Ghaz

yeah im on there, jus haven't been breeding for a while(lost my MG HM + spawns, and a couple dumbos + spawns when we had a quake a couply years back) so been more of a troller lately lol. the lack of decent fighters in welly area hasn't gotten me back into it till now lol.

yay for the welly breeders i got this guy. have a week old spawn of about 35-40, paired with a darkish body steel blue CTx fem. could be keen on some swapsies once they've grown out

closest I found was from a guy from Levin area, he puts his stuff up on TM not sure if he's on here. That was at the start of this year(march) so he'll prob post some towards the end of the year or early next, pretty sure he said he only uses his account to sell around summer when he has stock. good price and quality stock from him and knows his stuff, I ended up getting a couple from him which were born 02/01 so you may just have to wait for the next season of babies to come along and watch TM.

Microrasbora erythromicron/Celestichthys erythromicron(Emerald Dwarf Rasbora), one of my favourite mini fish, but not sure if they will go with the gourami, might turn out to be food for them, mine were fine with smaller licorice gourami's CPD's are nice but find it hard to get around welly area, i know HFF usually has them for a good price and they do shipping too. bumblebee goby's(the fresh water ones) would be good for bottom dwellers, but you might find it hard to get food to them, and they may get aggressive, but if you give them room they're fine. and although its not quite Southeast Asian, think its right on the border of southeast/central, but Badis Badis or scarlet Badis are quite cool especially during breeding times, i had a small tank with Scarlet Badis, Emerald Dwarf rasboras and bumblebees, all are minifish, and got along well even during breeding in a 60L. I also had Botia striata, licorice gourami's and fighters in my central/SE Asian tank. I also used indian almond leaves and oak leaves to release tanins and i find it gives it a nicer look to the tank as well as helping the fish survive. i would also get some spiderwood and/or Mopani wood, and some Crypts, Java fern, and Rotala wallichii to keep it SEA Biotype. unsure of SEA groundcover, maybe a moss (Java moss? its SEA but personally i hate the stuff.)

Same dealeo with Dragons(and fighters in general), They have a possibility to have bad genetics/faults, but some will be strong and have no/little "side effects" of having the desired traits, hence the reason to improve them and their genetics through line breeding so they are stronger. Fighters with longer tails technically wouldn't survive very well in the wild as they would be out competed for food by the faster short-fins, so in that respect, we would would only have plakat if we went by that logic.

best chance of survival: Separate, lots of cover and live food, Daphnia if you can, otherwise white or blood worms, keeping water quality as good as you can. as long as he isn't a random mutation, the siblings should carry some albinism so should be good candidates to breed from. I'd keep the best looking siblings of it, cellophane's, dragon or double tails if any in there. I found DT and dragons had the highest possibility of having a suppressed albino gene in them. both your parents should have the gene, or its a random mutation, hard to tell unless more albinos' show up. then cross back to the mother or father, which ever you like better as both "should" have the albino gene. I tried mine with blue marble PK DT x dragon VT, and Blue marble PK DT x mustard HM, had a few come out with red eyes but had a lil colour and most died after 2 or 3 months. Had 1 survive to breeding age, but lost almost everything(dragons, dumbo's, and my fave - Mustards, had Dumbo mustards and oranges at 4.5 months old too which was heart breaking.) in the last lot of Welly earthquakes. 1 mustard Fem survived, so im on African Cichlids(only tank to make it) now as i can't afford to replace everything just yet as welly has the worst selection of fighters, or people are like me on don't really publish what they do lol. Alternatively, start at the top with the new Albino, and breed with what you like best, then cross the daughter/brother back, introducing new unrelated genes on 3rd gen that show strong tail type you want, then cross back again see what happens, try for a higher than normal albino ratio, then start picking out the good tail types your wanting and continue on. Note: all my personal opinion and mainly on the theory of genetics, a little on personal experience but hard to predict especially with albino blah blah blah.

Congrats!!! Definitely separate it and keep an eye on it till you can breed. would be good to see if any colouration shows as it gets older but looks like it might be a true albino. What are the parents? how old are they? and will you be selling some siblings(shipped)? would be keen to try get an albino strain going, and unless it was a complete fluke of a mutation the siblings should carry a lil albinism even if its not visible, gave it a go a while ago but gave up lol.

There's plenty of cichlids that don't dig stuff up. and also... MTS!! lol

Me

i use a 1" thick A4 size piece of foam(aquarium safe of course), it floats so is always on top of the water and easy to remove after filling up the tanks. also use it as a cheap divider for fighters/fry .

There's that turtle haven place up north i think. think they get a bit over run with turtles sometimes though. don't think theres much down our ways, but if you need something rescued i can help lol.

i wouldn't leave your house either im just over the hill lol

Liked, I Hate how its a popularity contest, cos the leading tank(2nd pic in) is nothing but fake plants. TBH the only tank(s) that is your comp is the discus tank with the Java fern(which i think has the least votes), or maybe the African tanks. Moral of the story, make more friends lol. [EDIT] actually i take that back, you have twice as many friends as the leader. New moral, turn into a hot chick.

Rotala, Thats been starved of good light...? I have Rotala growing in the creek in the back yard, but has good access to light so is nice and red.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4807 just asked my mate(Google) and its a bit of a mixed view. But from what i can gather they aren't really "poisonous", but rather the secretions they give off when attacked give a nasty taste, in turn the fish will not eat them and they will rot in the tank, and the rotting/excess secretions in the tank is the part that kills the fish. So going from that if ya fish likes them, they should be fine as there wont be any left overs. and eggs would be fine as they have not developed the necessary glands(right terminology?) that secrete the "poison".

Kapiti Kritters - Yes details above look correct. Petworld - unless its a new one(last few months) No Pretty sure Kritters is our only retail petshop on the coast - good range for a newish place There may be some vet/pet centres but as far as i know they dont stock pets for retail sale.

good point, i was looking at posted date. yes, im a skimmer lol

#1 tv show..... Dr Who current seasons last episode was so intense and almost brought a tear to the eye. Followed by GoT. and if they made more episodes, Community, but still funny after watching then all 3rd/4th time over. most other brit comedies are great. Going to see Fast and the furious 6 tonight, Pre-release screening

Your maths is a bit off SamH, Closer to 2 months (1 2/3rd months) and anyways Pern, your in Christchurch trying to find fighters... lol Im so jelly it cost so much to send em up here(welly, we have jack all) some nice fighters down there.

might want to add more information before ya get smashed by members lol. tank size, inhabitants, what kind of setup fresh/salt/tropical/cold, what info your after as 'etc' doesn't help much. you should include as much info as you can so we can provide as much help as we can. but from the info provided so far, the filter you want is one that will handle the load.

I might have to get out there this weekend and check what species we have at the moment, last weekend was just a look at what was swimming around, didn't overturn any rocks or low lying branches/leaves. Its mainly just private property along the stream, its a 2 metre wide, ankle-waist deep stream from 2(as far as i can tell) branches off Waikanae river(the main river has water treatment catchments upstream quite a way). have done testing on the stream and it's very high quality water fed by multiple springs. and i dont think the council likes maintaining the stream as it took a couple of phone calls to get them to come and clear it, as they're supposed to each spring or however often. over summer i did notice a drain pipe being drained into the stream. It was put in in the last few years some time without our knowledge, you have to cross our property to get access to that part, I promptly blocked it with concrete(after a little homework) lol. So it may just be some inconsiderate fools dumping tainted water/trash in the stream. Also seeing as its a holiday home area, alot of people dump crap in the area, and go and 'feed' the Eels, only to end up spearing the creatures and leaving them to die which i have seen the aftermathe, and approached the parents, ending with them not allowed to cross our property to access the stream. We used to be quite considerate but in recent times we have been forced to be a bit Nazi about it, but thats what theft and destruction to property does to ya.

awesome to hear you've found a nice population of them in our area. Where abouts in Welly? I did have some quite a while ago, and i had them in a tank with a decent flow in it, where as Kokopu i have kept have been with less flow, especially on the surface. Im very disheartened to say, but in the last 10 or so years the population of natives around my area(Kapiti) has diminished quite considerably. I have a stream in the back yard and haven't seen Koura in at least 5 years, yet when i was younger there would be one every metre or 2 and most fish are limited to just whitebait and nothing larger. starting to see an increase in bully's and shrimp too. Although on the weekend when feeding the Eels (Which there are plenty, a nice almost 2metre girl about 10cm diameter, and about 15 .5-1m sized eels eating from my hand.) I did notice a ~7-8cm Banded Kokopu and was pretty stoked they're still in my area as last one i saw in the stream of that size was back in 2007, but he/she had a couple big bites taken out of it. also some dinner plate sized flounder were scuttling around, easy to catch and the nieces and nephews love learning about them, freaked them out a bit with the eyes on the top lol. Im hoping the populations are going to improve as i love to sit on my bridge observing the natives .

Check out http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/nat ... ds/geckos/ and http://www.reptiles.org.nz/gallery-2/geckos.html you would need to obtain a permit before you go any further in keeping native geckos. Im sure once you get the permit you will be able to get the information you need from DOC.

It looks like a marble queen sword. Crank up the lights and it should marble up a bit more. The brown spots could jus be algae. The lower leaf In pic looks like it has a slight Mg or K deficiency but hard to tell. Can u wipe off the brown spots or does it look more like leaf decay.

try the place on up on the hill between newlands and Ngauaranga, its a quarry and landscape supply i think. not idea how to get there or the name but have heard thats where the landscape guys in kapiti get shist and slate. not too sure what their smallest lot is but can always onsell the left overs.