Foxjxa

+1 It looks so natural!

Thank you so much for taking in and looking after these poor guys. I never knew turtles could have so many problems. :tears:

If they slow down for a minute or two, you could try and sex them and check if it's a couple of males that are doing the fighting, (what I'd expect), it's been a while but I believe the females have a more rounded ovipositer, while the guys have more pointed bits. I'd try and find another female angel roughly the same size as your three and see if that reduces the fighting. They do like to be in pairs, and I've seen a couple of males hanging out together happily, so maybe the gender of the fourth won't matter so much... Or, you could rehome one of your three. Wet Pets usually take unwanted fish if they have room.

You could try getting another couple of females to spread the aggression, or put your wagtail girl into a breeding trap until you can sort something else out?

Yay, positive feedback! Speaking of the mudfish, I'll be holding public feedings, (where everyone can have a go at hand-feeding), at the mudfish tank every Saturday at 3pm from now on. It's very fun so I encourage you all to come along sometime. ^^

The fish had a food-filled afternoon after Stella, (thanks so much!), came in to treat them all with some freshly caught stream invertebrates. Very interesting to watch and I managed to snap a few pictures as people cleared away. Here's one of the female red-fin bullies sitting in a corner, about a second before she started chowing down on some bugs beside her. Pretty sure I got the identification right, some of the wee guys are very difficult for me to tell apart! A bad photo of "Lefty" the koura fiddling around with the detritus and generally moving all his appendages too fast for me to photograph!

Very pretty! Are you going to breed him?

I was tempted just to keep a photo record for myself, but I know how nosey everyone is so... My tank is a second-hand Aqua One AR980, 215L, with three standard lights and a standard filter. It is currently inhabited by: - 6 Kuhli loaches - 1 Scarlet badis (Dario dario) - 2 Apistogramma Agassizi (pair) - 12 Five banded barbs - 3 Otocinclus I created a flicker account to store all the random photos I'm taking: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxjxa/sets/72157626873535154/ Most recent full tank shot:

That photo freaks me out. There, I said it.

Very cool idea, I look forward to seeing them in the tank and filled with plec-babies!

Had a fun couple of hours with Stella adding more rocks and gravel to the tank - gave it a nice revamp to make up for the messy builders stomping all over it. :lol: I didn't have my camera with me, but on Thursday I'll be posting pictures of the tank layout (v2), filled with water... and hopefully a few fish to boot. I hope the koura like all the caves - they will have plenty to choose from to start with!! Hope everyone who's going out spotlighting tonight has a great time, I'm hoping someone catches a baby eel. <3

What a fantastic little fish room! :thup: Definitely have to have one like that.

I haven't been able to find a picture that accurately describes my dream tank, but I imagine it would look something like this: http://perthaquariumpublic.powercreations.com.au/images/perthaquarium-127--eisee.jpg Except it would be a heavily planted African type tank with bichirs, leaf fish, elephant noses, etc and it would ideally a room-divider, not just stuck in the wall. Then, I saw this: http://www.newhouseofart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/unique-aquarium-living-room-table-476x400.jpg I think if it was at eye-height level instead, it'd be neat to have a tank you walk all the way around!

Haha, don't tempt me, 'else I'll end up with a living room full of tanks! I'm not even sure the floor could support more than one at a time... :tears: I'll just look around for a bigger home for them, somewhere where they can keep on growing and enjoying their space. You don't want to keep that 700L of yours and have them back, do ya?

Yeap, all acrylic. It's strong enough that p44 could crawl around on the supporting braces too, not to mention all the builder guys which have been up there. I'm counting my lucky stars we won't be planting it - I don't think I could handle all the 'advice' I'd get from p44!! Btw p44, you are welcome to come and try to fix whatever you want in the weekend, though by then it'll probably have changed again, including that awful rock.

If you like the rummys best, I'd also say ditch the neons and get more of them instead. Otherwise, pick a colour you like, (you mentioned blue, maybe cochu blue tetra?), look at the different tetra available and get them in place of all your current tetra and harlequins? There are some very nice tetra out there.

Well all those ideas are going out the window. The leafies are now settled into their new tank but... They're just so BIG!! I'd been told they'd grown, but boy did I underestimate by how much. The leopard ctenopoma is maybe 15cm+, and the unidentified ctenopoma is at least 17cm+. I think the 200L actually looks too small for them especially after being in a 700L for the last year! So... any one with a big tank want to give a lovely pair of leaf fish a home? :nilly:

Awesome news! I hope you can keep us updated on the little guy. :thup:

Te Manawa in Palmerston North has recently opened a new free exhibit, Te Awa, (The River), which follows the Manawatu River and highlights some of our native fauna along the way. Currently we have whistling tree frogs, cave weta and brown mudfish on display and are in the final stages of setting up the 5000L native fish tank which will house various kokopu, bullies, some koura and whatever else we can catch. :happy1: I'm not the best photogropher and there's a big column that makes full tank shots difficult, but here is the tank layout (v1) without water. Apologies for the mess! Big thanks to our native fish consultant, I'll name names later , and for p44 for helping put all the gravel in and making it look pretty - apart from that one rock, maybe. Let's hope he doesn't notice the builders have ruined some of his work... I'll be coming back to add more to this thread as more stuff happens, so questions and comments are always welcome. Also, if you're keen to join 'us', (goodness knows who that will be at this stage!), on a spotlighting trip let me know, the more the merrier!

Well I'll definitely be getting some upside-down catfish now. I'm thinking I'll get four, as everything I've read suggests they prefer to be in groups, and see how they go with the leafies. I'll also be on the look out for a nice pair of kribs, I think it'll be neat if they breed. Thanks for sharing, BigBossPants.

@p44 - Not so heavily planted my fish are smushed against the glass. 8) But enough so that they can hide all day if they want to. I don't like Hoplo's so won't be getting them. @BigBossPants - So all your kribs get along okay with the leaf fish? And the pantadon? Are the syno's slow growers or do you think will I end up with a huge fatty within a few months? @waterlogged - Thanks for the offer, I might just PM you if I find some more decently sized ones. @Fruju - No bichirs on my list yet, no. :oops: My old albino sen is currently living in a friend's tank and I'd be able to get him back if I wanted, it's just that he's a giant pig and will probably take chunks out of whatever else I try to introduce into the tank! Bichirs are still one of my favourite fish, but since I get to work with mudfish at work, (They are REALLY neat fish!), my greedy guts sen has been put to shame. If I don't find any smaller fish that I like or will live with the leafies happily, then I'll get him back and add another sen I think. Thanks for all the suggestions guys, they're very helpful. =] Looks like congos are a good tetra to have?

So, I've got a lovely-looking AR980 (215L) tank sitting next to me that will soon be home to a couple of my old Ctenopoma, (A full-grown leopard Ctenopoma, Mr Invisible, and a larger, unidentified Ctenopoma, Goliath), and I'm starting to brainstorm their future tank-mates. The tank will eventually be heavily planted and sports some big pieces of driftwood. I'd love some feedback on the fish I'm already interested in and any suggestions you might have. Fish I'm currently considering, (but not all together!!): - Ornate Ctenopoma [Ctenopoma ansorgii] - Upside-down Catfish - Pantadon Butterfly fish - Blue Gularis / King Killie (Not sure how readily available they are these days) - Kuhli loaches (Big ones?) - Checker barbs (My favourite schooling fish) - Elephant nose - Kribensis (Pair) - More leopard Ctenopoma - Pekoltia sp L140 (Or some other small, pretty pleco) - A school of loaches! I also stumbled across some youtube videos of african mudfish, but I don't think they're available in NZ. I'd love to be proved wrong on this! Edit - Thought adding the size of the tank might help.

Hmm, I do/will need plants... :slfg:

Pros: Super quiet filter (I've had no problems with my motor yet). Looks great. The lights are pretty good. It keeps Kitty's fat pouch warm on cold days. The filter and heater are hidden in the black box, which I've got a pretty algae growing over => looks super cool. It also has a pretty cabinet. :lol: Cons: My heater was also useless, when set to max it would only heat to 24 degrees! Luckily I always keep a spare. I'm terrified that if my fat cat jumps on the lid too much then it will snap, which would mean the lights would shatter too, and then Kitty and the fish would all die. You can't clean the filter without sending bits of gunk back into your tank water. Some people have problems with algae growing between the box and the glass. And the lids rattle when my washing machine is on. But I like it. I'll be opting for an external filter in future though.

There's a forum for fish???!!!!