BikBok

Hi all My daughter is shutting down her bedroom tank and is going to sell this young pleco. Can't remember what type it is but sure it's a gold or red spot. Can anybody help me pout with the correct name.. and if you can tell if its male or female even better! Thanks!! What would be a reasonable price to ask?

yes Ottos are better in groups of 3+ but I started with Sophias 2 and added more later. They are fun and oh so cute. Mine ate brown algae and new algae but never touched anything more established. They like courgette and pumpkin and sinking tablets if they got a chance with the other fish around. They don't bother or be bothered by other fish so quite peaceful; and go about their own business. I'm not sure what their lifespan span should be but mine don't seem to last much more than a year, the longest I had was 2 1/2y. Not sure if they don't get enough food or the community tank isn't quite right for them. I lost my last one a few weeks ago, he just stopped eating and eventually couldn't swim straight . Will monitor the tank for a while and then get a new batch from hollywood. one of my otos:

that's awful, happened to me around 20 years ago and put me off fishkeeping for ages! in my case the heater had cracked so malfunctioned and cooked the poor fishes. What sort of heater did you have?

that sounds like a clever idea.. if no one wants the tub I'll give it a go and let you know how it works out.

no takers? it would be a shame for it to go to waste. Is it no good after expiry date , I would have thought it be ok. Has been kept in cool cupboard

thanks for all the info, looking at them today , they still look like two males to me. They both colour up at times. I'll try and get a better photo of the two of them.. in the current photos one appears to have a rounder fin , but in real life it doesn't look quite as round.

I have a small 50g tub of small fry starter, it is opened but I have only used no more than 1/4 teaspoon, if that. I bought a few months ago but the expiry date is Dec 2013. Thought it would be good for guppy fry but it's too fine and they are just as happy to eat decaps. As it is close to expiry date (should still be good tho) and many members on here have helped me out with advice and the odd plant or fishy item I am giving it away to first taker. It normally retails for $19.40 All you have to do is pick it up in wattle downs (manurewa/auckland) ... or send me a postbag and I'll get it in the post for you.

is that an egg spot showing ? if it is then it's a girl!

really, wow .. theyw ere sold as two males haha ... here's an old pic of them as jeveniles.. and I'm not sure which one this is (also an older photo)

thanks for all the replies the 2nd and 3rd picture is both of them so I think they are both males. The lips are looking a little better today, they certainly haven't got worse , so I'm hoping the injury will recover without infection.

My two pearls have started lip wrestling in the last year, never did it in the previous 2 years. Is this the result of lip wrestling .. or does my fish have something else wrong with him.. and what should I do about it? Have added some salt to the water and keeping it extra clean. They get on most of the time but in the evenings like to have a lip wrestle.

he is partially clipped (one wing) but still manages to fly around the room to wherever he wants to go.

Hi all Meet "Ferris", my daughters New Sun Conure . That's just his travel cage, he has a lovely big playpen to hang out on during the day when we're home. He's a real character and we love him already. Of course there's some adjustment time because he's not a baby and had a previous owner but he's still young at only 1 year old.

well we are going to see a 1 year old bird on the weekend. Not a chick but he does sound adorable. The breeders that I've managed to contact have either had no chicks this season or they are already spoken for. If this 1 year old clicks with my daughter he may be the right bird.. fingers crossed. DNA tested too so we knows he's a boy.

oh adorable ! We will wing clip the conure too.. Our tiel has free flight and even then, she is overweight! We can not get her to eat veges of any sort!

thankyou - my daughter often criticizes her own work but I'm very proud of her.

4 months old. bit pricey though. had a visit with the Sylvia park one today. Seemed to be handraised as was very sociable. Bit pricy though , will keep looking but keep that one in mind as I satill prefer a breeder with known parentage

i realise that, we don't just buy pets on a whim which is why I want to meet the breeder and the parents and prefer not buy a random form a petshop with unknown disposition.. My daughter , always the diligent student has done hours of research on different parrots species and after having met a friends one has settled on the conure as her bird of choice. She absolutely loves birds and I've lost count of the number of times we've visited bird barn in Henderson and the wingspan (Birds of prey) in Rotorua. Birds feature in a lot of her art. When she was younger we also went through an ostrich phase where we had to go to the ostrich farm every time we drove past. Living in Wattle Downs has been great with resident ducks, pukekos and embden geese always on hand to enjoy. But for a personal pet, it will be sun conure! She is now 17 and this bird love started when she was still a young tot so I think shes waited long enough. heres some of her bird art including a conure . The watercolours she did when she was 14, the conure she did this year. our sunny

as long as he/she likes my daughter, that's all that matters, we will see if she can interact with it first before we buy. The funny thing is, all 3 cockatiels we've had including the current one were hers but they liked my husband and will always go to his shoulder. We had to re home one of the cockatiels as she was picking on a quieter one and was getting quite nasty about it. She went to someone in Tauranga as a partner for her male.. they have bred together so all worked out. Hoping the conure will be "Hers" so it's important my daughter can view and see how the parrot responds to her.

the breeder we were hoping to source a conure from , is still selling Quakers but he's in Auckland.

Sophia they don't have any currently but they are usually a Lot more than a private breeder and we would like to see the parents disposition etc. darn it, the TM breeder has sold out his conure line, they looked like real characters too.

hehe .. yes we've heard them in action at the bird barn, there are nosier parrots tho. Definitely want a hand raised one, our tiels have been hand raised and they are so much nicer than parent raised. I'm waiting to hear back from a breeder who had some advertised earlier in the year on TM but he hasn't responded to my enquiry yet.

This isn't aquarium related so it's not in the WTB section. My daughter has had her heart set on a Sun Conure for a couple of years now. We've had a Cockatiel for the last 5 so are not new to birds and their care. She has faithfully been saving but we thought we would like to surprise her for Christmas/ Near Christmas and help her achieve her dream sooner. I was wondering if anybody has the name / contacts of a good breeder in Auckland (south even better) that might have some ready by Christmas. Not even sure if its the right season but no harm in asking!

i had a similar problem due to a clogged filter that I hadn't noticed until the water went cloudy! I did as calculator has suggested: water changes, stability and Prime. It took ages to settle down as I was doing daily water changes so as not to lose any fish. (thus prolonging the cycle but at least keeping the fish alive) I also dropped the temperature by 1 degree and kept an eye on pH .. used pH proper 7 while it was re cycling - i know it's not ideal (I have pants) but I wanted to keep all my fish alive. higher temp and pH increase the ammonia toxicity so that was my reasoning.. my pH was a little higher than 7 so I dropped it over a few days and will let it reach it's natural equilibrium now.

it's a lot to take in kiwi101 but you'll get your head around it and figure the best way that suits you. Caryl is correct, everyone has slightly different ways of doing things and still have beautiful healthy tanks. Bacteria - if you use a bacteria additive, you will need some sort of food for the bacteria to grow and multiply. I've never used the pure ammonia method so can't comment on that. I've used fish food and live fish, ..(Guppies) .. i prefer the guppy method and have not lost a guppy to a cycling tank. Opponents of the fish method will say that it is cruel on the fish but there is an excellent water conditioner (seachem prime) which will help detoxify ammonia so it can't harm the fish but is still available for the bacteria. Seachem also deals with the nitrites which is the next part of the cycle. Also, if pH and water temperature is lower, there is less toxic ammonia. (in cycling tank there toxic and non toxic ammonia just to confuse things!) Siamese Fighter ( Betta) - yes you can keep them with other fish but you have to be a bit more selective on tank companions. Also, they don't like too much water flow/current. Bettas can be targets for fin nippers and sometimes male bettas will have a go at fancy guppies because they get confused with the beautiful tails. I kept a betta with a whiptail and two platy , no problems. Female Betta could be an option too! I like them , they are more active than a male and have a lot of personality. Mine ruled the tank but never harmed any fish, she would even flare at a mirror as well.