si_sphinx

thats cool, I'm 19. good to know I'm not the only 1 my age I was feeling a bit alone lol Knoooowne down here is into it thats for sure, I only just start with cichlids this year in march tho, something to keep me entertained while studying but turned into more of an obsession if you know what i mean

Yea i know i shouldn't have them but as soon as the pet shop gets them in they are gone so you got to get in quick and they are an awesome fish. And its hard to get good fish down here. All cichlids are awesome. can't wait to finish my studies to earn some proper money to upgrade my tanks 8) Ive been looking for a tank but know one has any for sale anywhere. is there even people around as young as me into this hobby? :-? Thanks for all your help guys and gals

I'm trying But I'm a student with minimal funds so i"m doing my best to save. Managed to get someone to make the tank for me for $100 so just got to get him some glass for him. Then ill be set 8)

i have 2 oscars 6-8cm 2xjags 1 @ 6-8cm and the other 4-5cm and a pair of convicts, male 6-8cm, female 4-5cm tank is around 100ltrs but not permanent Im still looking at/saving up for a 432ltr brought or made for them.

What if i divide the tank and have convicts one side, jags and oscars the other. I'm gona get rid of some of my convicts though so i only have a few. Whats the best way to divide a tank, i.e. what materials can be used as the divider?

I catch big bullies over 10cm in our river down here in Manapouri. I get a pin and bend the sharp end round like a hook and tie thread to it and put a wriggly earth worm on the end of the hook. I then lower it into the water where they come out from under the rocks and and they see the wriggling worm and they gulp it straight away and i rip it out of the water. I'm not sure on the type of bullies they are, we always called them cocka bullies. Me and my brother would catch heaps in 1/2 an hour and then let them go or put them in our mothers fish pond (and of coarse get told off for doing so. she didn't want them breeding in there). They were a brown or black or grey in colour, always different. the smallest 1s were easiest to catch. biggest were hardest which i suppose is y they are so big. biggest we ever caught was around 12cm at a guess. I think he is still living under the same rock. for about 2-3yrs i alway looked when i went past and sometimes seen him sitting out in the sun So much fun though we couldn't keep them with the crays tho as the crays would eventually eat them gave up on the crays tho as they kept crawling out of the tank, even with a lid on it, and found them halfway thru the house the next morning if the cat didn't get them.

Does anyone know if convicts, jags and oscars can go together in the same tank :-? I know oscars and jags are good but i thought that convicts have a similar temperament and they are all around the same size 6-8cm. But I just got to get a new tank first. Anyone have an idea on what size tank would be best for these fish? I was thinking 1200x600x600 Also would it be better/cheaper/easier to buy or make the tank? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

i ended up just chucking them in the tank and the jag ate them real quick. don't think they hurt him. the wetas didn't have ant spines or anything. not sure what kind they were.

cheers

What about the jags, THEY should be ok eating them, they seem to eat anything as soon as it hits the water

ok thanks , ill let them go then. They are everywhere down here.

Is it ok to feed wetas to my Oscars and jags? found a few in my wood shed and was wondering if they would harm the fish or not?

thanks

you could put it in something large enough to shake it until the calcite goes to the top as it is a bigger grain, just like gold panning i guess. ive done this in a fishing tub to remove larger gravel from my pebble substrate. don't know how good it will work being so small. Just a suggestion.

well more like a slime ball but still had the same affect and looked cool. was hard to replant tho as it didn't hold to the sand very well. it grew in a silty muddy bottom in the lake.

Has anyone got any plants they don't want or any cuttings they want to share and send to me if possible? Anything that will go ok in 20-27deg water temp. Thanks.

i seen something similar in the lake down here when i was swimming last summer. it was a green ball of fuzz growing in the sand. So i grabbed 1 and put it in my tank and it grew for a few weeks but i was never bothered with it and ended up throwing it out.

will do, i know the right stuff, Thanks

thanks, ill try fix it tomorrow when the shops open so i can get some silicon sealant. ive just got towels around it for now. its leaking slowly so hopefully will be fine till then.

The water level has gone down in my tank over the weekend when i was away but i thought it had just evaporated from the heat of the lights. I should of know it was down too low. There is water coming out from underneath the tank so im guessing there has somehow developed a leak in the bottom somehow I have no other tanks to put the fish in either. The tank is around 80ltrs and has my 10 convicts in it, 2 of which have spawned. HELP! What should i do? I don't have the money to get another tank just yet and it takes a good week to repair a tank

the tank is around 80ltrs, very small. but the rest of the fish are the offspring of the male so he doesn't seem to mind them.

Today when i was feeding my fish i seen what i thought was a bug swimming in the water of my convict tank but when i had a closer look it was a tiny fry. They look a couple of days old already. There are about 10 or 12 from what i have managed to count. I have 1 big male around 10-12cm and 9 others around 4-6cm in the same tank. But the weird thing is that the female(mother of the fry) is the smallest in the tank around 3.5-4.5cm. she is in the hole looking after her babies with the male occasionally coming in to say hello Is this common as i thought i would have to wait around 6months for the smaller fish to mature before they could spawn?

Ok thanks, i think i might set up a plant tank to grow up my plants a bit bigger and then add them to my bigger tanks.

But does any1 know if added Co2 will affect the fish at all?

I have 2 x 30" 25W & 1 x 23.5" 20W I thought this would be enough...?