Caryl

I am so out of touch with the fish scene these days I have no idea who is breeding what, or if anyone is breeding anything! Go to the tabs at the top of the page and look under LOCAL NZ Clubs for the contacts of Auckland clubs and go from there. You could also advertise the fry here once they are big enough. I prefer a tank of one type as their behaviour, when shoaling en masse, is totally different to what you seee if you only have 6 - 12 fish. I remember one member's tank (between 6 - 8 ft from memory) with several hundred neons. It certainly caught your eye! Cardinals are better, and live longer, but neons are cheaper - hence the preference by many for neons. I think you'll find an excellent article about breeding cardinls under Fish then Articles at the top of the page. The problem with raising fry is you have to get rid of them or become over-run. One way to try and break dominance is to remove the fish and rearrange the tank, putting the dominant fish back last. Today has been odd with sunshine, short showers, then sunshine again. We've been having glorious days with warm nor-westers then southerlies!

All tetras are schooling fish so are happiest in large numbers. They are happy to join other schools of fish - safety in numbers. When narrow fish get skinny if oten makes their eyes look bulgy. The females will carry eggs in varying numbers most of the time so if you have one spectacular looking male (who may have harassed the other males, you don't say what sex ratio you have) they will be getting their eggs ready in anticipation.

Good to hear the fry are doing well. These forums used to be a hive of activity but Google, FB and YouTube pretty much killed it with people preferring instant answers. Speaking of YouTube, here is a link to a Betta (not a goldfish as it says) to jump through a hoop so there's hope for you. Not sure about the flames bit though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEAqBNIa2mA I cut cucumber into 1cm slices and thread them all onto a plastic knitting needle, weighted down with a sinker. The Ancistrus clean the whole lot up, except the outer skins which are easy to lift out.

You may stay in your own island thank you very much 😁 Can't offer you coffee as we don't drink it so only have instant in the house for guests (the ones who have not turned into coffee snobs). So these fry hatched Sept 8th? If you can keep them alive for 30 days you should be right from then on. It is making sure they get enough food in the first 30 days that is the difficult bit. You can buy infusoria in a tube at fish shops if I remember rightly. Click and collect? Is pet food considered essential? Good luck!

You need lots of water changes in the fry tank as the egg yolk will foul the water quickly. Personally, I would stick to your usual water supply but I have no idea what is added to the Auckland water (apart from Covid tracings 😉 ) Fingers crossed!

Very little on the go these days. We have 1, 4ft tropical which just has Odessa barbs and Ancistrus. These have been self replenishing for years as the tank is also fill of C affinis, Anubias nana and rotala. The Odessa spawn all the time but only a few survive each time so I don't get over-run. Outside I have a 3m x 8m approx pond. I'm pretty sure the build of it is in these forums somewhere. It now needs re-doing after a few quakes but we can't find anyone to help. We are both too decrepit to manage it ourselves as we each have different health issues. Would love to landscape the whole front yard again but can't find anyone to do that either at the moment! Here are pics taken in May. Plants have grown even more since then!!

Having never bred them I can't offer any tips at all I'm afraid. I do know getting fry past the first 30 days is the hard part.

Neat photos. I thought the name might be because you had bearded dragons. You will have more success with the tetras if you set up a breeding tank, put the breeding fish in there and, once they have spawned and eggs are all over the place, remove the adults.

Make sure any water boatmen get eaten quickly as they can eat fry. How lucky you were to find a good source of daphnia in the CBD. I've just been to the supermarket for the first time since lockdown began. Got straight in and had no trouble getting everything on my list. When I left the were 30 in the queue so I obviously timed it well (while the Covid Update was on). Of course, I am not in Auckland either!

Well crypts 'melt' just for the hell of it so I imagine adding cold to the mix will make it worse. As freight can be held up as well these days I advise waiting until warmer weather.

I will try having a look at that Interfecus. How about I box up some plants, send then to you ghostknife, then tell you what it cost? It will be whatever the postage cost, plants are free. Are you still at the same address you were in April 2019? I have that one. I was just suggesting to someone else they wait until warmer weather. Especially with freight being held up a lot these days. I have nowhere here to buy heat pads to keep the plants warm and crypts are especially good at melting. I doubt the cold will improve matters!

I have affinis. The fish need a machete to get through it at the moment. Not sure it is the best time to send with it being so cold. I will be passing through Wgtn next week (coming across on the Interisland ferry) but unsure how to get any plants to you as we are heading north with limited time so can't deliver it to you.

To be honest I have no idea. Freight costs have gone up A LOT! It wouldn't surprise me if it was $15 - 20 just for the postage. Not sure what your reply means - do you want affinis and rotala?

You have bught plants from me before. I have rotala, Anubias nana and C affinis as usual.

I cannot speak from experience with these particular fish but understand these puffers come from a variety of different waterways with a wide variety of pH's - anything from 6.5 - 8.5. I have always said fish don't know what their pH is supposed to be but it helps if, at least at first, it matches the water from where you bought them, or is close to it. You then don't have to worry about shocking them with a sudden pH change. pH can be important if you're trying to breed a particular species but otherwise most species are fairly tolerant of quite a pH range.