David R

Jansens at silverdale sell fish? :lol: Last time I was there their fish room was half the size of what it used to be, the big tank that once had an asian aro and a big bichir now had goldfish, and the selection of fish was boring, minimal and in poor shape. I won't bother again.

In Gisborne? :-?

You must be keeping them too well fed!!

I'm not surprised the feeders survived, the aro's would have to be quick to get them before the disappear into the jungle!!

I presume that part is referring to timber flooring? I had a 5'x2'x2' on a timber floor years ago, and be stand was made with 4x2, but with 6x2 on its edge across the bottom to spread the weight over the joists evenly.

More pics Phil!!!! Its a teaser because very soon evil_elmo is going to stop teasing and start posting some pics of his ~1000L arowana community tank!!

My small ones are like that too, even the little AT hides quite a bit now.

Given how flexible customwood is I'd be sceptical at just how much it helps spread the load. The tank is going on a concrete floor in the garage, so how much does the weight need to be spread out? I haven't seen a design, he might put a ring around the bottom, I'm not sure. He was recommended to be by Greg/tanks2u as someone who'd built them before and knows what he's doing, so I guess [hope] I'm just being paranoid.

Heh, mine just swallows whole cubes, no mess. The loaches love it tho, so nothing goes to waste.

I've ordered it in steel already, so too late for stainless or aluminium. Its being primered and painted in a proper spray booth (not some ghetto back-yard spray can job) so hopefully will last a long time. Second question (I know I'm not an engineer but...) the guy said he'll make it out of 25mm box section, this is for a 630L tank, so the stand is 150 long, 70 wide and 90 high, with six legs. I didn't think it sounded strong enough, and suggested that to him. Does that sound right, or not strong enough?

Powder coated or painted? Which is more durable, and which will prevent rust better?

I'm making a new tower for the sump for my new 5' tank, I'm going to enlarge the chamber for bio media so some is permanently under water and some is above water with the water flowing over it. I usually just run a single piece of filter wool and change it often, but this tank is going to have some big messy fish (dats, ornates etc) so I'm thinking about running something coarse as a washable pre-filter for the filter wool. So for those running sumps, how do you have your mechanical filtration set up? Any suggestions?

If you can get a group of 8"+ loaches so the aro doesn't eat them they should be fine. I'll show you some pics of mine in about 10 years time. :lol:

I'm not sure how oscars got the reputation for intelligence, IMO they're no smarter than any other large ca/sa cichlid.

^ thats my large ones favourite food.

I wouldn't resort to feeders just yet. What foods have you tried the indo on? I wouldn't put the silver in there unless both dats are eating well and you can feed them up so they're not hungry enough to bother with the aro.

Maximum sizes to expect and ultimately cater for in captivity would roughly be 3'+ for a silver, 2.5-3' black, 2' asian/jardini. Have a read of this and have a browse of the MFK arowana forum. Realistically tho, unless you're loaded and can afford an asian, or are lucky enough to pick up a jardini, you've got a choice of silver or silver.

Arowana? Well a jardini or an asian would be fine in that size tank for life, a black would eventually out-grow it but it could take a while, and a silver would probably be ok in there for 2-4 years.

I don't think any of those fish will be much more than an expensive snack... :lol:

They don't pee so the white stuff in their poo is just like the white stuff in bird poo, its what they do instead of peeing.

Mine gets fussy if I feed it frozen discus/cichlid tucker for too many days in a row and I have to starve it for a few days before it'll take prawn.

I'd say they have it sorted who's dominant and who's submissive so they don't need to fight, just reinforce it every now and then.

*edit* oops. I forgot we're not allowed to post links to TradeMe even if its not something we're trying to sell and its related to the topic-at-hand. :roll: There is a breeding pair of african greys on TradeMe right now for $12k, it shouldn't be hard to find [but I'd better not post the link anyway!] just go to the category 'Birds' and sort by highest price. Seems like a good price to me considering that three chicks would more than pay for the cost. If only I was loaded and had my own place etc....

I saw it at the shop this morning and it was looking a lot more active and healthy than thelast time I saw it, maybe excited about going to its new home... :lol: Congrats, it looks great with the red substrate. However, I just noticed how close your filter intake is to the ground, the bichirs could easily stir up the sand so it gets sucked into the filter, I'd suggest you lift it up so its closer to the surface.

Doubt its mating considering that they're two different species (D. pulcher and microlepis). Mine does the twitching thing sometimes. Most likely just sorting out the pecking order.