greatmoojin

Hmm, so it looks like the Tapajos aren't available so far, will have to give HFF a rev up and see if they can source, mind you the cost would probably be prohibitive, but you never know until you try! My Royal has tons of driftwood available - the mango root is his favourite chewing wood. Along with zuchini he also gets a variety of other veg and a couple of Wardley spirulina disks every day, the Hikari one's have fish meal in them so they're not too good for Royals.

Does anyone happen to know if these are available in NZ? Am really thinking about making these guys the main feature in my new tank along with my Royal pl*co. Any compatibility issues with Royal Pl*co and geos? I used to keep geophagus altifrons with a leopard cactus pl*co (L114), but they out competed him for food, so they had to be sold on. My Royal is mostly a zucchini fiend and a little trouble maker so i don't think this is going to be a problem, but would like to get some feedback from anyone with experience.

Usual restraints around compatibility - e.g. tank size, other inhabitants etc, compounded by catfish being nocturnal so any signs of aggression might be missed. If you want to go ahead i'd make sure you have plenty of hidey holes and try to encourage some daytime feeding so you can track any potential injuries and seperate ASAP. Fish are individuals so you might get the rare ones who do get along, but generally more than one bottom dweller is too much competition for food/breeding, meaning a fight waiting to happen.

Looks like Panaque Nigrolineatus L190, if you're after the red eye on stripey pyjama look avoid the L191 - as the common name suggests they have a dull coloured eye. Mind you I have a 10cm L191 called Mr Jim Jams, and he's by far and wide my favourite pleco. He lives on silica sand and digs tunnels all over the place, so great you've got a sandy bottom - it really helps to bring out natural behaviour in the plecos and especially the geos. I love watching my fish chewing through the sand and filtering it out of their gills - looks kinda like they're smoking! Great work on the aquascape BTW, looks fantastic

Have hopefully found someone to make a stand for us, going to meet him on the weekend and go over design etc, we want a low unit so probably same dimensions as the tank (150x50x50). Will have to start the hard work now and figure out who's going to live in the tank

Thanks for the replies, we know it's a big ask for cheap and good quality! We are willing to pay a reasonable price for a medium brown timber stand and hood, but over $800 is just too much! Would be happy with something around the $500 mark, and have been scouring trademe for solid desks, cabinets, anything really! Thanks for breaking the weight down into load per joist, might get a professional builder in to have a look just as a precaution. Any one have any recomendations in the Waitakere area? Building a cabinet for us is quite a task, what with our child like joinery skills :oops: hence why we are willing to pay for a premade unit.

We recently got a 150cm x 50cm x 50cm tank and are currently looking for a stand (any help greatly appreciated). We live in a stilt house approx 10 years old, and will be putting the tank in the living room against an outside wall, running across the joists and as close as we can to the main supporting beams (that actually come through the floor and up into the ceiling). The stand will be flush to the floor (i.e. no legs) so should spread the weight evenly across the area. We estimate the tank/stand/decor total weight at around 500KG. Does anyone have any experience in running a heavy tank in such a house? Should we be worried about the floor caving in? Any other precautions we should take? Where the heck do we find a good quality, but cheap stand? All quotes so far are over $800 :evil:

Anyone else been hearing the rumors on a potential relaxing of the export ban list? Seems like rumors come up all the time, from 'reliable sources,' but reading planet catfish etc forums the rumors are certainly gathering momentum...don't get any hopes up though, just wondered if anyone here had any info?

Hiya, we moved house yesterday morning and set up the canister filter in the afternoon. It;s an Eheim pro 2 and all functioning fine, but it occasionally starts whistling! Anybody had this before? What's the possible cause? I thought maybe air trapped in the unit so i did the old tilt and rock it back and forth trick, some air did come out, but it hasn't sorted out the whistling. I switched it off, waited a minute then switched it back on, restarted just fine, but still whistling. Checked the canister and pipes and no water leaking so probably not a small crack or leak either. When we woke up this morning it's still doing the occasional whistle, roughly as often and persistent as it was yesterday. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the link, that's some incredible footage I'm going to watch it again...

Well, looks like the tetras have it! Yay - will post some pics when i get around to buying some probably next month! Cheers for the suggestions everybody, much appreciated!

Yep - that's what i was thinking, but im running a hefty current in my tank, would the tetra mind that, or would it pin them to the glass or something?

Im a special boy so i have special gravel! It's about 10 - 20mm black polished river stones, my pleco loves it. Nice suggestion on the suri though - beautiful fish, sigh

Im so caught in the middle on this one - on one hand i really like big fishlins, on the other i also love the colourful little 'uns! What tetras/bards have you got Whetu? I was looking at glow light tetras thinking they look so cool, then i saw some severums and they look awesome - conundrum! :lol:

Hey all, After a bit of a shuffle around i've now got lots of tank space! Looking for stocking suggestions for: 3 ft tank, heavy filtration/lots of current, 2 x large pieces of driftwood, very sparce plants. Current occupants: 1 x 15cm pleco, 1 x 10cm honey gourami, 2 x blue ram Look forward to any and all suggestions!

Im guessing internal parasite as when i fished him out he had the start of a white poo coming out - generally a sign of internal parasite i think.

My gibby died yesterday (devestated ) - from what i suspect to be bloat brought on by an internal parasite. Does this mean the other fish in the tank will have the same problem or is this usually localised to the fish in question?

Cool, thanks Simian!

Im in the beginning stages of a fishless cycle on a 210L tank and the water in my part of AK has a really weak buffer. I remember somewhere on the forum someone talking about using seashells to buffer their water. Any idea if this is a good way to go about it? Would the shell effect the Ph? What size shell should i use for a 3 foot tank? I previously used JBL Aquader to buffer my 50L tank, but using it in a big tank would be pretty expensive!

We have: Mr Giblets A.K.A Mr G - Gibbiceps The Hungry Hungry Hippo - Honey Gouramui Nasty B*#@&^d - Male Betta Thats all we named!

hi nemines, yep tank was all cycled, we took the water out (saved half in buckets), put in the new substrate, put about a 5cm cover of gravel back on top, filled her up and away she went! Like i say, no trouble for ages, then it all went wrong Hey Zev, i wondered that to! But Mr Giblets (the Gibby) always looks so innocent i dont want to blame him! Anyway, we got home last night to another dead Tetra and some tense looking fish and that was the last straw, we stripped the tank down, pulled the dirt out swapped a few fish around into a differnt tank to lower the bioload, and hey presto, happy fish, Kh back up (need to keep adding buffering agent for a few weeks to keep it stable) and clear water! My experience with this stuff was pretty rough, but who knows, in someone elses tank it might be fine...buy at your own risk eh

Hiya everybody, Im pretty new here, been in NZ for just over a year, originally from Wales, moved to England for a while, and now im pretending to be Kiwi! Always had lots of animals around me until me and my girlfriend moved to NZ, when we got a little settled we decided to keep a few fish. Sigh, one year on, 3 tanks later and still it's not enough!!!! :lol: Funny to think i never saw fish as being a real companion animal, but when something relies on you for absolutely everything you build up a stong bond eh! So, lets see, Im 29 years old, blond hair, grey eyes, gsoh, enjoy long walks, nice restaurants, good movies and cheap booze!

Running Shark ADV400 originally, have now got an additional Eheim Pick Up 2010, believe filtration is not a problem here! :lol: Good old HFF told me about the water would haze but that it would clear within 2 weeks and that is isn't harmful at all. Bit overstocked to start with i think - 6 Neons, 4 guppies, 1 honey gouramui, 1 blue ram, 1 gibbiceps (very small juvenile moving to 210L tank when it's cycled), 1 BN (again - just a wee baby) Paramaters - Kh is down to trace amount / Ph around 5 / Amonia on the rise (from 0.2 - 4 in a four days) / Nitrite on the rise (can't remember the figures) Did a 25% waterchange this morning, will retest when i get home, at work atm :lol:

i use this in my 54L tank and all was going well, lots of stong plants and good growth. After about 2 months it turned the water really hazy which was fine for a while as the LFS said this would happen and it wouldn't prob for the fish. In the last week i've lost 3 guppies, 2 neon tetra, the Ph won't stabalise and I feel like im fighting a loosing battle :evil: It could be co-incidence, the fish were kinda old, but i look at the hazy water every night desperately testing conditions and seeing v little improvement. I'm relly think about stripping the tank down on the weekend and pulling it up.

Kitchens about 11 years old, only 1 x 300mm unit on one side, then a dishwasher then an end panel, IMHO theres no way it will hold that weight, which i was quite annoyed with due to the extra expense now i have to buy a stand, but im over that now, plus the new place it will sit in is much nicer!