Michael

hi I'm selling cichlids at the moment, Malawis and tanganyikans, I've got a post in the private trade section. They're all in pretty good nick except the female peacocks which got beaten up before spawning recently (both brooding eggs at present), also more mature fish than you often see in shops. Wet pets Palmerston North can be good for cichlids, varies a bit, but always used to be good displays there of all sorts of fish (not so much marines), worth a visit. Good round trip for you, up through the Wairarapa and back down the coast if you feel like sight-seeing. We got most of our cichlids from Tropical Blues in Tirau, have always been impressed with what's on offer there and seems to keep getting better. Once you're there, Auckland's just a skip away and aquarium shops there are in a different league really, Hollywoods, Jansens etc usually have variety and some good deals. cheers Michael

I have one in place that's going well for separating cichlid fry into one end of the tank - just a thin piece of perspex with some holes drilled. I cut it a bit wider than the tank and flexed it into place. Perspex came off an old display board, its about 2mm thick.

Quite an interesting discussion on all this. Seems like our cichlids might have been suffering from ammonia poisoning rather than oxygen deficiency. But another plus for the plants versus bugs: plants don't die and produce ammonia when the power goes off, or the filter stops for some reason. As for Andrew's comment on the fish in the plant tank, well. . . I had thought, maybe just a couple. . . Perhaps the system would be prone to a little human error. Michael.

Had a power cut recently - hence all gurgling etc stopped in my son's tank. It was the middle of the night so I just put a blanket over it and thought, I'll sought it out in the morning. Come morning, temp was fine. Fish panting a bit though (my son's cichlids don't hang around the top when short of oxygen, they pant - ie heavy breathing). Surprising because there are only a half dozen 3-4 inch cichlids, a 5 inch loach and a handful of fry (36" x 15" tank - forgive the imperials please). Anyway, power came back on but the air pump, which had siphoned water into itself through the air line, was not happy . Now with the power filter going and the heater on, the fish really started panting. The pump fortunately responded to some drying out and was now raring to go :lol: so I hooked up to the airstones in the under-gravel uptakes. Fish still panting after some time. I had recently read about an interesting issue with filtration: the bugs in the filter that turn ammonia to nitrate use oxygen, whereas plants that also use ammonia release oxygen. I thought I should apply this bit of info. I stopped the power filter, took the airstones out of the undergravel filter uptakes and just let the bubbles rip. Fixed the problem, but took about half an hour (conclusive evidence? or not?). After that the old system with filtration was OK. It would be interesting to know how the oxygen demand in various filters compares with that of the fish. I think in this case it could have been greater. I remember reading somewhere that the worms and inverts in a field of pasture have a greater bodymass than the weight of stock the field can support. I wonder if it could be a bit like that with bugs and fish? Incidentally the article on filtration suggested plants as an alternative to filtration. How about circulating the water through a plant tank? Algal filter? Michael.

Really great to find this article on tank-making. I did a few web searches on this and was surprised to get nothing. I had thought there would be a lot of info out there. I tendered on a couple of sets of old shower doors at the Manawatu Tender Centre. One was tempered glass, 3 panes about 1.6m by 50cm, the other 4 panes of laminated glass the same length but narrower. I missed out on the former, got the latter for $11. I figured I could use three panes for the front, back and base, and scratch around for something for the ends. I might have a go at cutting one laminated pane though (for the tank ends), because I think it may be faintly possible. Anyway, I'm interested to see what info turns up about laminated or tempered glass. These old shower units might be a good source of cheap glass. Anyone used them before? Michael.

Are there any fish shows in NZ on a larger scale than regular club meetings? Can anyone direct me to a source of info on this? Michael