northland chic

I feed him bloodworms or live fish. The fish i just throw in. The bloodworms I wait for him to come & look at me and go to the surface then throw in the cubes. Have tried mussel but hes not interested.

Yip, best I could get its really fast

Recently bought one of these, it came in one of those surprise bags of fish they get thats why only the one. I really like it and would like to know does anyone else have them or seen them? I don't recall ever seeing them, my partner thinks he has but bigger ones. I have read they grow to 7cm. Ours is happy in our tetra tank thinking its a black widow but have seen it have a go at couple of others, so it will need friends. Anyway thanks to anyone who can help

Ours loved them! But he stopped eating them one day we thought it may have scratched his throat on the way down so found it was easier to give him ones from the cat not as lively.

I have 3 big silver dollars and they try to spawn but i never see aything. I have a fish nearly the same as your male and I alway thought that was a female as a book I read says more colour in the anal fin is a male. So I presumed no colour girl. Now I'm seriously rethinking this as its fin is the same as your male and everything. Thanks for posting this it is really interesting and so exciting! I hope you have success!

What a hard one! Like Sharn said you normally have to pay people to take them. The last one I sold, sold for $1 on trade me and even then I saw it for auction again a week later. They are worth nothing really because their so big they're hard to get rid of. We had 2 and they grew to a foot long from a old 50cent size in a year. Was just watching them a couple of weeks ago and saw them fight(our tank is 7ft) then one of them grabbed my bala shark by the tail and wouldn't let go. So when my partner came home he put one down (sounds mean but was quick stab hes a fisherman so did it properly). We knew when we got them they couldn't both stay otherwise they'd fight when they're big and break the tank. The other one is alot calmer by itself. They are only worth $12 as little tiny fish and even less as they get older. I hope you didnt pay much for them. It's dum when you see them on trade me for $30-$60 people think just coz they're big and friendly/got a personality they should be worth heaps but they're just too big and they never sell. The food bill alone can be huge and trying to feed other fish in the tank can be a mission when they eat everything! If you can't find a suitable home I agree with Sharn it may be better to put them down. They should stop selling them otherwise people think they're so cute and piranha like, even if you tell them what they're going to grow into they never fully understand. It's like buying a house plant at pak n save then finding out it grows to a giant tree.

I think Delphax or Melanistius. I have what I'm pretty sure is a Delphax but no-one really knows much about them so am not positive. Have been trying to get more for a while now and haven't been able to find any so lucky you! I think the Melanistius seem to have smaller spots than yours and mine. Heres my post with pic of mine: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/delpha ... 14675.html Be nice to know what you think, Thanks NC

I know I'm a bit far away but if you do get a club going I'd love to be a member!

Welcome, great to have another member from Northland. I'm up in Mangonui. What kind of fish do you have? Which one is your favourite petshop in Whangarei?

Who thinks that this cory looks alot like Conaquavict's one in the posing cory thread? I only thought it was a delphax because thats the only one that looks smilar in my book. But only about a day before he posted that I had just seen a pic of corydoras Melanistus and it got me wondering. I tried to take a better photo but it came out much the same just a bit lighter. So any help would be appreciated thanks

Went to the Kamo petshop the other day and they weren't there anymore! I finely had some $ to get more and their gone. They didn't know which one I meant and said they just get a few off the fish list at random. Best bet was to keep checking. So anyone out there seen or heard of them?

We had a pet eel (Eli) we tried for weeks to get him to eat, the only thing he would eat were worms. We only had him for about a year, he was probably 8cm when we got him. When we realeased him he was about a foot long. He got so far then stopped eating, we were later told they hibernate still not sure on that. He was a great pet and really friendly. He did escape in the first few days and ended up covered in fluff in our middle room. He had slithered about 2-3m from his tank I found him wasnt wearing my glasses so didnt know what it was. My partner threw him back in his tank he did a mad dash scraping all the fluff off and came right. Sorry I can't help with the white bait but enjoy your eel!

Hi, I used to have about 11 of them and only ever had one swell up and die. Our axolotl book says there are a few possible causes. There may be genetic factors, carriers of genes for anemia, heart irregularties and kidney insufficiency are prone to such problems. It says it may also be a bacterial infection but if your others are fine I wouldn't think so and you must take really good care of them to have had them that long. I would go with the last one which is because they are so old it might have had a kidney malfunction (Book: Axolotls Care & Breeding in Captivity by Peter W. Scott). I never had stones with mine so I don't know about that.

Its like the bit that expands when he eats big things, where his gills meet you get what I mean. I think he tried to be a pig and his mouth was to full and hes hit it on the stones. But anyway I'm sorry about the bad pic, he took a while to come out and then the batteries in the camera died! Typical!

I have 5 that I bought from Rob a couple of years ago, don't know what kind they are. Mine live with 5 corys and 2 bristlenoses and they're great they ignore them and just scrap amongst themselves. They seem to eat anything I drop in don't really see them eating algae though now I think about it. About 2 weeks ago I noticed my male hiding the ship ornament over a few green eggs. He didn't come out for about 8ish days, I found one dead baby but that was it. Since then he has had a huge one in there with him for over a day and it looks like hes still in there. I can see a tail and fin moving in there but thats it. I so badly want to look. I think I only have one male out of 5, is that alright? Any advice would be great. Thanks NC

Our one has a funny jaw. I don't know what happened its almost like hes rubbed it along the stones and the under side of his jaw (almost looks like another mouth) pokes out now. He has been like it for a few of months it never gets fungus or anything. I thought it might heal over time but doesn't seem to be improving. He is perfectly fine, he still has a great appetite and doesn't seem to care so neither do I.

Hi Smidey, nice to hear from you and find someone else who lives in Northland. I had tried breeding angels (2ft tank) a few years ago but never had luck I got them to about 0.5cm once then ammonia spiked and I lost them all! But now I use a little compartment in our big tank, babies are able to find shrimp easy and it has a little filter in one end and I do water changes everytime I feed with water from tank they're floating in so its always about the same. I bred close to 300 from 2 spawns, I sent about 80 tiny ones down to Northland Pet apart from that I sold them thru trade me and our local paper. It's a hobby for me the pride from seeing your babies big is awesome! You did really well to get 2 pairs and their mother nails me if I dare put my hand in the tank at that time! I would think that breeding them together the babies will be silver with black stripes since the mother was inbreed at least 1 maybe 2 generations. She was going to breed with her brother but I moved him so she would go with black and white guy, I wanted her with him because he had one black one white whisker which I wanted to carry on. I just sold the last of them a little bit sad to see them go but I can always breed more. If you ever need any help MSN Messenger me. Kathy

Hi, those fish are from me! Yay, so nice to see them all grown up. I sold them so tiny (about 6weeks old) because was batch 2 was only a month behind them and there was a coupla hundred so I needed the room. Mother: Father: I start feeding brine shrimp as soon as free swimming also and try to feed at least 3-4 times a day and do water changes before I feed. I found a good supply of brine shrimps is essential. I bought mine from someone of trade me (pyro262) or those little jars of eggs get too expensive really quickly. I have one shrimp hatch that I take from and another about a day behind the first one so just as ones finished the others are ready. Sadly the father to these died while I was away but she is a funny female and will pair up with any free male (on her third now). Asking about your friends ones because months before I sold mine, our friend sold his in the same shop. There was about 80 and they had been kept in a 2ft tank and feed flake from birth. so they weren't very big for their age and they looked a bit tatty. If they look similar to the mother (top photo) then they are probably her siblings she is from the same spawn but taken away early to live in a big tank with no other angels so grew up fine with all her fins.

Hi, was wondering if you brought those from Northland Pet & Aquarium next to the $2 shop in Whangarei? Also did your friend buy their from that pet shop also?

Has anyone got any or heard of these corys? I bought one a couple of years ago and a few months ago aquired another one a friend. Unfortunately I lost my big one about a month ago. Was shattered found him stuck in an ornament, we got him out but he died a couple of days later from his injuries. I think I've seen them in a petshop in Kamo (Whangarei) for about $26 but thats the only place. I think they were called Black Sail Corydoras. I'll be hunting around for sum more now mines all alone.

I siphon thru a piece of cloth (thin like hankee or sheet) sitting in a tea strainer in a jar or something. Then just turn the cloth upside down in their water and return salt water to brine shrimp container.

I have also had this before. I killed a few fish before I figured out what was wrong. We have a plastic water tank, do you? That was our problem it seemed to take all the oxygen out of the water. Our neighbours have a concrete water tank and their water is perfect for fish never had any problems with it. If you want to put your fish in striaght away find a different water source or do half n half.

I have no idea how old our one is, he was about 50-60cm when we got him. With me feeding him so much he grew quite quick. Its funny you say yours will eat anything, ours is quite fussy. When ours lived in the petshop Richard said he would eat anything prawns, goldfish, pilchards & mice. But maybe I spoilt him, he really likes the herrings live or dead.I no longer breed mice to feed him which he did like as a treat occasionally. Ours has shared his tank with pacus as well which once they get to a foot long he sulks until they're gone.I'm going into Kaitaia soon and I'm going to see how much the petshop will charge me for a goldfish to feed him. Anyway as cool as he is I'm trying to sell him if you know of anyone. We have other fish(clown knife, bala shark & oscars) that could live in the 7ft tank together so I could get rid of a couple of other tanks.

Here is a picture of ours when we go thim about a year ago.

We have one about the same size as yours and he is doing the same thing. He does it sometimes when he doesn't like his tank mates or when he is unwell like now.He will go for maybe a month or more eating 3-4 herring everyday then one day he just stops. He went from about Feb to May this time and he grew a litte more. So now I think he started this coz he wants the silver dollars gone, he only lets them in one end of the tank.