David R

or feed the africans to the jags :lol: It could be interesting if some of the fry escape and end up surviving...

Uaru's don't just eat plants, they eat driftwood too! I doubt you'll have much luck, the closest I've come to success was with some big old bits of java fern that they usually ignored if they were well fed, but even then half of the new leaves would get nibbled/destroyed. Stick to hard landscaping, rocks, wood etc.

Not necessarily. It may be that no one has ever bothered naming them, or even considered it as a 'dwarf form' (instead of just runts) because people who keep those kind of fish would usually prefer larger growing ones, and consider smaller ones inferior. If you went collecting large cichlids in central america would you keep the biggest ones you found, or the smaller ones? Regardless, I think he's full of sh!t and the fish are just stunted. He could have selectively bred them, but I doubt he's grown out a hundred jags to adult size, and picked the smallest ones to breed from, then done it again, and again.

This is probably a bad choice of forum to ask as there would be very few people with any real knowlege of snakes. I'm not sure about snake/reptile specific forums, but www.monsterfishkeepers.com have a herp subforum, and there will be plenty of people there who keep snakes and can point you in the right direction. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... y.php?f=25

The latin/scientific part of the name will be the same. If it is a variety (eg dwarf form from a selected reigon, as opposed to a valid subspecies) then it should be written as Altolamprologus compressiceps 'Mbita Pearl', with single quotations around the english/non-latin words. The single quote marks around the Mbita Pearl are what signifies a selected variety, instead of a valid subspecies, which would be latin-ised (with an i or ae etc on the end) and written after the species name in lower case. AFAIK forms/varieties etc have don't have to be accepted/classified as such, unless you were trying to name it as a valid subspecies. Anyone could go to Lake Tanganyika and catch some Fronts from a certain point on the lake, and call them C. frontosa 'Rocky Point'. I'll double-check this with my boss tomorrow as he's far more clued up with latin than I am.... :lol:

They shouldn't do that anyway. If you know what you're doing and have the right sized tank they should grow to 40cm [males] and co-exist with their similar-sized tankmates. :lol:

If they're only a dwarf form then their latin name will still be the same. It could be that somewhere in central america their is a reigonal form of P. managuense that only grows to a smaller size because of different conditions, but if there is I've never heard of it, and I highly doubt he's got some. As for the male staying smaller than the female!?

They can put on around 1" per month (maybe even more) under ideal comditions, so in a years time you could easily have a 14"-18" fish.

What about a Tanganyikan community? You could have fish like Neolamprologus brichardi, N. leilupi, N. sexfasciatus, Tropheus, etc, giving you more variety than a malawi tank that might just look like the same fish with different paint jobs. When I had mine set up I had them (and some electric yellows and clown loaches) with java fern and they didn't seem to bother it.

Me neither! Infact I might just say yes

2-3 years in good conditions. Start saving for a big tank!

Clown knives max out at around 3'. Usually a bit smaller in captivity but could still be pushing 24" in a couple of years. 6'x2'x2' would be the minimum IMO, and even that would probably be too small to keep them for life. On the other hand you could probably keep one senegal for live in a tank with a 3'x18" footprint.

I'll be interested to see what they look like, I'm no connoisseur of arowanas, but I thought that price was pretty cheap for a red, especially considering its nearly half what jansens were selling golds for. I Imagine top grade reds would go for much higher than $3k, you could probably blow the deposit for a house on a really nice one! Regardless of their colour, I'd still love to own one as they're amazing fish.

Definitley need other stuff too, not to mention bloodworms will be expensive [and messy!] when it gets big. Mine get discus tucker, chopped beef heart, prawn, hikari carnivore pellets and shrimp pellets. Get them used to a varied diet when they're young, and don't let them get fussy!

I think evil-elmo might know something about those red aro's...... Do you have an arrival date yet Phil??

So do fire eels, pictus cats and BGK's. Get rid of the yellows, they're really the odd-one-out, and keep the other more interesting fish. :lol: I'd leave out the pantadon, angels and tyre track eel. Two eels together could cause problems when they get bigger. Maybe get a few more clown loaches as they do better in large groups. *edit* BTW the correct spelling is ctenopoma

Ah, way before TradeMe then! Wonder if they're still around, they can be quite long-lived from what I've heard...

Sounds like a good idea. What are the dimentions of your 300L tank?

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... .php?f=108 Have a read of the Polypterus Introduction and Primer there, loads of useful info. Depending on the dimensions, the 300L tank will be OK for a few years. Their growth can vary, one person on MFK had one that went from 3" to 11" in six months!! Plan for about 10-12" in the first year, a slower after that. IMO keeping them in smaller tanks is going to lead to them feeling more confined and will increase the chance of them trying to get out. Another thing to consider is that you may be better of with more [or less]. Two is often a bad number for big fish (think dats, arowanas etc) as one becomes dominant and the other gets picked on.

Did you sell them on trademe a couple of years ago? I remembre seeing an auction and just wishing I had the tankspace! Any pics??

Electric yellows are pretty coomon and easy to breed, but you might still be able to get a little bit for the fry (wouldn't be making a profit tho). Rare/expensive discus are a bit more challenging to breed, but the babies are worth more. Convicts and common and breed easily, and the fry are almost impossible to give away. Arowanas are expensive to buy and require a huge set up to breed, but you could make a lot of money with good colour strains.

I doubt they were actual P. bichir bichir. I've seen a couple of lower-jaw species here, I think the one at Jansens silverdale was P. endlicheri congicus, and I've seen a P. Bichir lapradei before. P. bichir bichir is still very rare in the hobby anywhere in the world. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... hp?t=81664 "in terms of rarity, ansorgii is still the rarest. and i believe there are still less ansorgii (and maybe teugelsi) in japan than bichir bichir. in fact, the japanese began importing bichir bichir some time around 2002-2003, at least thats the earliest i read about, and i read that there are only about 60-70 specimens total imported from the beginning till the end of 2006, so they are by no means common. the japanese were able to get them because they went to east africa themselves to collect them, and at least one company has operation in that region. i think a major reason why they're very hard to get is the fact that they're from East africa. there are reports of them in central africa, but lapradei has a wide distribution in west and central africa. given the two subspecies can look a lot alike, its hard to say whether reports of them in central africa is accurate or not. BUT lapradei is NOT cited in east africa. having said that, a lot of africa is in regional conflicts, and that definitely doesn't help. also some countries might not allow export of indigenous species, which limits where they can be exported from. so they're for sure found in east africa, but problem is there don't seem to be many collectors/suppliers in that region (at least not like west/central africa). those that are probably don't deal with and don't know much about bichirs."

Easy to breed means there's lots of people breeding them and you won't get much (if anything) for the fry. If you want something worth breeding (for the money you'll get for the fry) you'll need something thats either hard to breed, or something rare that no one else is breeding.

Cool, post some pics in the rare fish forum! I'd be tempted to buy that one on TradeMe but I havent got space for a 5' single-specimen tank!!

Yeah sometimes it looks like its got a little bit of a droop around it. :-?