David R

Will some of the birds be released back into the wild, or will it be like the arowana farms in asia where Scleropages formosus are bred in their millions but are still critically endangered in habitat? And on this topic... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTsWjbjQ8E

certainly not a "standard green", looks like a female rotkeil with pale colouration. Could be a hybrid from Phil Collis, or could just be an unhappy fish or lousy photo?

I'm not sure how you figured that out when even at Auckland prices you could probably save $200 a week on rent plus shared expenses by moving into a room in an existing flat with other people (no idea what it would cost in wellington, but $150/wk is reasonable for a room the average parts of Auckland).

Welcome! It all sounds pretty good to me, just two things to point out; -What is the size of the tank? 215L Could have plenty of room for more cichlids or already be overstocked depending on if its a long and wide tank or a tall skinny hex. -Great to see someone making the effort to use Latin names, but the species name shouldn't have a capital letter. Eg Apistogramma cacatuoides, not Apistogramma Cacatuoides. Sounds like a great set up, I'd personally go with some whiptail catfish to keep with the South American theme. Looking forward to seeing pics.

Nice to see someone keeping firemouths, I was just thinking what a cool and often overlooked fish they are...

More dats? Pretty vague question really. How many dats are there? How long are they going to be in that tank for? Do you want tankmates for life or just something to help fill the tank up until they get a bit bigger?

Your bond can be transferred from one property to another so you don't have to pay a new bond before getting the old one back. If you got a cheaper place then you'd also get something back from the bond to go towards the carpet cleaning/letting fee of a cheaper place.

How big is this new tank?!

Average at Animates round two... :roll: Went to Henderson on Saturday morning and got great service from ATown and Morcs (despite his temporary incompetence in bag tying!). Went to Botany later that day and on a Saturday with a big sale on fish/plants they only had one "fish person" working and we had to wait ages to be served...

6x2x2' minimum, long-term.

For sure, there seems to be a rather disproportionate number of 8'+ tanks sold considering the number of silver arowanas sold in shops, nut IMO clown loaches would have to be right at the top of the most commonly ill-kept fish in terms of sheer numbers, probably only second to goldfish...

Quite possibly Rob, did you drop some off to Brian at the Goldfish Bowl? IIRC it was only around $30, which seemed quite cheap to me for a "fancy" pleco, which would also support the locally bred theory.

Its pretty sad really when you think of the number of clowns sold every year in fish shops then look at people like Emma Turner or some of the hardcore loach fans on MFK and realise just how few of them end up being kept in suitable set ups where they can reach their full potential. I bet most people don't even think that when they purchase a couple of those "cute orange and black stripy ones" that they're signing on for potentially over twice as long as the average cat or dog...

I currently have 30 clowns (~6 7-8" and the rest between 3-6") in a 150x70x60 tank, including several large females that frequently lay eggs. At that size they are pretty boisterous to the point where it makes feeding other tankmates difficult. Keeping them in a large group of 10+ is when you really start to see their social behaviour, and anyone who says they're alright in smaller groups has obviously never kept a larger group of them. That said I have kept them in various sized groups, including two ~4" together with no problems. Here's a video taken ~6 months ago, I will try to get a more recent one soon; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYxbPrsWvL4. Those 20 small clowns you have on hold will be absolutely fine in a 4x2x2 tank for a few years. In fact you could probably double that number for at least 12-18 months before you would want to upgrade the tank or start thinning them out. They will actually grow quite quickly from a small size up to around 5" provided they haven't spent a long time in a tiny tank at the LFS and been stunted. Good food and clean water are the keys to success, strong filtration with plenty of current is essential. Long-term they will need something longer than a 4' tank (6' minimum) to give them room to swim and keep them growing, but you've got a couple of years to get that sorted out. I think the biggest problem with the senegals as tankmates (assuming they're too small to eat the loaches) will be getting enough food to the sens once the loaches are larger. Within the next 12 months I plan on having a specific loach tank, which I will stock solely with the clowns and a school of fast and tough mid-level fish (appollo sharks would be nice, maybe rainbows?). I'm not sure if Charlie or the online stocking tool have ever kept clowns, so believe what you will Morcs, I'm just relay some personal experience..

Link??

I'd say raw is best, fish don't usually cook their food...

I was referring to the "my" part, I always thought that something wasn't "mine" unless I actually had it.

I use prime, as Phoenix said 5ml does the 200L barrel I use for water changes. That said I usually do 250-350L water changes and top the rest up straight from the tap with no hassles.

Pretty much sums it up for me too. Thats about the only time I buy fish from there, got any nice plecos?? :lol:

Slightly misleading title, will be watching this thread with great interest and anticipation...

I guess that means I found them? :-?

Mark I don't think he's using the overflow, he wants to be able to fill the tank up higher than the top of the tank. Go to Placemakers or bunnings and buy some Sellys Silicone (read the packet, one of them says "aquarium safe"), go see your local glazier and get a piece of glass cut to the right size, lower the water level sufficiently, silicone the piece of glass in place, leave it to dry, then fill and test. Oh, and get a time machine so you can go back in time and do it before you filled the tank up... :roll:

Wouldn't do anything as the 5mm mdf will provide ample diagonal bracing. I doubt if an ~80kg person jumping up and down will be any use in determining if it will support 500kg+ over a long period of time. I'm not sure if I'd risk it. Some close up photos showing the construction around the bottom (like the lower half of the second pic) would help, although it is hard with the ridiculously small size of pictures able to be posted here. IMO the biggest thing to look for is how the weight will be transferred from the base of the tank to the floor. In the second pic it looks like the "legs" are made from 2x2, is that right? How thick is the timber on the top, and how thick (or are there any) horizontal supports? The other thing I don't like is that the weight will be sitting on 8 feet rather than spread evenly over your timber floor. If it were me, and my hundreds of dollars worth of gear and fish at risk, along with the floor coverings/house, I wouldn't skimp on the stand...

Nice one Nav, how big is it??

Thanks Geoff, the pics on planetcatfish certainly look a lot more like mine, I'd say you're right about it being P. brevis.