David R

but, but, but, THATS RACIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :roll:

Agree with Stella, if you're going to do that you better go live in a windowless concrete bunker thats far enough inland to avoid a tsunami but not on any hills likely to crumble during an earthquake and well away from any volcanos. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. If you're worried about it tipping over then put it on a lower stand to lower its centre of gravity, will be a better height for viewing sitting down too.

Tank looks great, need to sort out some sort of mini-external filter though, massive sponge filter and heater ruins it for me.....

Yeah, what underline.... :lol:

My blue phantoms are fairly active for plecos, not afraid to come out during the day and forrage for food. Good luck finding some though! I would suggest whiptails, although with the metynnis they're not likely to have any whip..... If you want activity then why not go for a school of corys, a big group of sterbai schooling around the bottom would look breat!

You know Cichlidae covers over 1300 described species and at least as many undescribed species distributed throughout central and south america, asia, africa, madagascar and even as far as the middle east, ranging from tiny 1" dwarfs to 3' alpha predators, living in almost every possible biotope from soft acid pools to lush vegetated zones to hard rocky lakes to brackish and even salt water, and eating all manner of diets from highly specialised feeders to complete omnivores, eh? Might as well just say "bloated [sic] is only found in fish", although its often found in cattle too I think.... Maybe in stead of "learn as you go" doing research before investing in fish would be a good idea before taking on unknown species?

Come have a look at my tank some time if you want to get a feel for how they look in a group at a larger size. Depending on who's breeding they go from being a fairly peaceful school to all-out war!

Regardless of what the internet says or what they're called, the fish we get here as "surinamensis" should grow to about 25-30cm eventually for a good sized male. I think 8 would be a good starting point for a 700L tank, an then thin them out as they reach breeding age. Depends what else you want to keep too and how busy you want the tank to look.

Looks good, my only though would be that you should have put some sort of background on the tank (painted it?) while it was empty.

I thought the Severn was a river in the UK??? Post up some pics...

Have sunsun been making filters long enough for them to be proven quality? There's some fairly ancient Eheim gear running out there, some of it probably older than you Sam!

Great shots!!

Silly you for not understanding your fish more like it....

Your motivation for buying it doesn't change the fact you've purchased a potentially 3' active fish that is going to need a large tank to survive. :roll: Have you got a price from Hollywood for a complete set up? Probably would have been a good idea to do that before buying the fish...

I've already got one reserved at Mt Roskill, I was just hoping you may have found someone selling one of the earlier imports which wouldn't require as much growing out before being added to my big tank. There's loads of good info on Monsterfishkeepers.com in the Arowana forum, I'd suggest you do some research as it sounds like you've got a lot to learn before making such a commitment. Fruju is right, 8' long 3' wide 2' high would be a minimum side "for life" IMO, but I still haven't come across anyone with a really old black aro, so who knows. You'll want to start off in a much smaller tank if you're getting it as a juvi though, they take a while to get their confidence.

At least as wide as the fish is long, and three times the length of the fish in length is a basic minimum rume, IMO. So a 6x2x2' will be adequate for a while, but not for life. There isn't much point in going wider, the fish will be freaking out because of the lack of swimming space before it has problems turning around. Turning space isn't often a problem for arowanas, but skittish behaviour (and associated things like jumping and hitting the glass when spooked) when they feel too confined is. My first black aro grew to about 22" in 2 years, they don't all grow that fast though. TBH if you're not budgeting for a tank 8' long and over 2' wide in the next few years an arowana isn't really the right fish for you. BTW, where'd you get it from? How big?

CL's aren't sensitive to medicines, they are sensitive to certain ingredients in some medicines. Do some research on what they are and make sure they aren't in your fertiliser....

I got mixed up and read it as "all lefties are parrots" and was surprised to see a thread about politics here....

I'd check the Gh and KH, far more meaningful than pH....

I quite like the long dangly bits on the geos fins....

I just don't look at them from an angle... Its just a fact of thick glass, nothing you can do about it really.

Pass? Never noticed it, maybe I'm blind... :-?

Fexus is the way to go Dunc!! I'd love to see someone with an interest in arfican cichlids stop being such a purist and start selectively breeding and crossing to make some interesting morphs. Look at what has been done with [by comparison] relatively drab wild discus, imagine starting off with fish as vividly coloured as electric yellows etc...

*Likes*