lmsmith

I'm still in shock that they're called flippers! Aren't they feet....?

I have 2 chocolate zebra hypans and have no idea how to sex them. I was thinking I should take some pics and post them here for all you catfish fiends out there to determine what they are. What pics/angles/info do you need? I'll try to get some pics of them over the next few days.

I remember reading somewhere (maybe the same site LA was talking about) how sometimes they aren't ever able to reproduce after getting the snip. That would be sad, he's pretty. To be honest, even holding a fish still creeps me; let alone cutting his bits off!

Add salt. Marine salt, not freshwater salt. Or, you can use sea water from the beach and add normal water to it to dilute it. You will need a refractometer (about $80) to measure salinity, because it can be quite tricky to get a consistent salinity without one. Figure 8's only need about 1.005 - 1.010 SG, so that's not much salt but makes them MUCH happier and live lots longer. They live about 5 - 8 years if they're in good conditions.

Lol, my lumphead cichlids won't stop breeding, after the babies are free swimming for a couple of weeks, they're right back at it. Same with BN, except they lay every 15 days like clockwork.

I know, right? I got mine from Otaki or something, wedged in the backseat of the car... :roll:

Well, I think it's sorted then. Away you go and breed some snails. Post the results (in the form of baby snails) to me :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sigh. Shoulda sent the snails to me. . Plants need light and food. Fish poo can be food, so it sounds like you need better lighting. Try changing your bulbs. They get old after a year or so and I always get a big boom when I replace the lights. You also need the right wavelength for plants, but there'll be someone here who knows much more than I do about that. Apparently, you need 3w/gallon to grow plants well. That info was from www.plantedtank.net. I have way less that that, but I do notice yellowing if I need to change the bulbs. You could also try some sort of fertilizer. Lots of people use daltons aquatic mix under their substrate. I've also found that sand works really well for plants. Sorry for this rambling post. I'm more tired than I thought :-?

Go to a hardware store and ask for the section where stuff for temporary wiring in prefabs are kept. There's all sorts of boxes that are perfect for BN to have babies in. It cost me like $10, and now I have a million of the little things because they wont stop now!

How about snail growth/breeding at different temps? 1 at 10 deg (if kept outside), 1 at 20 (room temp) 1 at 25 (tropical) and 1 at 30 deg (pretty warm). Put like 10 snails of the same size in there, measure the amount of food they're fed and regulate lighting, then measure how many babies and how big they grow over 3 months. Also measure deaths. Then I can know once and for all what temp to breed my snails at for my puffs!

They both live in brackish water and F8s are quite placid for puffers. However, don't be surprised if you wake up to 1 less BBG one day. They can live together for ages then suddenly start eating their tankmates.

I hate people who can't talk on a cell phone without yelling. You're not using a cup phone! I hate people who go on uni computers during busy periods and spend the whole time on facebook. Buy a laptop and stop wasting my time when I need to print ONE thing. I hate when people are cruel to animals. I can even understand people abusing other people because they're annoying, but animals don't have our reasoning, so how can you hurt them? I hate it when people can't use apostrophes. It's not ok to just chuck one in where you feel like it; and putting a floating apostrophe above an 's' so it could go on either side is blindingly obvious, so just stop.

Sort of looks like his jaw's been damaged, or dislocated. I don't know much about goldfish, so have no idea if this is common. Is he showing any other signs of being in pain? Is he eating?

I haven't seen that. From what I know, GBA are a colour variation of common bristlenose, kinda like albino but not. They're no different in terms of diet, growth rate or temprament.

Truly amazing. Makes me want to try CO2!

Funny how it is, huh, I wanted GSPs, saw them once in 3 years here and I bought them, but saw dwarfs all the time. Now I'm thinking about getting dwarfs, I can't find any! Have you tried some mussels or something with them? They'll probably make a big mess, but it's pretty dense and nutrient rich compared to bloodworms, so maybe will help fatten them up.

Oops, sorry Dixon. My proof reading didn't happen. Have you got them feeding flakes or pellets or something? How about brine shrimp, I just learned how to hatch them, so that's what all my fish are eating right now! When I say common, I mean common for puffers, so seeing them once or twice a year is expected. I guess that's really not common at all, is it? I'm just so used to never ever seeing some puffs. I had to wait for ages after asking like 6 stores about them. I've got an empty tank, was thinking I might get some dwarfs and see if I can get them to make babies for me. Were yours expensive?

Dwarf Puffers General Stats Temp: 25 - 27 deg pH: 7 - 7.8 Tank size: 20L per puff, 15L for each extra. Max sizeL 2.5cm Origins: India Completely FW puffer. Readily breed, so some take non-live food. Because they are usually not wild caught, most don't have IP. Feeding Snails, shrimp, mussels, all those delicious things, except in smaller quantities. According to a few people I know who have kept them, apparently their teeth growing isn't such a big issue for dwarf puffers. They're tiny though, so they need to be given foods they can eat. Breeding Males have a dark line on their tummy. They usually spawn under plants (maybe java moss would be something to try) and the male looks after the eggs and fry. They're tiny when they're born, so need tiny food (green water, freshly hatched BS). The rest of the info is pretty similar to GSPs. Pretty commonly available in NZ. Dixon used to have some, he's got a thread about it somewhere on here. EDIT - found it: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=35866

Mine probably wont help. Our spouting is leaking, so I have a big 50L bucket under the drip. I empty it when it gets full into the 200L drum. When the drum gets full, I do a big water change. The dripping is annoying as hell, but it's far away from my room so I'm happy.

I get them from a guy who works at the swimming pool. They have 200L drums used for storing soap in, and he's been able to purchase them from the company before they get soap in them. I could have them for free after they've been used, but I'm too lazy to wash them out.

The red meat one is such a minefield. I feed my cichlids shrimp and mussels and crab meat because I just don't know about the red meat situation. Like Ryan says, a varied diet is going to be better that the premium food all the time. Live food is also good; I've found that fish tend to have a nicer shape when fed live food they need to hunt; probably because it builds up their muscles a bit differently.

Yup, most people keep them alone. Dwarfs can be kept in pairs or 3s. If you're keeping them together, keep 2 females (or even 3) to every male as the males can get pretty aggressive. Some people keep them with tank mates, but you're probably best getting a small tank (maybe 70 litres) with 2 girls and a boy in there. Maybe you'll get them to breed for you! Most pet shops should be able to get them in for you, just ask. Dwarfs are tiny (about 2cm when fully grown) so only eat a tiny bit! Yup, I just buy a mussel from the supermarket, cut it in half and put it in the tank. The other half goes in the fridge for the next day. The two puffs can clean it out in about 5 min, but dwarfs would only eat about 1/4 of a 1/2, so you should chop it up and freeze it. Puffers are awesome little fish, glad to see you're enthusiastic about them too!

How far away from the wall are your tanks so you can paint them with fish in them? Or do I have fat arms?

Also, melting/heated plastic might release toxins or something nasty. Best to do what you can to prevent it.

I used a 100L bin as a sump for a few months. It worked well, and after the suckers lost their suck, the heaters were just lying on the bottom. It didn't melt, but I wouldn't recommend doing it just in case.