Caryl

Good to meet you. Hope you enjoy your time here.

See how much shade it has and how much plant is in there? The silk tree overhangs and makes a mess (so I have a LOT of gunge on the bottom) but the water is clear. It is not always though. White or pale fish can get melanomas if they have no place to hide (decks, lily leaves etc) from direct sun. This pond has overhanging decks at either end (about a metre) so there is a lot of water under there as well. These stop the water from freezing over totally in winter as well, so does the waterfall.

You do realise they can breed for several months without a male required? They can store sperm for several more droppings of fry without needing to be impregnated again. Sisters are doin' it for themselves :happy2:

I often think my pond has not done much until I look at the 'before' and 'after' pics then realise how much everything has grown! Yours is looking good preacher.

You will find lots of pics of my pond in the coldwater section. Have a look at the entire Photobucket pictorial of the build from scratch here I have had my pond 5 years and have yet to clean it at all. A lack of plants will not be helping. The green gunge build-up on the bottom is natural. I happily leave mine there although I am aware it will need to be thinned out eventually :-? If you have a lot of overhanging plants or trees these will be dropping leaves into the pond, adding to the gunge. Trim them back or cover the pond. If you plant a lot of plants to cover no more than 3/4 of the surface, it should help keep the water clear. Too much direct sunlight will make the water go green. Unsightly but good for the fish. The white ones especially sa it protects them from cancer. If the pond is not too big, or an awkward shape, you could put shade cloth over it. Either up high like a shade sail, or shade netting down low just above the water line. My pond is full of oxygen weed which I pulled from the river that runs through the middle of town - free. I also have a number of lilies. I will go and take more pics of the pond as it is now. At some times it goes green then it goes crystal clear again.

Are you in a hurry Joe? Conference is in Tauranga this year (June) and Grant and I will be attending. I am sure many from Auckland will be driving down and could bring a tank with them. We could bring it back with us.

Isn't it good to be able to see how different tanks have developed? Looking good!

As pointed out in your other thread Will, your tank is too small for 2 bristlenoses.

Welcome to the forum. A group of males should be fine (fish that is :roll: )

Or wait to hear back from Tim at Inside Oceans

We have a trade and exchange here Club meetings are also a good source.

I like the "Mark scaled the tree and reacquired the bird." :happy1:

If you go plain glass contact Inside Oceans in ChCh.

I must be honest and say I haven't looked but I am sure if I saw one in a pet shop I would notice it!!! :-?

Perhaps they are more common in the North Island? I don't remember seeing them anywhere :dunno:

Are those gouldians available in NZ or did you breed them overseas doddle69?

Viewsonica flooficus

Doesn't everyone???

Join the Upper Hutt Aquarium Society Welcome to the forums too!

I should have made the connection as well as I too, have them on my monitor. Plus I have these... Can you sex them Joe? Are you going to keep your floofie fry?

This isn't floofie Joe but I thought you would like it. It is a rainbow finch...

My room is currently 29C. Surely your room temp will stay reasonable for a 6 hour period at this time of year?

The reason for culling, rather than letting them all grow up, is usually a matter of space required.

Maybe not but it would be a lot less stressful

The water may have gone cloudy as a result of a bacterial bloom after the big rainfall. These bacteria use up a lot of oxygen. As the fish were gasping I would say depleted oxygen was the problem, thanks to the bloom. Adding a large airstone for a while would help too. I have had problems with my pond in the past winter. Every time we had a heavy downpour, I lost fish. Water stayed clear though and no fish were gasping anywhere. Interestingly, I have spoken to several others around the country who reported the same thing. Big pond, heavy rainfall, sudden deaths. All had well established ponds and had never struck this problem before. The only thing we thought was maybe the very mild winter may have had something to do with it, allowing more bacteria (of the bad kind) and stuff to flourish when usually they would be killed off in the cold.