David R

NLS community, colourbits, flake, sinking cichlid gold, carnivore pellets, sinking cichlid excel, etc etc.

Yeah the sharp buts don't go away with age unfortunately. We ended up putting our cat down because she became too aggressive towards my other half, had some serious behavioural issues. Will never own another...

In a tank like that they should grow steadily, up to about 6" in 2-3 years. Whats your water like? temp/pH/KH etc? They like it warm, soft/acidic and fast flowing, so it may be a matter of compromising between what the fronts prefer and the clowns. You won't be the first to pull it off though, it may not be ideal for either species but it is do-able. ps. the big ones at HFF are my old ones.

I've done two weeks before no worries, was thinking about trying four weeks when we go away in May but I will get the house-sitter to feed 1-2 times a week just to stop them losing too much condition.

I used to have a 5x2x2' in my bedroom years ago when I lived at home, heavily stocked (black aro, big eel, uarus, loaches etc), filtered with a sump (open topped) and I never noticed any odour. Perhaps I've got a weak sense of smell? I'd suggest doing larger water changes if you're tank is smelling that bad, and leave the windows slightly ajar 24/7.

I can vouch for those clowns being great snail eaters, they'll sort your problem out!! Don't bother stripping the tank, the clowns will sort it out eventually, may take a little while to start with as they are small and your tank is heavily infested, but once they get on top of it you'll never see another snail. They will survive in your filters/sump and in tiny crevices, and if you remove the loaches they will come back. Only way to get rid of them completely is to sterilise everything. I've had canisters that have been on tanks with loaches for years, then when moved to another tank with no loaches the snails soon appear....

Feed it up then leave it, it will be fine. Feeding it less before hand won't get it "used to" not eating, will just deplete the reserves that will help it get thru the fasting period.

Yeah tell me about it, been doing 8.30pm til ~5am for the past few days! Congrats to you both!!

Have you ever smelled the water that comes out of a dirty canister after its been sitting around for more than a couple of hours? Unless you're planning on cleaning it every morning before you turn it on then you're going to pollute your tank very quickly... Either A; buy a quality filter that is going to be quiet, or B; get used to sleeping with it running.

and could get hold of some....

I think you're thinking of Gymnogeophagus balzanii. I'd love to get my hands on some of them even more than the heckelii!!

I've found it varies considerably, its like once a year they buy up just about everything on the list then leave it for another 12 months. Sometimes there's an amazing selection of fresh and marines, sometimes there's not much and its all looking a bit sad. Certainly worth a visit though if you're inthe area. Shame Goldfish Bowl in Hamilton isn't open on a Monday...

I'll be interested to see how it goes. I've spent many hours pondering the workings of such systems, and in my head it I always find it hard to imagine that such a small trickle in/out would be enough to have an effect on the water quality compared to changing the same total volume of water in bigger chunks once a day/week. Keep us updated!

Are you sure? IIRC they haven't been available very frequently over the past few years, prior to this lot I only recall seeing them twice at HFF, once about 6 months ago and once about 3 years ago. Its easy to confuse them with small Geophagus altifrons, which most LFS seem to have fairly regularly. I picked up four today, forgot how cute they are when they're little. Still miss my two big ones;

pH is a measure of how acidic your water is, KH and GH will tell you about the hardness [or lack of]. My tanks all have a similar GH/KH to the tap water, but the tap water is pH >8.6 and the tanks range in pH from <6.0 to about 7.6......

oi there better be some left for me!!! :facepalm:

So how close are we to extracting all the coal and oil and gas from the earth? Nowhere near it. Will we rape and pillage the planet until every last drop is squeezed out, or will we have the common sense to draw the line somewhere and focus on renewable technologies? The almighty dollar will always wins, and as easily accessible supplies dwindle prices will rise and it will become more economically viable and appealing to go after the stuff that was previously considered too hard to get. I really doubt there will be a smooth and peaceful transition to other energy sources as coal and oil run low, not with the power, money and political leverage held by big oil companies.....

Nice! How big? Would be good to see them bred here and more readily available.

Never going to happen, ever. Its not human nature...

The fish you have are already more than enough for the 245L tank IMO, the brasiliensis pair will both get close to a foot each and the common plec will get massive. Dems and yellows will go nicely in your new tank, just get rid of your current fish...

The need to protect the environment needs to be balanced with the need for the country to prosper. If NZ can once again become one of the wealthiest nations because of a huge deposit of oil off the coast then its certainly worth looking into IMO, but it also needs to be taken in a way that minimises the risk and impact on the environment. Unfortunately very few people seem to think there can be a balance between the two and usually only care about one or the other... :roll:

I'm heading up over easter, might be able to sort something out?

Doubt it, how thick is it compared to your tyre track? You know how big their mouths are....

Depends how large the eel is and how small the loaches are!!

+1, saw it last time it was listed and told him what it was, didn't seem to take it on board though.