David R

Its hard to judge a fishes adult personality by what its like as a juvenile, things often go crazy when they hit puberty. 3'x15x15 is way too small for even a single oscar, and you should probably be shopping for a bigger than sooner than in 6 months time. It's probably not a good idea to raise it by itself if you plan on trying to mix it with other fish at a larger size. I think one jewl and one firemouth might work in a 3' tank, but if one gets dominent over the other then be prepaired to seperate them. I had a 5" male convict in a 3'x18x18 tank, and he wouldn't share it with a similar sized firemouth. 3' isn't a big space for any CA cichlid to share.

Those are two possible uses, but I think [thought?] the main reason was to divert attention of aggressive fish away from each other.

Yes and no. No they're not going to rip anything within a 4' radius to shreds like an adult red devil, but they're not just going to swim aimlessly in circles like a school of rainbows or danios. From my experiences I'd rate sevrums on about the same level as uarus, they're not as mean as most CA cichlids, but they are still a cichlid. My only problem with giant danios is that the ones for sale in shops are always snack-sized. :lol:

How aggressive do your uaru's get when breeding Alan?

How big are the fish? I just trim the fat off, cut it into bite-sized chunks, defrost in warm water and hand-feed it to the dat, eel and bichir. Don't leave any floating around uneaten either!

Congo tetras too small. Sevrums are probably too aggressive.

I'm looking for suitable for some dithers as my pair of uaru have taken a dislike to my dat, and if they decide to breed then things are probably going to get worse. Night time doesn't seem to be too much of a problem, but the dat seems a bit more shy during the day and spends most of his time hiding under a large stump. I don't really want anything as big as tinfoil barbs or silver dollers, and I'm not going to spend $40 on a red lined torpedo barb, I just need something quick enough and big enough to avoid becoming asnack for the 30cm ornate bichir. How big do the bigger species of rainbow get? Any other suggestions? Failing that I guess I'll have to sell the uaru's.

I doubt it, I don't think it matters where they come from (unless they're CITES), if they're not on the list theyre not coming in.

It a shame that a lot of the fish not on the list are quite difficult to breed, and often quite scarce. I know there's other Polypterus here that aren't on the list, but finding one of them is hard enough, let alone a male and female of the same species...

How would one go about adding new fish to the list, if they're already here and have been for some time? Shows how up-with-the-play they are, they're still using the genus 'Cichlasoma'! At least "Cichlasoma" festae, such a cool fish, I wonder why I've never seen them for sale here...

I always use zucchini, I wouldn't make my fish eat something as disgusting as cucumber!!! :lol:

Good idea, except that most 'real' cichlids won't even fit in a 2L coke bottle, let alone through the narrow opening at the top! :lol:

You are assuming the authorities have common sense, and that they base their decisions on logic, and with help from those in the know, people involved with the industry/hobby etc. Instead of encouraging people to look after and breed native animals like gecko's, they put up barriers and make it difficult. Imagine if tuatara were being kept and bred to the same extent as bearded dragons, perhaps with a percentage of offspring being released into reserves. Instead they happily let people keep animals like red eared sliders, that are capible of living outside in warmer areas and actually have a chance at becoming an established pest, but they ban animals like amazon stingrays that are hard enough to keep alive in captivity, let alone in a cold muddy river in NZ. There are plenty of people who keep animals like gecko's without permits, simply because they can't be bothered with all the red tape and bureaucracy. I hate to think what would happen to the animals (and the responsible owners who look after them well) if they were found out by the authorities, common sense would play no part and we'd end up in a situation where the animals would probably be destroyed and the owner prosecuted for breeding and increasing an endangered species. :roll: If you don't mind me asking, why such an interest in our laws? Are you planning on moving here some time?

3 would be the bare minimum. I've got 4, whish I had more but LFS's don't seem to stock them big enough to avoid becoming a snack for my bichir.

One of each with enough space for them to have their own territory and it won't be a problem. Some dither fish might help too.

I've got some big pieces of wood, but they're all quite old and there was no sign of leaching. I checked my pH [after ignoring it for months] and it was bright yellow, off the chart!! I didn't bother trying to adjust it, it goes up to somewhere around 6-ish when I do a water change, and I've added a few big bits of coral to the sump which has seemed to stop it dropping so low.

Cool, I'll try to make it!

I've seen a large jag and red devil being kept with turtles at a shop in tauragna. It depends what kind of turtles I guess, damn I want a Fly River turtle...

When I moved from hamilton to whangarei I did just that, and took a few big containers of water with me, didn't rinse gravel or anything and it worked fine. However it was only a 180L tank. Sucks to lose that many fish though, I'm surprised about the convicts, I always thought they were tough as old boots.

When and where is the next one?

Haven't had much practice yet, my first lot of babies just hatched a couple of days ago! I think you feed them up on suppliments for around 12-24 hours before feeding them to the lizards, much longer than that and they'll die.

An actual pair, or just two babies?

Are locusts easier to breed than crickets? Any advantages in feeding locusts rather than crickets? From what I've read crickets are easier to gutload.

Trogdor

Water, bearded or TROGDOR?