David R

I just paid $1.70 a litre for diesel, I think you'd have to bring a whole lot of wood back to cover the cost of gas from Auckland to Wanganui and back!!

Road trip Scott????

Interesting point, but as you said I think its pushing things a bit. Firstly we get very few fish (or none?) wild caught straight from the river/habitat. The ones that are wild caught and not captive bred would have been in captivity long enough to pass any seeds they had in them. As nice as it would be, with our restrictive and outdated list its hardly feasible to go on a collecting trip to the amazon/africa hoping to catch a species that happens to be allowed. And second, as you said, very few of our imports would be big enough to carry seeds...

Good plan!

Did you look at the link I posted? P. costatus is the one the rest of the world calls "chocolate" (not sure where NZ got mixed up) and I don't recall ever seeing them here, and the one we call "chocolate" and the rest of the world calls striped/humbug is P. armatulus. Can't comment on the snail eating thing though, all the ones I've kept were total recluses who wouldn't eat for weeks then suddenly appear and eat sinking pellets until they looked ready to explode and then go back into hibernation. Cool fish, but not particularly exciting to keep.

Any reason why you're not going to leave them with the parents?

But then you'll end up reducing the flow so much it doesn;t suck up the big bits of waste (depending on how big your fish are!). Best thing to use is a hose with a piece of rigid PVC in the end so you have more control and don't need to get up to your elbow in the tank. You'll never be able to thoroughly vacuum it like you do with gravel, you just suck the crap off the top, stir it, let it settle and repeat.

there was 8 of them. I'm not sure, could find out if you want. Seems how this thread is being dragged up, might as well tell everyone I managed to find another black aro! Its 12-13" so straight into the big tank, yes the overflow is blocked. Will get pics in a few days.

Tropical + cold water in the same section = epic power bill? Just a thought...

Try looking for the names that actually mean something, ie Latin. http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/ge ... _id=75#166

Sucks Ryan, any idea what the disease was? Goes to show it always pays to treat new fish with caution....

Beagles are good, but you really have to watch them with their noses. Once they pick up on a scent then thats it, ears switch off and they're gone. They are also stubborn and take a lot of training. Check out Italian Greyhounds if you're into smaller dogs, they're a little nervous but have a nice personality and are pretty cute. Saw a whole bunch of them at the park a while ago...

Sorry, they went yesterday!!

So that means its not going to happen in the future? I've got no idea what the wood looks like, but clowns are notorious for getting stuck in "nooks and crannies", maybe they haven't yet but as they grow the gaps will become tighter and the chances of a fish getting stuck increase. It happened to me, I had an awesome hollow log about 3' long with various holes in/out of it, was a fantastic hiding place for 10 small clowns, but a couple of years later they were getting badly scratched from wedging in there so tightly. Eventually it got to the point where the first one in couldn't get out unless the ones behind it backed out, so I had to remove the log. Wasn't easy shaking them all out of there, they squeeze in pretty tight! I'd suggest using some flat pieces of schist to make some caves they can't get stuck in, or PVC pipes if you don't mind how they look.

Mutts aren't immune from those problems, in fact they're potentially worse as they can inherit different defects from each parent! Edited. I agree completely, small dogs don't need any less exercise, time, socialisation or attention to big dogs. We regularly take our two (beagle/foxy cross and hungarian vizsla) to Waitarua dog park and its not uncommon to see them playing with little terriers, dobermans, small fluffy mutts, labs and german shepherds all at the same time. A dog is a dog, no matter how big or small......

Sounds like you really need to clown-proof your tank before you lose any more......

Yeah I still have them, they're in a 3' holding tank with no lights so not particularly easy to get pics of sorry. It was entirely my fault with the leucosticta, the 5' tank was about pH 6 and the 8' was 7.5, I should have (and did after that) buffer the 5' slowly with some coral instead of trying to acclimatise the fish over such a big increase.

Have you got plenty of cover for them in the tank? How close is the intake to the bottom of the tank?

Haven't got one any more, lost my male, about 16cm, by not acclimatising slowly enough [i think]. Luke, there's no lemons in there, still considering it, and there's not going to be an aro either.

was the double negative intended? :-? viewtopic.php?f=11&t=51544

spotted metynnis....... :lol:

Interesting article... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/14 ... _analysis/

Yep, IMO for most tropical fish you're wasting your time unless its got a decent viewing window. Depending on the size, i think either concrete panels or concrete blocks would be the way to go. Ply and fibreglass would be good up to a certain size, but I think concrete is the best option for a truly massive tank. The biggest problem (IMO) is the height, unless you want a really wide and low tank (like I do), its going to require some serious engineering to provide enough depth for big fish like pacu (that can get to nearly 2' tall) to be comfortably housed. Probably the best example to follow would johnPTC on MFK, (look him up there or on youtube), but you'd need deeeeep pockets to do it right....

I thought it was going to be a pacu pond?

I quite regularly see my "small" L066's in my 1400L tank, I'm even thinking of adding a few more. I would have thought smaller plecs would be better for a planted set up, I wouldn't want a 14"+ common crashing around in a densely planted tank, I guess it depends on how "planted" the tank will be.