Tyrannosaurus

Sometimes that's the way it goes. If they've been in the same tank together for three days or more without spawning, I'd give them a break from one another. It also helps if you put the female in the tank with the male, but separate them until they both show signs of being ready. (Male has a bubble nest, female has the vertical breeding bars.)

Hey, not sure what the question about water refers to, it's a tropical tank, does that help? Silver dollars? Thanks for the suggestion! I will look into them.

Hi everybody. I have a 250 liter tank with a JD (coming up 15 cm or so) a jewel cichlid, a synodontis (about 15 cm too) and a red tail shark. Here's my problem: the tank looks empty because all these fish are fairly retiring. You see the red tail shark every now and then, but other than that, it's hiding behind rocks central. Are there any fish that will be fast enough to avoid the JD, and also provide a bit of movement and color to the tank in the mid to top regions? It really does look as though I'm just running an empty tank 90% of the time, and I'd like to change that.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have heard the dropsy/ bloodworm connection before, and I don't feed bloodworms because of it. I do find it frustrating that fighters can seem fine one day and be listing about half dying the next even when their water is super clean and their tank-mates are doing fine. I tend to keep my fighters in either communal tanks (for non aggressive females) or in filtered separated tanks for males. It just seems as if there's almost no correlation between their conditions and their health. Interesting point about the smaller tanks with the 100% water changes, is that what you do, David-lw? Your fighters are magnificent! When they keep them in ponds, are there males and females all mixed in together? How does that work with aggression? Is it simply survival of the fittest?

I've been keeping fish 'properly' for maybe a year now, and though I started with fighters and still have quite a few, I have observed that fighters seem particularly prone to ailments (particularly those resulting in dropsy type conditions) , much more so than other fish. For example, since I started keeping fish I've had the fighters, a jack dempsey, an oscar, danios, a synodontis catfish, a jewel cichlid, a red tail shark and a bunch of baby angels. In that time I've lost none of the fish apart from fighters to illnesses, in fact, the worst thing that's occurred to any fish other than the fighters is that they got a bit of white spot a year or so ago. Since then, they've all been fighting fit, pardon the pun. Fighters have a reputation for being incredibly hardy, but that hasn't been my experience. I see too on the boards here that people seem to lose their fighters almost randomly on occasion. I have noticed that some fighters seem hardier than others however, I have some who have been with me since the beginning and some 'batches' that just all die off one by one for mysterious reasons of their own accord. So, what's the deal? Are there some NZ fighters that are just constitutionally weak?

Your fish are always inspirational David

Thanks He is pretty, just goes to show that it pays to keep your eyes open and check the fish stocks even if you're only there for dog food

It's interesting that they import the plain / blue red ones. If you look on Aquabid, where Americans can buy bettas from Thailand, there are some truly stunning bettas out there, in a different league entirely to the plain veil tails and ct's you see in our stores. I'm just confused as to why, if people are importing them, they're not importing a higher standard. These are just a couple I picked off Aqua Bid completely at random, and they're a million miles better than anything you see in our pet stores:

Really? I am surprised they bother considering there are so many NZ breeders (like yourself for instance) who breed far nicer fish domestically.

He's in a filtered tank with room to swim now, so once he gets over the shock of that, he should do quite well. Does anyone know where those red / blue veil tail and crowntail standard pet store bettas come from? They're all so similar looking it's hard to believe that they're not all originating from the same source.

Yeah, I think they all come from the same place too. I'm not sure where this guy originated from.

I googled the dalmatian term and you're right, that is what they call them. Or rather that's what they call the red streaked ones as far as I can see... I don't know if that's what they call red and blue streaked ones. I thought he was lovely, there was no way I was leaving him behind once I saw him

His fins look a wee bit missed up, but that's not entirely surprising as he was pretty much swimming in his own filth at the store >.< I think he's very pretty though, just keeping my fingers crossed that those red streaks are natural red coloring and not crazy fin rot raging out of control.

If you'd read the very next sentence, you would have seen that I didn't say that. You just quoted half my point, I'm not sure why as everyone can read what I really said and you know it too. Very odd. Here's what my post said: It's a little ironic to call for greater education of the public and pet stores whilst simultaneously saying that you work for a pet store and don't say anything. (Unless of course, you have, and didn't mention it, in which case, good for you!) You know what really kills debate? Taking things out of context and assuming personal insult where there is none. I personally don't care if your day job is stabbing puppies. But if I make a post about how puppy stabbing needs to be stopped and you work at 'Pete's Puppy Stabbing Palace' and you tell me that the answer is not direct action against puppy stabbers but better education, I'm going to raise an eyebrow at that.

Working in a pet store is only potentially relevant because you asked if anyone had written to a pet store etc, and advised against programs like Target, which are consumer affairs driven shows designed to get responses. It's also somewhat relevant if you work in a store that sells tiny tanks as goldfish tanks and say nothing (and I 've seen those Splish / Splash tanks in Animates) . Pointing out that a particular sales strategy is incorrect and likely to cause harm to the animals sold doesn't seem like an unprofessional thing to do, it seems like a very professional thing to do. It's a little ironic to call for greater education of the public and pet stores whilst simultaneously saying that you work for a pet store and don't say anything. (Unless of course, you have, and didn't mention it, in which case, good for you!) Of course, you are free to do as you wish, however I don't think a call to Target (which again, isn't likely to be the first thing anyone, including me, does) is on par with boarding Japanese whaling ships, etc.