David R

Just to clarify; when you say "i want to build a..." do you mean "I want to get an experienced tank maker to make me an..." or are you actually going to build it yourself? :-?

Concrete would make the water too hard unless it was really really old. The few reports of potential spawning behavoir observed in the home aquarium have been in acidic water. More info on CL breeding. Just remembered I had a few pictures of my biggest, taken about 8 months ago. http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k186/ ... ach1-1.jpg http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k186/ ... ach2-1.jpg

The only confirmed captive breeding is hormone/chemically induced, there is a story about a guy who supposedly spawned them naturally and raised the fry, but despite giving them [fry] away to many people not one person has come forward to confirm the story, so its most likely a myth. I'd put money on it that no one in NZ has even come close to spawning them. I've got 26 from 4 to 20cm, should try to take some pictures once their tank is set up properly with substrate.

Some fish (polypterus, discus for example) secrete hormones that are intended to stunt the growth of competing fish, so when growing them out together regular water changes to remove such chemicals are important. But generally speaking, if your nitrite/ammonia are undetectable and the nitrate below ~30ppm you're wasting your time doing more water changes IMO.

I agree with Duncan, they should be fine in your set up, I've got a 13" and a 5" IT in with geophagus, uaru, ornate and my green aro. One of the biggest things would be to try find ones with good colour and that eat pellets, my big one only eats shrimp and its a bit of a pain.

If people buy them that is, will be interesting to see what the going rate will be considering none of the "super-keen" people are willing to buy the ones at Hollywood, or even make an offer...

Well everything survived the move and the tanks are all set up, big heart-stopping moment though when the green aro nearly jumped out of the bin after being caught! I'll post a proper update on the MFK thread in the next day or two.

Post those pics in this thread, should get a good reaction! How BIG is Your BIGGEST MONSTER

Monster!!!

Haha! I've done a lot of weighing up, one huge tank vs several "medium" sized ones, and decided that given the wide range of fish I'm interested that the 3 ~6' is a much better option, despite the much larger risk of being tempted to expand...

They [the fish in those photos] are definitely most likely a mix of Amphilophus labiatus and citrinellus (red devil/midas). That is about as definite as you can get unless the fish come with a habitat collection source from a reputable seller, and anyone who tells you otherwise is kidding themselves. If you're going to sell them I'd suggest calling them either midas cichlid or red devil, Amphilophus Sp.

Well I'm not going to do multiple posts every time I update it, so if you want to follow it you'll have to do it on MFK. David R's Fishroom Thread - Monsterfishkeepers.com Not too exciting, yet. Got our house this weekend, carpet is up and first big tank delivered, more pics will be added later this week when the stand shows up.

Nice! Getting them enough food with all the hungry clowns could be a problem though.

Interesting, we're having a similar problem to bulldogod, just can't seem to get rid of the damn things!!

Just wondering how you figured out the copper was causing trouble? How do you test the copper levels in the water? The place we've just bought has a brand new garage, and new copper pipe going to the tap I was planning on using to fill my tanks! The house is 40 years old, so perhaps the water from the old pipes will be safer? How did you get around it? I'm planning on setting up rainwater tanks as soon as money allows, but it won't be for a while yet.

Another great example of vermin being kept as pets, yet I still can't have my stingrays... :evil: :evil:

If ferrets should be banned then cats should too. :evil:

If your stand distributes the load evenly then 300L shouldn't be a problem.

Any wild types?

+1 Talk to a good LFS (not sure who in Christchurch) and they should look after you. (Free plug for Hollywood Fish Farm in Auckland who are doing just that for me with my new 800L set up) That way you can get everything to your exact specification, the shape of the tank, the design of the stand etc etc. Most of those off-the-shelf tanks are taller than they are wide, which IMO is useless for anything but angelfish. What are you going to keep in it?

Unless you regularly test your water parameters you're just guessing....

What about jelly babies? Offensive to "coloured" people everywhere?

As pink and yellow marshmallow people with an average height of 2"? :roll:

My bad, didn't realise they weren't on the list! There are other examples though, fish that could be imported but aren't.

What do you do for a living? I take it you're self-employed or work in a industry suffering severe downturn from the recession (ie commercial construction) where large numbers of people are being laid off. Half the problem with the recession is that average joe wage earners who aren't in any immediate financial trouble get spooked by the media and stop spending money, which only makes things worse. Economics lesson aside, if it weren't for the recession would you still be arguing the same point? Frivolous? I never suggested buying rare fish at the expense of your weekly food budget, obviously if you can't afford it then you can't have it, thats just a simple fact of the hobby. But don't hate the shops/importers for charging a high price for rare fish just because you're not willing to pay it. And what is a fair price? Do you know what those $165 fish cost the retailer/wholesaler? You're making a big assumption by presuming that because they're expensive they have a big mark up on them. I know for a fact that more expensive fish don't have the same mark up (as a percent) as cheaper fish. That is only true to a point. There may be a few rich people who just want to show off to their friends but spending loads on fish doesn't automatically put you in that category. I'd say the bulk of people spending big dollars on fish are very committed, and I can't help but think you're being a bit of a typical kiwi tall-poppy-chopper. I might spend a lot on fish, but I work damn hard for my money and have made choices and sacrifices so that I can do so. I guess for you it must just be a hobby, but for some of us its a passion....