David R

Is that an insult or complement?

Thanks Vinson :oops: It looks like an American Tiger, so it won't end up looking like the Indo in the second pic. Should be a more silverish colour and with thinner parallel bars. Every AT I've seen is a pig and will eat pellets with no proplems, try get it onto something like Hikari sinking cichlid gold asap, then onto massivore or another quality carnivore pellet when its big enough. I've just got a little one too and it eats massive amounts of food for a fish its size. Yours looks a little skinny, but should fatten up in no time! AT's usually only get to around 30cm, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your tank size...

It will be interesting to see how they turn out, I saw Henwards ones yesterday and they aren't showing any red yet, except for in the anal fin. They are still small though. The 5 juvi's I have (from an unknown source I will add, dropped off at HFF Albany as "severums", so there possibly someone with a breeding pair) are colouring up nicely, although they're ~8-10cm so I'm not going to count my chickens... I'm not going to claim the moral high ground with regards to this topic. Some might say its unethical to sell hybrids using an internet picture of an exceptionally coloured male (especially when 90% of pure rotkeils won't have that much colour), but others would not. Some would deplore the idea of doing such a cross and clogging the market with mutts, others would say let the market speak for itself. I have my opinions, Phil has his, and I'll leave it at that.

Anywhere between 2-3' at that age...

Aggressive? No. Predatory? Yes. There's quite a difference...

:lol: :roll:

Will be fine if you acclimatise it gradually. Its done all the time on MFK, not uncommon to see them with all sorts of other fish. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=262458 Kept with a leichardti arowana, Pbass, Uaru, Grammodes, flagtail etc, and they look like they're thriving...

I'm sure they'll spawn again soon, let me know when you've got some fry.

You're right Vinson, but I think the issue here is what they fish are called, rather than a 'hybrids vs wild types' debate.

How are the fry doing Paul? Henward and I were both looking for small jags a while ago...

I'm clueless on peacocks, but I know those are wise words. It is much better to admit you aren't sure than to pass on information that is an educated guess [at best]. Claiming that a fish is a regional variant of a species when it has been captive bred for countless generations is a bit far fetched IMO...

The problem with the current approach is that it drives everything underground. I bet there is loads of stuff here that shouldn't be, NZ has a huge coastline and I bet there have been countless reptiles/birds/fish/god only knows what else smuggled in, carrying all sorts of unknown and unwanted diseases/parasites etc. The current system is a joke, and its based on one thing only (and its not protecting the wildlife....)

Nice! How big is it? How do the senegals manage to get any food with all the clowns in there?

How big are they?

An albino hedgehog would be awesome!!! They are so cute Only thing cooler would be an albino peacock

IMO the best approach would be to heat/dechlorinate/soften the water in a big barrel before doing a water change. I'd set the barrel up with an airstone, heater and a stocking full of peat, fill it up after doing a water change so its got X days until your next one to warm up and for the pH to drop, treat it with Prime to remove chlorine, and then either use buckets or a pump to fill the tank back up after a water change. If you don't want the colour you could run carbon in the filter in your tank. Another option would be to collect rain water, which should be softer. Or you could just say that its close enough, do smaller more frequent changes (~30%) and let it sort itself out. That will be the best way to keep it constant, which the fish might actually prefer...

Gold fish, and all carp in fact, are lousy feeders, something to do with something in them that stops thyamine (???) being absorbed. Do a search on MFK about it, there was a lot of discussion recently. BDG, the ornate and oscars shouldn't need feeders, and the dat should be able to be pellet trained if its small.

My word, how many times has alanmin4304 gone over the whole chlorine thing and yet here we are having the same old conversation... viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25846 viewtopic.php?f=4&t=36035&p=394279 viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30431&start=15 viewtopic.php?f=4&t=35656 In short, chlorine doesn't really evaporate, it just changes into something equally as harmful. That said, many people [myself included] use dechlorinator at a lower dose or not at all and seem to get away with it...

How long has it been in the tank and what else is in there?? I feed mine just on lights out and make sure there's a few big bits of shrimp floating around the bottom when the lights go off, and they're usually gone in the morning and the ornate has a budge in his stomach. I haven't actually seen him eat anything for years...

Sajica are as prolific as cons, not quite as nasty and better looking IMO.

Fish aren't people, they eat for sustenance not for enjoyment. Get it 100% onto quality pellets (Hikari food sticks, massivore, etc) then start offering the occasional treat (shrimp, meal worms, crickets etc but NOT feeders) and if it ever starts to turn its nose up at pellets then cut the treats for a week. The last thing you want is a fussy 2' fish that will only eat live/meaty foods. I feed my green aro a 50/50 mix of pellets (am) and shrimp (pm), but if ever it turns its nose up at the pellets after a feed of shrimp it gets starved for 24 hours until its happy with pellets again. Treat em mean keep em keen, just ask Henward... (oh snap)

I imagine they'd be quite boring, they wouldn't do much. Low maintenance though. I think I'll stick to fish...

Seen it happen more than once with big bichirs, they're lazy and will ignore smaller fish if well fed, but when you go on holiday and don't feed them for a few days......

If you're planting it lightly then some dwarf cichlids/apistos with a school of tetras and some corys would be nice. If you're going for a full-on planted tank I'd just have a large school of one species of tetra.

I find that hard to believe, you'd think there would be some on trademe if he had that many. The fry are serious cannibals, maybe thats what he meant...