Stephanie

Now i'm confused. I bought two of these yesterday because I fell in love (first Killies!) and mine look like the one above but have an orange stripe down the middle and the pictures show a red, more impressive tail. I don't know if maybe they're just young or if they're slightly different fish. Either way they're cute.

I'm so sorry to hear about that.

It was a Fluval 3? I never thought about not feeding them for some reason so thanks heaps for that. And thank you for such quick replies! I've just switched my Blue Rams back to an established tank because they're not as hardy as the rest, so i'm hoping it will be ok now. If it wasn't so small I'd put the whole lot in there. There's guppies, swords, neons and a golden balloon ram in the tank still, which are all pretty damn hardy so fingers crossed. May just have to go on a mission to get one tomorrow. Sorry too if I sound like I stress too much! I do!

My filter has just decided to blow up on me. I can't get anywhere to replace it for a few days and i'm stressing! Will my (90l) tank be ok for a few days like this? The heater is still on, i've increased it a bit so it stays warm without the filter pushing the water around but i'm so worried about it all. Will anything bad have come out of my filter when it went off? I'm about to do a water change but i'm still concerned. Will I have to change part of the water every day? Or will this stress them? Feel like such a newbie with all my questions but i'm so paranoid about losing any fish!

Will join in as I just discovered this and felt the need to read pretty much the whole thing.

I wish they had a HFF out in east Auckland. I love that place but it feels so far away when i'm tired and lazy on the weekends. Animates Botany it will be until that day.

I did have a big outbreak of Whitespot after introducing neons awhile back but it was treated and everyone lived through it, and there is no sign of it now. I also keep my tank at 28 and check them all everyday so I would have surely seen it by now. Very strange.

My Blue Rams have done this since I got them. I also have a Golden Balloon Ram who does it every now and then. It doesn't happen all the time but every now and then (the male ram usually) will throw himself down at the rocks and rub on them and carry on. None of my other fish do it and I have similar fish to you (9 neons, two bristlenose and a couple of swords) in tanks with them. They seem fine but i've always wondered what was going on.

I'm always at Animates Botany and the service has ranged from so good to so poor. Of course it always depends who you're talking to. The store manager their was awesome and seemed to know what she was talking about, telling me the tiny little baby fish in one of the tanks were some of her own and I had faith in her knowing she kept tropicals to. She's great at upselling too. I went in to buy driftwood and came out with three more kinds of fish food! I knew what she was up to but she was so happy and helpful that I wasn't phased about parting with my money. Some of the younger girls i've talked to are hopeless, a few look like they don't want to be there, and when I was there last Saturday I was a little frustrated because being the weekend it was pretty busy and the only people I could talk to were busy, and the others were reading me things off the back of the box. I do love the times when you can find someone to talk to who knows alot, or the people who admit they don't know much about fish and tell you who you should be talking to. Even though the service does seem to vary alot, I will still be buying from this Animates as I tend to do alot of research about what I need, and if it's in store that's awesome. It's also close to home and does have a big selection. I have walked out of there having a little tantrum in the past few weeks but you can't judge all staff on a couple of bad ones.

Having so much luck with them! I'm so happy! So cute.

Have wigglers! So many of them. 2 days old now. The parents are being super cute with them so i'm hoping I won't have any problems.

Thanks heaps for your reply. Lots of information will help! May have an update tonight, waiting for work to be over to go and see if I have anything moving around in the tank! They're about 40 hours old now which from what i've seen seems to be a common age for them to hatch. Crossing fingers! There's probably about 200 eggs in there but i'll be happy if even one survives!

So I just went to feed my fish and turn the light off and couldn't see my rams. They've just laid lord knows how many eggs, and they're a yellowy brownish colour so i'd assume they've got it right. Not their first spawn (bought as a pair) but the first one they're being allowed to raise. Trying to work out roughly how long until they hatch if they do? And what is best to feed them (not overly keen on this hatching brine shrimp if I don't have to). Freaking out because they're in a 40l tank and I'm wondering what on earth to do! Excited though!

I haven't bought a male yet because i'm picky. I want him to be perfect, not that i'm sure what I want. :roll: So god only knows what these five will look like from a random dad from animates! Can't wait until they colour up. Didn't really want babies at first but female guppies are so plain and mine was too pretty to not buy then and there. Can't believe how big they are! Almost as big as my swordtails even though they were born a week later!

Guppy fry are exciting! Mine looked like she was going to go on Sunday but I thought I wouldn't put her in the net because I was probably wrong so I left her and went out. Came home, found two babies and last night found another two. One more appeared this morning too. So happy because I thought they'd all have been eaten!

Ooh I would love to attempt a properly planted tank for my frog! He's currently on plastic plants because he was a bit of a spaz last year and decided it was good fun to destroy plants. Might try again after reading this.

90litres.

I am looking at getting a pair for my tank but wondering if anyone has had any issues with them being aggressive or anything before I do? I was tempted to put my blue rams in the tank too but I am unsure. Otherwise they'll be living with swordtails and a guppy, and then I need to think of other fish that can go in. Stocking a new tank is doing my head in and may take forever haha.

I've taken them out and they're already looking bigger. Not going to risk putting any back for awhile haha. Too excited hoping all 12 survive. Looking so good!

I did that for the first day but they're my first babies so I got a bit excited and thought other food might be better. :lol:

Just gonna revive this thread for a minute. I went in yesterday because I ended up having unexpected baby swordtail's and wanted to go find some other food for them. Went there because it was the only place open after 5 on a Sunday that was close. Picked up Liquifry (they only had two types of food) and when I got to the counter figured i'd ask if it was the right one (even when I know what I want to buy I can't help but check with the "fish expert" in case they can recommend something better) and the girl was like "Um, ah, um it should be ok. Um, *reads label* um, I think you should buy this one". Not helpful, and she looked like she didn't want to be there. Yes, it's Sunday, yes you're almost finished work and i'm bugging you, but smile! Just glad that even though i'm a newbie i google everything half a million times so I can find out what I should buy and whatnot, because if I went in there knowing nothing and looking for medication or something she could be doing so much harm! Rather off-putting. It's not hard to say "I don't know i'll go and find someone who does" or if you're going to work there do some basic research because it's better than nothing. :roll:

I've seen on the internet that in about 8 weeks they should be about right to go back in the tank. Obviously this will vary but it gives me a rough idea. Hopefully they grow fast because with two females i've realised I could be in for a lot more babies in a month or two!

I have one of those plastic traps with the bottom bit they drop through. May have to buy something a bit bigger because i've only just set up tank number two and don't really have the space to set up a third one for babies without expanding my fish collection to the lounge of my flat. Trying to work out how fast they will grow and when they can go into the tank without being eaten!

The woman at the shop said it's best to just let nature take it's course but I couldn't bring myself to let them get eaten! She still looks pretty dark so there may be more although this morning she jumped out of the breeding net back in to the tank. But at least I saved a few!

Just thought i'd share my excitement with everyone haha. Went to Animates yesterday as I've been setting up tank number two, and I wanted some swordtails to go in it. I bought a male and two females, didn't realise how heavily pregnant one of them was until I got home, so I scooped her out and put her in a breeding net, which we'd just stopped using for my evil balloon ram to have time out thank god! I felt bad about putting her in there so I decided maybe i'd just let her out, I looked in and there was three tiny little babies! By midnight there was 12. So in the space of a few hours i've gone from three swords to 15. So excited! First babies makes fish keeping an even more exciting hobby! Now hopefully my blue rams follow their lead.