malevolentsparkle

not true there are two species of platy (Xiphophorus maculatus & Xiphophorus variatus) and one species of swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri) they are diferent species, just closely related

nice! when i saw 'half giants' I thought sometime quiet different! (Hagrid anyone?)

i agree, they are very unlikely to hybridize if they have a same species option. I think most of the hybrids out there either were intentional or were small mixed groups with no same species partner available (eg 2 female platys kept with 2 male swords) So imho if you want to avoid hybrids then make sure you have at least a m/f pair of platys and a m/f pair of swords

hmm interesting discussion here: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-tropical-fish/mollies-guppies-cross-breeding-26557/ as well as some pics. they're not saying what ive always thought but they have photographic evidence! also here: http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/livebearers/70119-im-confused.html several years ago I did some research and came up with this: possible hybrids: platy X swordtail platy X molly platy X guppy not possible: swordtail X molly molly X guppy swordtail X guppy but those links i gave you give a more reasonable picture - if they are in the same genus they can hybridize. ie. platy X swordtail, molly X guppy.

platys can hybridize with swordtails, mollies and guppies, but swordtail Xs are a lot more common.

ah well last time i was there was probably at least 10 years ago so its no doubt changed, there used to be lots of sailfin plecos and not much else.

java fern, java moss, val, some species of hygrophillia, basically any tough, hardy plant, that likes hard water will have a shot. experiment - unless you have a very salty system then its not too different than fresh from a plants point of view - after all all rivers eventually become brackish...

now that i think about it, the wintergardens next to the museum in auckland (at least used to) have a tropical pond with mainly plecos in it. anyone know if thats still there?

if the heat pump was set to 25degrees then would the water be the same temp?

yeah ive thought about a pond in a green house or conservatory but i wondered if the problem would be that it would get too hot in summer and the temp would plummet over night. double glazed maybe?

bushfish like a well planted tank which could be tricky with birchirs. best to research the particular species too, some are pretty small and might not be able to handle the birchir.

yes, they may even hydridize. not many fry will survive but if you have enough plant cover a couple will survive from each brood.

as vary few fish available to the hobby are native fish defining coldwater as the temp in the wild of NZ is pretty useless as we don't keep our fish outside. but we're arguing about definitions. really the fish sold as coldwater in NZ are sub-tropical - that why they can only live inside.

so i think the conclusion is that there are many coldwater fish, but that doesn't mean that they can live in any temperature or outdoors. any unheated tank needs to be monitored to ensure that the temperature doesn't drop below the minimum for that species and if it does then the tank needs to be moved to a warmer spot or a heater installed.

java moss is Asian....

there are mountains in south america too. I don't know if pepered corys live in mountain streams but its not unlikely tanks shouldn't get down to single digits inside surely?

correct me if i'm wrong but a lot of 'coldwater' fish come from mountain streams in tropical countries and therefore can be happy in coldwater. Ive got golden barbs in an unheated tank and they are doing great, caught them laying eggs several times. pet shops sell many species of fish for coldwater and sure you don't want to put them outside or in an unlined room, but they are coldwater fish sold for unheated tanks.

congrates! liquifry is a processed food designed for fry. green water is water thats been saturated with algae, I've never made it so someone else can help you there.

woah, definitely not angels they get far too big for that tank. I would say your tank is full, maybe even overfull

I love kuhlis but you'll need lots. I recommend around 10. if you only get 2 or 3 you will never see them. plus they love fine gravel or sand, whats your substrate? they breed quite easily too without any input from you, one day you will notice an extra one in the group!

could it be a leech or something? I didnt think there was any freshwater slugs?

true hybrids are biological rubbish according to biologists. i'm not so sure myself.

nope mine stayed about 7-8cm long. but i have heard of them getting over 10cm. SAE get over 15cm if you want to make sure you get a flying fox, the scientific name is Epalzeorhynchos kalopterus, and is a lot more yellow than the Siamese algae eater.

what was it labeled as? there are several species of leaf fish and they change colour a lot. also bushfish (Ctenopoma sp.) look kinda similar. they are african anabantids