David R

I'd soak it in a barrel of fresh water out site for some time (with regular 100% water changes), and depending on how delicate your fish are it might be a good idea to give it a quick soak in a weak bleach solution first.

Easier said than done! Hollywood have one senegal left, after thats gone you'll hard pressed to find any for sale anywhere, and AFAIK there isnt going to be more imported. I wish I'd bought more than one so I could try breeding them. They'll get too big for a 90L tank anyway, 30cm is for the smaller species....

$20 is well worth it on a nice day, the view from the top is awesome and the hike up takes less than an hour. As for rocks tho, you'll only find black scoria, and I don't think they'll be very happy about you taking some big chunks home. Dont be a tight a$$ and go somewhere like stone and water world where you'll have a heap to choose from and won't have to worry about being chased by doc workers or angry gardeners.

Define cool? Pantadon butterflys are a cool predatory smaller fish.

Boil it, or soak it in a weak bleach solution if you haven't got a pot big enough to boil it in. IMO you can't be too careful and I definatly wouldnt just "chuck them in".

I bet, how big is he?? I'm soooo kicking myself for not buying one when hollywood had them!!!!

Bisher = bichir? What kind is it? If ever you decide to sell it PM me!! I sucks having to sell fish when you move, I broke down my 5' tank and sold a 2' black aro and a 14" fire eel when I moved out of home, and regretted it ever since!!

And sadly none of them will be available here...

Favorite fish I'm currently keeping. Datnioides Sp. (pulcher, microlepis etc). My only regret is not buying 4-5 of them to grow up together! I love hand-feeding mine, even tho it sometimes scares the s**t out of me! Some cool videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHBhWz92lHU, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hx8jQii4RQ, and All-time favorite fish (one of them anyway) Osteoglossum ferrari, Black arowana. Boy do I regret selling mine! If ever I see another for sale, no matter how broke I am, how overstocked my tank is, how expensive it is, how angry my GF is I'm going to buy it!!!

Is anyone one here keeping one?? I'd really like one, but from what I've hear they are considerably more aggressive than other aro's and are really need a tank to themselves.

Not true, asian aro's are all commercially bred due to their Cites 1 rating. I'm guessing that the selective breeding to produce new/better colour strains results in a bit of inbreeding, which [to me anyway] would make them more prone to genetic defects. I highly doubt drop-eye is solely caused by having other fish in the tank, if that was the case why would it not affect other aro's and why does it only usually happen in one eye? I find it hard to believe that every silver aro in the world has the same genetic defect (I've never seen a large silver without it, and 9 times out of 10 its the left eye) but it may be the case, I'd be interested to see photos of large wild-caught fish to see if they have the same problem.

I had three, got four, theyre even happier and I want more of them! IMO three is a bare minimum, you don't really get to see any of the interaction or social behavior in smaller groups. Six or more is a better number.

I'm not so sure it is great for the aro, mice are high in fat which can cause drop-eye, and even if its not bad for them there is certainly more nutritious foods to feed them. I'd say if you're going to feed mice, feed the smaller pinkies that are easier to swallow and aren't covered in fur.

Bloody massive I'd imagine! My old one (at around 14") would eat 5 cubes of bloodworms a day. Wouldnt touch anything else at all.

Well worth signing up for, MFK has some amazing tanks/fish/keepers!

I was just looking at this on MFK last night, and look what I found!!! click *edit* and for those not signed up with MFK..... there's more pics there too!!

Get Richard to custom-make you something!!

Crickets, (altho our breeding program is still in its early stages, and theyre expensive from bio-supplies) and mealworms, only feeding them ones that have recently shed. Also loving beans, dandilions and the green pellets in the prepared food (won't touch the red or brown ones).

I'm not big on curved fronts, I dont like the way they look, and they're just an added cost. Would rather spend the money on a bigger 'normal' tank.

Perhaps you need to do some reading before buying fish, sounds like perfectly normal cichlid behavior to me.

I'm fully aware of the dominance issues, and we're keeping a close eye on them and making sure they're all getting plenty of food (being hand-fed individually, as well as having food on offer during the day). I've just had a close look at all three and can't see any signs of damage to anyones tail. The reason one looks slightly bigger and fatter is because he's a couple of weeks older and was from a seperate clutch (same father different mother). The pics were taken the day we got the second two, they were a little stressed after the move and didnt eat much for the first 24 hours. Now they're eating loads and have fattened up nicely. So far the only arm-waving I've noticed has come from the larger one. Just flicked their light on for a quick photo, who could resist with a cute pose like this!!

It nearly looks too big for the poor fish in the last photo!! Crickets are pretty easy to breed, I'm breeding them for our dragons, but my dats been getting a few too. Probably not quite as easy as mice, altho I'd much rather have an escaped cricket than a mouse!!

A couple of boxes of beer should help recruit enough strong blokes to help you lift it easily

I wouldn't count on it, a cricket thats been eating nothing but protein and vitamins for the past 12 hours is pretty good!! (altho you'd need a few crickets to make up the same volume of food as a mouse!)

They may love them, but I doubt theres much nutritional value in them, plus theres the risk of feeding them straight from the garden where they could be covered in sprays. If you want to feed insects use crickets (bought or bred, not wild caught), theyre better for them and can easily be gut-loaded.