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Thanks for that! Did you have yours in fresh or brackish water? I think I may have to put them back in the brackish tank for a while with the others I have in my freshwater community tank and wait for a little while. I have seen them scrapping a little today over one of the terracotta pots I have in the tank, here's a picture of my current set up for them: There are different levels, and I have raised the pH with the addition of the limestone blocks. I have some much smaller pots I could use, and I have some small shells which might be ok too, although I was worried they might get stuck in the shells if they tried to get too far in. I have been feeding them up on white worms as much as I can, but my supply has dwindled a bit and have to get it going again. I read somewhere too that they usually breed in typhoon season, so i slowly reduced the water level, then introduced a BIG dose of fresh cold water, but to no avail, and I have done that a few times too. I have a 1.5 foot tank that has molly fry in at the mo, maybe I should set that up and move them in to that to give them more space. Can I ask, did your males 'pale out' like I have read they do? The colouring on mine hasn't changed at all.

Hey Kyle, thanks for that. I have read the article before, and my bumbles came from my brackish tank. I have kept their breeding tank brackish, apart from the cold fresh water changes, but still nothing. It looks like I have three females and one male, but so far he hasn't developed into his 'breeding dress'. Any other suggestions?

has anyone out there had any success with breeding these guys? I did a search and the only registered breeding I found was by John Sutton in 1985. I have a group if 4 I'm working with, but I just can't seem to get them to do it! I really want to persevere with it, but there are other fish i want to try and breed as well. Anyone know anything they can share or have any ideas? I'm all out.

Hey Stella, I can completely sympathize with your predicament. I was made redundant back in May, and have been struggling to get a job ever since. I have income protection so my mortgage is paid for 6 months, but that is coming to an end soon and no one wants to employ me! I have had some miserable days. I have applied for who knows how many jobs, and many of them you just never hear back from. I had to follow up on two today - one of which was looking good and I was really hopeful as it's a job I REALLY wanted - but both of them were big fat no's, and I would never have found out if I hadn't have called them to ask. The one thing I HAVE to keep in mind every day is that I have my health, and I have my family. I also think God must have something better in mind for me, and I'm not much of a religious person either (I can swear like a sailor!). There's also the chance I may win Lotto and never have to work again :lol: (fingers crossed) which would make my day, and make Caryl happy as I could spend all my days writing articles for the magazine! Some things happen to us for a reason, they shape who we are, and they make us better people. That's my faith anyway. Good Luck!

I always use Melafix as a first treatment - it doesn't do any harm to the other fish, and it's more natural than things like Meth blue or tonic.

Honey gourami are really nice, I have a group of 6 in a large tank and they are lovely. But they do colour up better once you get them home. Another great gourami if you can get it is the sparkling gouirami - they are a smaller fish with brilliant blue and red sparkles! I have 6 in my 60 litre tank, and they do just fine with other tank mates. They may look good with the harlequins if you are wanting something with blue in it too

Hi everyone! Just a reminder that the Upper Hutt Club meet is TOMORROW NIGHT at 7:30pm with a discussion and plant swap. See you all there!

For those of you who don't know, Caryl Simpson is the lovely lady who puts together the Aquarium World Magazine. There is an awful lot of effort that goes in to producing such a wonderful magazine - organizing articles, layout, printing, advertising, putting together, bagging, addressing and posting - all of which Caryl does a lot of BY HERSELF. Luckily she has a supportive family and friends to help put the mag together ready to be delivered to all you fishy people. For all the effort it takes, Caryl also finds herself in the position of often not having enough articles to fill up the magazine. This means Caryl frequently has to come up with an idea and write the articles to fill in the gap herself. That's on top of having a life outside the magazine. So I just want to say BIG UPS TO CARYL!!! Caryl, without you we would not have a magazine at all, so I would like to say a personal Thank You for all your hard work. To everyone else out there - why haven't you written an article for the magazine? Many of you are full of knowledge and information that you share freely over the forum - why not turn that in to an article for the Aquarium World? You'd be surprised how quickly you can write 500 words, and if you include a photo or picture, you can get away with writing a bit less! So why not take the plunge and give Caryl a hand - write about something you know about, an experience you've had, a fish book you like, plants, fish - the possibilities are endless! Give it a go. Otherwise, Caryl will go nuts from the endless dreams of fish magazines, and we will all be left without a good kiwi fish magazine to read! PLEASE!!! Save Caryl and save our magazine!!!

So far so good - the bleached out tank hasn't been set up yet as I had to order replacement sponges etc, but I'm nearly there and can't wait to get it going again! The axolotl is fine, he hasn't shown any ill effects of the hand lotion saga, but my daughter knows now that NOTHING goes in the tank, full stop. Hopefully all the drama is over for now, just having problems finding room to grow out all the molly fry I have :roll:

AAAHHH! More fry! I have two more female mollies ready to pop, and about 50 babies I am already trying to grow on in another tank, and my big breeder female is gravid again. I may have to leave a few of the next batches to fend for themselves, otherwise i just can't care for them all properly!

Can anyone tell me if livebearing females abort near fully formed fry? I've had a molly in a net breeder for a few weeks now, and when I checked this morning things were fine, no fry, but when i checked just now prior to feeding, she seems to have dropped her fry, but many of them were dead. I siphoned out about 10 fry, and one extremely tiny fry which was attached to a rather large yolk sac. There are some fry which are still alive, but very small and not looking too flash. I wondered whether she'd had enough and got rid of them, or whether stress may have been a factor, or if she just wasn't ready or too young to have a good brood. The only thing that has changed was the introduction of two new fish yesterday, but they weren't bothered by the net breeder and stayed away from it. Any ideas? What should I do now?

That is so cool! Gave me a laugh :lol:

I have a brackish tank, and just added in my most favourite fish I've been wanting for ages - Mono Angels!!! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: I have bumblebee gobies, a couple of kuhlis and a skunk loach which have adjusted well to the salt content, heaps of sailfin mollies, and a butterfly fish. I know you can get archer fish and a few others, but sometimes you have to ask shops to order in the fish for you. Not sure what you can pinch from the local waters, but i'm going rock pooling today so who knows what might be around

Hi Everyone! The Upper Hutt club will be meeting on Wednesday September 10th at 7:30pm. This month we are having a plant discussion and swap meet, so feel free to come along and ask advice about plants. Also, bring along any unwanted plants or trimmings you may have, and join in the swap! The FNZAS President Paul Billaney is also hoping to come along, so why don't you come and meet him? Paul has a wealth of knowledge that he openly shares, and it's a great opportunity to talk about the federation, what it is, what it does, and how it can help you. Where: the Maidstone Centre, 24-26 Goodshed road Upper Hutt (in the Idea centre, in front of the Earthlink Recycling Centre - there's a great big tree out the front too) Meeting starts at 7:30pm, followed by a light supper. Look forward to seeing you all there! :bounce:

Can anyone recommend a good place in the Wellington region that would be good to take kids for some rock pooling? I want to take the 4, 14 and 16 year olds out for the day, but we want to make it worthwhile and actually see something! I thought of Island bay, and a friend suggested Pukerua Bay, but does anyone know of anywhere else that could be really good?

Hey, just wondering how old you have to be to join a club as a junior? I'm thinking of joining up my daughter as she insists that one of the mollies i am considering entering is HER molly :roll:

Can anyone tell me where in Wellington I might be able to buy some clear plastic tubing to use in a DIY under gravel filter? M10 didn't have anything, and Bunnings had some black pipe, but I was looking for clear like you'd have in a shop bought one.

Hey Barrie, they usually are covered but when i put them in the wooden box i didn't cover them straight away just to let a little air get to them. Maybe they are eating the media rather than the food, but I will try luncheon again and see if it works better with them being in a wooden box in the garage.

I was recommended to use a pH neutral compost mix from Bunnings, so have them in that and have just moved them in to an old wooden coin box. I think I might move them down to the garage and cover them up, see how they go. I've never thought of bread soaked in milk. I also heard they eat mashed potatoe. Anyone have any experience with this?

can anyone give me any tips for kick starting my white worm culture again? I have had them in a cool dark place, but they don't seem to be doing much, and I haven't been able to feed out any of them for over a month because there's just not enough. I used to feed them bread, then tried luncheon, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I also read keeping them in a wooden box can make a difference instead of plastic containers? Any advice greatly welcomed

Update: over 24 hours later and Darby is still alive. I thought he was dead this morning as he wasn't moving, but then he moved his head so I knew all was ok. he ate another chunk of beef heart this morning too, so i guess he's ok. Panic over. Well, at least until the next big fish drama :roll: Thanks to all for their help, I learnt a few interesting things, like putting the axy in the fridge!

That's what i thought too. I thought they all looked like girls but some would change in to boys as they grow older, but I'm not sure how old they are when they do that :-?

Nup. No wiffy smells in that tank now... I just have to deal with the smell of the hand lotion my 4 year old put in the axolotl tank 2 days ago :roll: That's some good news I needed on a bad day - thanx! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

I have some molly babies I am looking at moving on soon, but wondered how old they have to be before you can tell male from female? I have two broods, one coming up 2 months old and another at 2 weeks. I have heard someone on here say they can tell what their guppies are from day one, but I was under the illusion that they change as they get slightly older. If they don't change then i have too many girls!!!

They do that! :roll: Once you get to know your fish well enough, you can guess when you think she may be about a week out from dropping her fry. I have had my mollies in a trap for up to three weeks because they fooled me in to thinking they were ready to go! I got it down to a fine art with my big breeding guppies, and although they may look sad, if you really want to keep the fry it's one of the best ways of going about it. It's also a good way to treat her to some yummy live foods without other fish sneeking them all! Have a look in the livebearer section - Cam posted a thread with some drawings of a female guppy going through the various stages and what they look like. It might give you an idea of what they look like right before they're about to pop.