 4 have gone in to my freshwater tank, and the other 3 went in to my brackish tank. I'm going to monitor both groups and see what the differences are in terms of growth, habit etc. I also bought 2 grey mollies for that tank, and another 6 Indian Glass fish, so it's well stocked and looks great now! I also bought 3 Similis (?) corys, and they're adorable! I think I may leave the 4 foot as it is for now, apart from a few more female fighters IF I can find them - everyone seems to have short finned males right now!!!! :evil: My Sparkling Gouramis; once I move the guppies out from their tank, will a male fighter be ok with them and not nip at them? I was considering trying to get them to breed if I could, but we'll see :-? I'd also love to have a really stunning male fighter, saw a nice white one a few weeks ago, and a gorgeous red at the weekend, but I'm not sure....

Well, I culled off the fish that were showing symptoms last week, and the rest of the fish seemed to be doing well, but when I checked the tank this morning there was another fish doing it's weird little spiral dance with the pointy tail, so I guess I may just have to cull the lot . I think if it's gonna cost me mega bucks for testing, I may flag that idea - maybe just a good disinfect and sterilize of the tank might be in order. Can anyone recommmend a good way to disinfect the tank once the fish are gone? I usually boil the stuff in it when I have problem snails to get rid of, but what do you do in this case? :-?

Hey guys - funny you say that, I was just about getting ready to give up breeding my guppies altogether! I'm in it more for the fun than for the money, but it might be nice to see if I can breed from her and have success with more beautiful offspring. It would mean I would probably have to get another tank... :roll: ...but that's never a problem for me! Maybe I'll look in to having a custom built breeding tank made up so I can do it with minimal fuss for the fish. Thanks for the advice guys! I might just give it another shot!!!

Good idea Mumzy, might check it out and see what I might be able to do. Thanks!!!

Hey Dixon, Will see if i can get a good one tomorrow and attempt to load on the site - my last go at posting a pic was a disaster!!!! Will see what I can do...

Hi and Welcome Peter! I'm in Upper Hutt as well, and i believe the first step is admitting you have a problem..... As for scrambling over rocks at 1am? I saw some photos recently of a 2003 trip some FNZAS members did up to the Desert Road area, where they were well and truly up to their armpits in mud catching mollies!!! It looked like so much fun!!!! I have been considering a native tank for a little while now, mainly because I saw one on a doco a little while back, and my husband, who thinks I'm nuts and hates fish, seemed to like the look of the native tank. I'm secretly considering setting one up for him for his 40th later this year, but not sure. I've been told to go marine, but seems like WAY too much like hard work! Anyway, supporting our native environments is a good thing isn't it!? Look forward to meeting you some time soon!

Maybe I'm a bit dumb/blonde/naive! :oops: Most of the females I have seen have had the dull grey/brown body colour with the occasional splash of colour through the tail, like yellow or pink. The only reason I even noticed was because someone reminded me of the gonopodium and when I was checking my mollies, I decided to check the guppies too, and found I had girls! I guess they're around but you just don't see them in pet shops so much. Maybe I'll be a little more pervy when it comes to picking out my fish from now on!!!

OMG I know!!! When I did a search on the forum before the post I read the horror stories of others who have contracted it and the ensuing hell they have been through!!! Very careful now, have a bottle of that funny hand sanitizer stuff in just about every room now as well. Questions: if humans can get it, can it be passed on to other animals as well? As in, if I gave infected fish to friend to feed to her axolotl, would it get TB get sick and die? Or of I happened to walk in the room and found my cat with it's head in the bag of infected fish drinking the water, will said cat get sick? :-? May be a dumb thing to ask, but you ca never be too careful!!!

I did consider Killi Fish at one stage but then ended up wiyth a feeling that it would be a lot of effort to get the balance right - maybe I jumped to a conclusion there! :oops: I love my bumblebee gobies too! :bounce: I really want more, and yes, I know they're brackish, but the ones I have purchased have been born and raised as freshwater, and they do just fine. I would like to get more and split them between my fresh and brackish tanks and note the difference in their behavior though... Billaney, I know you have like a cazillion tanks (been to your place before!) and I have you in mind for more CPD's when your current stock have grown on a little, so maybe I will have to have a poke around at your place some time and see what inspires me! Rainbow fish don't like my tank much - I tried threadfins and they all died, and I bought some neat looking fish that were unknown to the pet shop at the time - they thought it may have been a tetra, but it turns out it was a really neat rainbowfish. Unfortunately I found out a little too late and they carked it too! My kids have been on at me about getting something blue in my tank, so maybe a large shoal of either neon or cardinals might be nice. I've also seen some gorgeous long finned mountain minnows in books, so might keep an eye out for some of them. Any more ideas would be greatly appreciated! What would make a good companion for the Sparkling Gouramis I have? I don't think I can fit any bigger gouramis in that tank as it's only a 60 litre. :-?

Can anyone tell me how normal/rare it is to have a female guppy with full body colour? So much so that it looks like a male? :-? I have 2 which I thought were black males I had bred, but it seems they are both female - black from the tail right up to just before the head! They're very pretty, just not what I thought they were!!!! Might be more beneficial to me than the male I wanted though....

Thanx Mumzy and Dutch Kiwi Cowboy! I never knew it existed until I really got in to keeping tropicals and researching. Water changes - I do my usual 20-30% weekly, but I may change from that and do smaller amounts on a daily basis until I see more improvement. Inbreeding - I know that you end up with funky fish when you leave them to do there own thing - I always buy a male, breed him with my female, then move him in to another tank and get a different male once she has dropped her fry, so there's little chance of it being an in-bred thing, I have spawned some pretty munted fish though! Thanx for your help so far though guys! I think I've decided I will buy a another tank tomorrow and utilize the hospital tank for it's original purpose (it's currently housing my CPD's). My cory's from that tank will go in there until I can be sure they are ok, and I will keep an eye on the rest of my fry and see how they go now that all the ill looking fish have been taken out. Hopefully all will be ok, and I can get the tank back to norm before the next lot of fry arrive!

Hey everyone I have a problem - I now have an active case of MTS, but need guidance and suggestions on what fish i should keep. I have 2 tanks which I need to look at: #1: 60 litre: currently housing Sparkling Gourami's, 2 rocket pencil fish, pygymy cory's and guppies. The guppies are only there as they munched their way through a fair few tails in my 4 foot tank! #2: 4 foot Jebo R331: currently housing 1 GIANT algae eater I inherited, along with his friend the GIANT golden barb. Also 6 veil tailed red serpae tetras, peppered cories, badis, 1 lonely bumblebee goby, 1 killi, 1 female fighter, and 6 assorted danios. I'd like suggestions on what sort of fish I should look to for a long term placement. Bear in mind, I DO NOT LIKE BIG FISH! That's why I went with guppies etc coz they're small. I'm not fond of cichlids or Discus (it's a weird thing i have about big fish and cichlids :oops: ), but am open to suggestions. I am going to wait until my GIANT fishies pass on to the procelain highway which may be a while, and the fish I am infatuated with are the Sparkling Gouramis, Badis, the goby, and the veil serpaes. I like different fish, and would love an ideas anyone had about what I could work towards in the furture.