elusive_fish

Every time I read a thread about discus keeping the main thought I have is "Wow, discuss types really must enjoy water changing" (dont take this as trolling ... just a friendly joke)

My personal experience is that it wasnt a good idea to remove the holding fish. By the time I reintroduced the mother it was a foreigner again, at the bottom of the pecking order. And dead the next day. When you are going to re-introduce the fish into the main tank make sure you 'rearrange the furniture'. Changing the aquascape breaks up territories and scares them a little, giving the fish a chance to slip back in. I let the next one spit in the tank and the mother and some fry survived. The next I stripped after staying a couple of weeks in the main tank and the mother and more fry survived.

I contacted Greg from tanks2u and was stunned by how cheap the tank would be, even in 12mm, even with $350 in packaging and shipping. As I need to fit the big poly feature in still im thinking to get him to ship the tank with the top bracing not attached, then to get someone local to attach the feature, complete the tank bracing and then do all the sump plumbing. Anyone see any potential problems with this idea?

Hi Trace and steve, thanks very much for thinking of my project and offering to help with sourcing the glass! I've talked to Tim from inside oceans and Errol from Bubble and Squeek and both feel that 10mm is sufficient for a 600mm high tank, even in a semi-public location. It sounds like the tank will cost $500 extra to go to 12mm glass. Eek. Using the safety factor calculator linked by Ryan 10mm has a safety factor of approx 2.5, and 12mm 3.5 What would you guys do if it was your money/project?

I had a 'blood red parrot' when I lived in Canada. The only thing is it didnt really have the real parrot beak shaped head... I think he was just a red devil, or at least was very much more that than whatever else it was bred from. It had an amazing pinky orange colour, not yellow like pictured here. It was the coolest fish I have ever owned. It attacked my hand, the scrubbing brush, moved bits of wood around like a dog, spat gravel against the side of the tank to get my attention...

From what I understand, many parrot fish are infertile but some can breed. Ive read that spawnings are more likely to succeed with a non-hybrid parent... and as your labiatus is thought to be one of the fish the hybrid parrot was created from id imagine you'd have some chance of babies developing. Let us know what happens!

I'm not sure if the pictures convey the 'divider' properly. Its not a solid wall as I modelled it in sketch-up, but it has many holes from one side to teh other. The bottom does have a number of holes cut through it, but I was hesitant cutting any more as I have to securely silicone the feature to the bottom of the tank and not risk it coming loose. They are often cut through diagonally, rather than directly through. This probably doesnt show up very well in the picture. The plan is the the poly feature will not stretch right from one end ot the other, but have about 7-10cm gap between the ends and the glass.

So being a fellow chcher does that mean you are willing to help out a little with the design and implementation Could be some free coffee and breakfast in it for ya! haha

I guess I could make the tank 80cm wide, which really would create more free swim space on either side. I cant imagine it would cost that much more either. Only thing the tank capacity is at 1104 litres at that point! biiiig tank. Another creative thought... but in that arrangement no one is really looking at it. If im going to do this, I want to make it a real focal point out of it and maximise the number of people who can concurrently enjoy it.

Obviously there will be lights of some kind... I'm just not sure if ill build into a canopy, sit simply on top or suspend from the ceiling. Plus I couldnt be bothered trying to draw them in sketch up As far as filtration goes, I was thinking of putting a sump underneath the main tank. Id imagine the inlet would be at one end of the tank, the outlet at the other creating a flow down the tank. The sump would also include the heaters to hide them. Would a large cannister filter, such as a fx5 also be worth considering? As for access, there will be doors built into the base cabinet. The tables will not be 'built in' as I need to be able to remove them to get better access to the tank for maintenance. I'd like to be able to 'lock' and 'unlock' the tables together - the exact mechanism I'm unsure of at the mo!

Hi all, I thought I'd start a topic to document a project that I'm part way through. It will also give me a good place to ask all my dumb questions and for some constructive feedback. My plan is to put a large fish tank in my cafe, something around 2300 x 600 x 600 (nominally 828 litres). The plan is to have it projecting out from the wall, with bar style seating on three sides. In order to stop people on opposite sides of the tank looking at each other I have been working on a carved poly feature that will run the length of the tank, in the middle. It has been carved with holes of various sizes running through diagonally, allowing fish to swim from one side to the other. Here is an early work-in-progress photo: It will be a malawi cichlid tank one way or another. A couple of options I am considering is: 1/ electric yellow and demasonis 2/ Male haps and peacocks Could I potentially do a combination there-of? Let me know what you think of my project plans ie feasibility, concerns, how much of a feature you would think it is etc

I realise that cement itself is quite light when dry (and that I will have to add black oxide to darken), but im just trying to understand if it would look the same submerged in water as it does when I hose it down outside

Just a quick question for those that have done a cement covered poly background. It may sounds like a slightly dumb question, so apologies in advance The cement looks considerably darker while its wet, but dries out much lighter. When it is wet again after curing it gets the dark look back again. But does it look this dark when it is submerged and in place? The reason I ask this is that my neighbour used the local beach sand as a substrate in his aquarium. The sand looks dark when in the wet areas on the beach, but much lighter when dry. We figured it was in water it would look like it did when wet on the beach. Nope - it looked consirably lighter than expected.

was the pH at 8.5 after the week of soaking and stayed that way for the year? Any sign of the cement degrading at all?

Si has already been kind enough to email me his guide. Its well done and sounds like a solid technique. I'm still trying to figure out if I can cement or epoxy rather than both. Ive seen some awesome looking epoxy coated in sand backgrounds... but im not sure where I can find a suitable charcoal coloured sand. I'm very tempted to follow spoons suggestion of not epoxying over the cement as it will be rift lake cichlids. Im just scared that after a month I still have a thank with pH too high to put anything in. pH aside, does anyone know if the cement will still hold up well after a number of years submerged? As Im practically building the tank around the background it would be gutting if it started to wear/flake/crack exposing white poly after a while. Thanks all for your comments and suggestions

The real challenge that I have is that my 'background' is huge, double sided and full of caves/holes. The idea of having to cement all of that several times, then epoxy is almost enough to put me off the project (not to mention that its going to get quite expensive). So the cemix patch by itself without epoxy is a bad idea? What about the cement stuff they use to seal water tight places?

Hi all, Ive been reading on the forums here and elsewhere about how to create a polystyrene background for a fish tank and im now more confused than ever. The biggest question is really around cement usage. Do you need to coat the cement in epoxy or something else? Will cement by itself break down in water when it is permanently submerged? If you do need to coat the cement in epoxy resin and sand, then why bother cementing at all? If anyone is interested in my project, its not really a 'background' per se. I am going to get a aquarium around 220 cm x 60 x 60 cm made for my cafe and place seating bar style around 3 sides. The poly feature is a double sided wall that will run down the middle of the length of the tank. It has diagonal holes cut in it for fish to swim from one side to the other. Its basically to stop people watching the fish from starring at the people on the other side. The other benefit is that the fish will love swimming through the holes. If that doesnt make sense I will post a diagram. I want to make the background a deep grey/charcoal to really show off the demasonis/electric yellows etc that I will putting in there. If anyone in chch with experience feels like lending a hand or some experience there might be some breakfast and coffee in it for you

There are a lot more experienced people in here to further answer this question, but my 2c is that they are more than fine to stay in your community tank.... they often have to stick it out without eating for 20 days with much more boistrous/aggressive fish than that! With tank mates like those, I'd probably not even strip the fry later... just let her spit. You'll be surprised at how big and resourceful little mbuna fry are right from the mouth.

I know dems are smaller than most mbuna... but 15 in an 80 litre? Thats packing them in like sardines, so to speak

Ok, now I'm confused. As previously posted, I have a young johanni that is holding. I thought I knew who the dad was, as the biggest of the other johannis started going darker and has a faint blue horizontal stripe.... a male changing from the orange colour of the juvis/females. Or so I thought. Today I came home to find the 'male' holding eggs of its own! There are two other johannis of the same age in the tank, but both of them are quite orange. The other fish I have in the tank are: 6 electric yellows 1 bumblebee 1 demasoni around 10 greshakei 2 lionheads None of them have really shown any interest in the johannis, from what ive seen. Although the demasoni has been much more aggresive as of late (its only small still, about 4cm) My tank. I wish I could take a more flattering photo This is female johanni number one. And a greshakei fry photo bomber. This is the 'male' I guess the babies, if the eggs are fertilised must be hybrids then? What do I do with them in this case?

The 'boss' of the tank is a big, colourful greshakei. He has been trying his hardest to lure the girl-shakeis into his lare... so im pretty sure of their parentage. I cant say for sure with the johannis... I have electric yellows in the tank and I guess they would potentially be interested in a female johanni... but ive never seen them showing any interest before. I guess the only way I know is looking at the babies?

Wow, they are pretty fish. Are they active and interesting behaviour wise too?

Hi all, its been a while since I lurked around these parts. For the last 3 weeks or so I've had a greshakei that has been holding and tonight I stripped her and put the babies in a 2ft tank. There looks to be 13 around 1cm in length, all looking pretty damn skinny and just sitting near the surface of the tank. What is best way to care fore and feed these little guys? Seeing as I had to destroy my tank to catch the ice-blue, I caught my holding johanni at the same time and she is now in the fry tank too. I couldnt believe this fish was holding... its only like 5/6 cm itself. Its funny watching the power plays that happen in the tank after you 'rearrange the furniture' eh?

I'm currently working for NZ Post as Network Performance Manager for the south Island... but tomorrow is my last day due to being made redundant. As of June 19th I'll own/operate a cafe. Food, coffee and meeting people are what I enjoy most in life... who would have thought being made redundant could be such a good thing? I'm also considering putting a 1200 litre aquarium in my cafe - may as well put all of my favourite things in one spot! haha

I'm a bit concerned about how much natural light would be on the aquarium. its a gorgeous day in Christchurch I just went down to the cafe I'm buying. The place is on the south side of an east-west road, so its outdoor area and shop front gets all year round sun. At this time of year the sun streams in the bifolds at the front. Great for people at the tables. Not good for a fishtank. Id imagine the sun is close to being about as low on the horizon as it gets, so its at its worst at this stage. But how much of a problem would all this natural light be? Would it wash out the aquarium light and stop the fish from looking good, or would it just make algae run rampant?