David R

I'm sure the authorities would be so clueless they'd never even notice, even if they did try to correctly I.D them....

The shop was Jansens/Animates. I won't say any more or I'll get into trouble. :lol: From what I've found in NZ shops in general (and sadly a lot of hobbyists) don't bother to use/learn the latin names of fish. Anyway, there's more pics from that site I posted here. amazing tanks!!

Technically they're not geophagus, they belong to the genus Acarichthys, not Geophagus. They are closely related [thus sometimes being called threadfin earth eaters], and maybe once were lumped under the genus Geophagus? They look kinda like a surinamensis when young and badly photographed, but are quite different. They have a black and white patch on the top of their dorsal fin, the anal and pectoral fins are orange, and they have a black bar running thru their eye, which seems to disappear when they get older. If you have a look at some adult pics you can see how different they are. http://www.amazonasrochen.ch/pictures/a ... 010011.JPG http://www.amazonasrochen.ch/pictures/b ... 010025.JPG http://www.acara.be/mambophil/cpg132/al ... elii01.jpg http://www.wallpaperfishtalk.com/wallpa ... 000040.jpg http://213.180.95.58/artregister/artbil ... hansen.jpg The first two pics are from this page that I randomly found while looking for pics. Takes a while to load, but well worth a look, an amazing collection of amazon fish!!

I just picked up six of these from Hollywood Albany on the weekend. Really cool little fish, glad I've found them. Hollywood Mt Roskill and Jansens Mt Eden have some more (altho Jansens are $10 more and are labelled Geophagus). Just thought I'd share a few pics... Looking scared just after I had cleaned the glass Hanging out in the corner Action shot with three juvenile uarus digging into a cube of bloodworms with my big chocolate talking cat And lastly what I hope they'll look like in a year or two's time

aargh! I just went to check Rapp's site and whats the first thing I see!! Reckon I could pass them off as Uaru amphiacanthoides if I get them small enough? :lol:

A. they were for sale as part of a package with 3 huge dats, some other cichlids and a 6' tank. B. Transporting two foot long fish from napier to auckland would have been a pain C. the guy didn't want to separate, and transporting all that from napier was too much hard work, especially considering that I wasn't set up to keep them. I'll try redwoods, do they deal with certain suppliers, or will they go where ever I tell them? Jeff Rapps has some wonderful fish that are on the list and I'd love to order some if enough people were keen to pay the money for quality fish.

I was refering to the OP, VinsonMassif. Wok 4 hours to napier from auckland will more than likely end you up in trouble with the law...

PIKE CICHLIDS!!! Crenicichla. They're on the list, I saw two for sale in Napier a while ago, but thats the only time I've heard of them in NZ.

I'm going next weekend as I'll be in Napier for a car club thing. OT, but did you say you did a day trip from Auckland to Napier?!?!!!

Definitely a jag.

Thats not the one I saw at Gregs when I picked up my big tank is it?

There's an alligator at auckland zoo, don't think there's crocks tho.

Of course, obviously you shouldn't try mixing an oscar, a school of neons and a yellow tang. :lol:

Only to a certain degree. Big fish are like people, they all have different personalities. ANY mixture of large fish is trial and error, no matter how well they seem to get along, its always a bit of an experiment that requires constant monitoring. Research can give you an idea of what might/might not work, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and try it, doing all you can to increase the chances of success, but at the same time preparing for the worst.

Aww, thats just a tidler! Check this out!! Is there more than one species of "african knife", are we talking about Xenomystus nigri? I wish more fish people used latin names... :lol: Henward, all I can suggest is that if you're going to try something that may not work out, that you have the ability to separate the fish if things go bad. Fishkeeping is all about trial and error, as Mystic found out with her dats and aro. Sometimes things that shouldn't work out do, and sometimes things that should work out don't.

The only time I've had problems with a dat being aggressive towards other fish is when its by itself. When kept in groups they tend to squabble amongst themselves and not bother other large fish. There will always be exceptions though. Another thing, keep an eye on the flagtail with the polys, mine is good so far, but there have been cases where they decide bichir slimecoat tastes better than algae and start rasping them. Lastly, I'll third the 'no pacu's' notion. IMO they are a fish that should NEVER be stocked by fish shops, and unless you measure the volume of your tank in tens of thousands of gallons you shouldn't be considering keeping them.

Well the tank is big enough to try a community of silvers, at least for a while anyway. I'd suggest three at the minimum, all the same size, grown out together from juveniles. A large male jag could work, would have enough room for his own territory. Why not get 3+ ornates instead of the senegals and grow them out to go on the bottom of the 8' tank?

Have you tried beef heart and/or frozen cichlid tucker yet?

My feedback: 1. forget the giant gouramis. I hate them! They're big ugly and boring, and can sometimes be quite aggressive. Why anyone would want to keep one is beyond me, even the red tailed ones are ugly. I'm not sure about this, but maybe keeping two together could also cause trouble? 2. The ornate and flagtail will both out-grow the 4' tank, as will the dats, eventually. Where does the jardini fit in with all of this?

Definitely not, I paid $130 each for the first three small ones HFF got in about 5-6 months ago. They're great fish, just keep an eye on the smaller fish in your community, young ornates grow pretty fast and have big mouths and even bigger stomachs....

Cicadas are all hard shell and no goodness, might as well feed them plastic. I'd think they would do best on a staple diet of high quality pellets (hikari cichlid gold) and frizen cichlid tucker, and a wide variety of occasional treats. Just as long as they don't get too fussy! I remember reading [years ago] about oscars being prone to HITH and needing a vitamin-rich diet to help prevent it.

I'll get a square and strait edge from work today and check the stand tonight. Hopefully the place that made it will be able to give me some small steel offcuts if it needs to be shimmed.

Good idea. I haven't bought the plywood yet (does anyone know of a joinery supplies place that will cut it to the size I need rather than charging for a full 8x4 sheet?), I was planning on following the method Warren [i think] outlined, where you put a big bead of liquid nail around the top of the stand, the put the ply on, then the poly and tank and partially fill it while the glue is wet so it gets squashed level. What could I use to shim the legs with? Is wood too soft?

I was originally planning on putting it in the garage, but the floor seems very uneven in there, I moved the stand around all over the place and it varied from being nearly level to about 8mm out. I guess they slope the floor of the garage to allow water to drain from cars, washing machine etc. I would expect the floor in the spare room to be pretty level though, short of lifting the carpet to check the actual concrete underneath, how can I tell if its the stand or the floor that is uneven?

So, has he settled in enough for a pic or is he still camera shy?? Any other interesting new fish to take photos of?