Fee

Hi! Well as you can see we've been busy trying to get a website sorted out. I think I may actually be getting somewere, although there is still alot of work to do on it before i'll be happy. I have FINALLY got all the fish off the lists from my suppliers & all those that are in store onto the site. Things to note at present- These are fish that are available (not all are in store)- I will come up with a way of showing which are which in the near future. Photos are not loaded yet & may take some time, but I will get there. Most fish have a scientific name entered where possible- some of these MAY be incorrect or out of date- please let me know if you find one that's wrong (I'd like to be as accurate as possible). Stocks & prices vary: I will try to keep everything as up to date as possible. Other areas of the site are not finished, I'm going to be working on Aquariums and Watergardens sections over the weekend. Thanks, everyone who has visited the site & thanks for your patience Please feel free to e-mail me with ideas for what you would like to see on the site in the future!

My Discus at home have laid numerous batches, but the last batch finally became wigglers yesterday evening. They have made lots of mistakes, they started off in a community tank in the shop: 1st batch- male failed to fertilise the eggs and female only thought discus of the same colour were a threat an therefore let the golden ones eat the eggs. 2nd batch- Male followed directly behind the female eating the eggs as she laid them. Moved to a community tank at home: 3rd batch- much more parental concern showed with cleaning and fanning, however eggs probably unfertilised and disappeared altogether after 3 days. 4th batch- As previous 5th batch- Removed all other fish from tank after laying, however interference probably caused the eggs to be eaten in stress. 6th batch- Not many eggs seemed to be fertilised, alot of moldy ones, and then finally yesterday evening the remaining became Wrigglers!!! Very excited and proud of their improvement in parenting skills, not sure whether they will raise them successfully this time, as you can see every stage has been a bit confusing to them, but i'm sure they will continue to persevere and hopefully will get there in the end. I think that this lack of skill is partially due to their young age and possibly can also be attributed to the fact that most Discus available have been captive bred and raised artificially. Good luck with yours!

I have had good results with a product called Furan-2, it contains furazolidone, which one of the prefered treatments. it will not save a fish that has already become seriously affected.

I really like Red Tailed sharks although a small word of warning- a number of books describe them as peaceful with fish of other species, however in my experience this is not always the case- I have had them eating pretty much everything else in the tank and even attacking african cichlids (must have been out of its mind :lol: ). This seems to happen once they get to about 7cm if there are no other Red Tailed sharks for them to "play" with, or if the stocking levels of the tank are low.

Are you cleaning the pads in chlorinated water?

There is a product available called "Betta Fix" it's along the same lines as "Melafix" but stronger (Which in my opinion says alot about Bettas) I've never tried myself, it but as far as more natural products are concerned it may be worth a try.

just a couple of questions.. How Long has the tank been running? & Have you ever tested the Phosphate levels?

Got here this morning and the little rotters had already eaten the eggs :evil: oh well not to worry, i'll know better for next time anyway.

My Cockatoos spawned this morning, and Mum is duitifully looking after the eggs. I've got 1 Male & Two females in the tank, what is the advice as far as removing the male and other female- they don't seem to be overly bothering Mum at the moment, but what about once they fry become free swimming?

I think it's best to cover the bases, just in Case, I feed the African's Bio Suppliers "Seriously Green Tucker" as it is primarily vegies but also contains a small amount of protein in the form of small crustaetions. They seem to love this, and as some of the fish can be relativly expensive (5 Barred Lamprologus' for example) I would rather not take the chance- call me paranoid.

I've had a good search on there, but you can't be sure you haven't missed something, it's such a big site. They are still doing well- I lost two early on, but the four that are left seem pretty happy and are growing well and bossing the discus around. They have staked out a few territories and yesterday three of them were doing some pretty impressive shaking & wagging- total colour change, they seem to have 3 colour moods; dark grey, sparkley blue and at their crazy moments a creamy yellow with a bit of blue.

Bought a new book today "The most complete coloured lexicon of Cichlids" Having flicked quickly through it (I think it would take a few years to read thouroghly) The closest resembalence I can find is Apistogramma moae, however the fish in the book isn't so brightly coloured. I've done a search through probably every website mentioning the word Apistogramma and there are barely any pics of this moae, and those that there are are usually in funny lighting or dead which don't help me much!! Thank you all for your imput, I'll keep my eyes and ears open. At the end of the day they are still a lovely little fish and I guess that's what really matters

That's one of the pages I looked at on my search.. I'd like to breed them, but we'll have to wait and see once they have settled a bit more. They are really pretty and I hope they show up on a list again as I would buy more!!

I Recently purchased 6 Apistos for myself. They were sold as Blue Faced Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlids. But I am fairly confident that they are not Apistogramma cacatuoides. I've looked around the internet & the closest things I can find are maybe Apistogramma borelii or Apistogramma trifasciata- maybe... I phoned the importer and they are not sure either. Has anyone else seen them around or maybe purchased some and been able to make a positive ID? Mine are predominantly blue with blue facial striations on a greyish background. At present the don't seem to have developed any dorsal extensions but I may have to study them more closely.

I had an older angel that died a while ago- it was spiralling and looked bloated- I was a bit concearned over the cause of death so I had the fish sent away for autopsy. The results came back as kidney failiure as a likely result of old age. Old age probably wasn't a factor in your fish, but alot of internal disorders like tumors etc can cause strange behaviour and bloating.

Midas, Just check that the intake is not near an air stone or bubble as a bubble may get sucked up once in a while a cavitate around the impellor. This would cause a bit of a noise.

Fluval also have surface skimmers available; It has an adjustable flow valve which allows a majority of the water to enter from the surface thus increasing oxegenation of the water as well as drawing a small portion throught the base of the unit. This surface skimmer attachment replaces the origional intake tube completely and is relativley compact. Blockages would be stopped because only floating debris can be drawn towards the intake from the surface, therefore roots etc. would not get tangled up in it. The intake is protected from blockage by a comb thingy so that leaves and fish can't get sucked in. This unit also fits most other canister filters and is available in two sizes.

Just to add to point 1: We use and recommend transporting the turtle in Vermiculite if it is transit for a period of time. Vermiculite keeps the turtle dry yet moist as it can hold 100% or 1:1 of its volume with water.

Hi Ira, I was talking to Shane Paul at "Goldfish Galore" (just outside of Hamilton) quite a few months back and he mentioned that he had live rock available. I'm not sure if he still does as he isn't open very often any more, but he may be someone to try and get hold of; the number is 07 824 7797

Hi Ira, What filtration are you using? what other fish are in the tank? and did the cichlids eyes go cloudy before they died?

The AquaClears to which you are refering are still available from Hagen, I havn't looked on their web site, but I can still buy them and I stock five different sizes. The AquaClear series does also include powerheads and the 575 is a quick filter or water polisher.

I have never bred Rainbows myself, but I have read that placing the tank in a position that receives morning sun helps to induce spawning. Obviously I don't know how well this works, but I used to have the Rainbows in my shop in a tank that recieved quite a bit of sun and since I moved them out of that postion there has been a lot less colour or flirting.

I lived in Dorset for 2 years, Canford Magna near Wimborne. It's a beautiful area.

Hi Clothahump, where abouts in Dorset are you??

Yes, we have stuck rocks using silicone on a number of occassions, we have found that rocks must be very clean and non-porous to sitck sucessfully. We use the same silicone as we use for aquariums, an acid curing silicone that is suitable for use in aquariums. Another product that is suitable is an epoxy resin, available from most fish shops, will cure under water, but is a little bit more expensive than silicone.