Pegasus

Hi Caper, Might be time to consider putting a bit of mesh over the filter intake.. or a cage of some sort to stop the fish getting sucked up there. Some "Ladies hair curlers" of the perforated type might be ideal to slip over the end with a bit of mesh covering the open end bit. Bill.

Hi all the members of the Poecillia Club. The June issue of the Guppy Express went out this evening, so if you are a member and have not recieved a copy by this time tomorrow, please let me know and I will forward one by return mail. Regards, Bill.

Fantastic when that happens John... all those freebies I used to grow a plant in the UK called a Pygmy Chain Sword.. not sure if you have them here.. but hey.. under the right conditions they would cover the base of the tank with little "bubs" in no time flat. Great stuff Bill.

I "breed" them in two foot by 15" deep tanks (600x375mmx300mm).. and usually leave both parents in with them for around ten days.. then move the parents out and feed the fry up in the two footer until they are around 25mm high (tip to tip).. then they go in the 900x450mm grow out tanks. Find a piece of plastic water pipe around 40mm diam. Prop it securely in the corner at an angle and they will soon start cleaning it up if they are a pair.... and ready Bill.

T&V asked: Power consumption.. It would possibly have a 1/4hp motor. Noise... They ain't quiet. Plumbing... Reducing from around 1" (25.4mm) bore to the size you need would be a hassle.. plus create back pressure on the pump. Once running it would "have" to stay on to be effective. Noise 2... The outlets going into the tank would create quite a bit of water noise... let alone turbulence. Location.... Under the house job.. not suited to a lounge. According to what you have said already, I don't think the filtration is your prob. Bill

You could consider holding onto say the best 6 or so of the best females (if they are virgins).. and you know the bloodline they came from. Then once you find a decent male (or males).. you can set some trio's up and go from there. It's no guarantee you will get good fish from the mix .. but you might get some decent future breeders after a few generations. Bill.

Unless you are trying to "raise" the pH, you should avoid using these, as they could break down and cause some cloudiness. The fish you keep are known diggers,, so is this possibly the problem..? What do you "actually" do between the crystal clear time and 9am...? Bill.

Would be nice to know the tank size.. and the glass thickness Bill.

Last time I was in Dubia I was pushed against a wall and had half a dozen automatic weapons pointed at my back. (musta looked suspicious ) A frightening experience.. so I wouldn't go back.. even for a look at such a great tank. Bill.

Pies said: Don't know if you are aware Mark.. but they "still" use leeches "and" maggots in methods of repairing un-healable wounds... even today.. with all the technology. There was a doco on tv recently about this very thing, as the infection is eaten away by the critters and new cells begin to grow. As to the filters.. As I said.. "Under the right conditions".. and there are many thousands of aquarists throughout the world that don't use "any" form of mechanical filtration.. but rely on the balance of the tank to control their situation... Bill.

Suphew said: Very controversial subject this, and another kick in the guts for the poor old UGF's that have served the fish keeping hobby for over fifty years. As regards beneficial area for bacteria storage.. the UGF would have several hundred times more area than "any" filter of the canister type, and under the "right conditions".. can be set up and forgotten for many years. Cost for cost.. both initial price and ongoing cost.. there is little to beat it, and as far as "tubes looking obtrusive and noisy".. this is up to the individual, as tubes can be hidden far easier than a hunking great canister sat at the back of your tank... or elsewhere. There "is" a place for the UGF.. and there always "will" be.. as time has well proved.. otherwise they would not be still for sale. Most top line filters today are bought because of the name.. or because of some recommendation, but it would be true to say that half the world's users of power filtration would not really need those expensive ornaments if they learned how to balance their tank conditions correctly. To put it simply.. many of this type of filter are bought to rectify the mess that the fishkeeper is creating.. not what the fish are creating. (Overstocking.. overfeeding.. lack of water changes.. bad management.. etc) About time someone stuck up for the UGF.. good one Phil Bill.

Hi Helene, There were quite a lot of Mollies for sale some time back with this extended ventral fin trait. Can't remember where I saw the pic.. possibly on an OS board.. but the ventral fin had become so big it was almost like a second tail, and the males from this batch had gono's so extended that they were useless for breeding... so obviously the genetic engineers had been having a go at something or other. It was a one time thing.. and I saw no more of it after that. You say that it could be a "Swallow Tail".. but swallows have twin extensions (not four).. and the top and bottom sword tail (Doublesword) would possibly carry that name in some parts of the world. I suppose the "Ribbon Tail" is just a name someone called their variation. There's a lot of confusion with names, like the Cobra is often called the Snakeskin.. the Pintail often called the Sword.. (but has a central single pointed extension).. the Yellows called the Gold .. the Twin/Double Sword called perhaps the Swallow.. the Roundtail often called the Combtail.. the Fantails, Triangles and Veiltails we would normally call Deltas.. but the angle.. shape and length determines which is which.. and so on. Guppy classification always "was" complicated.. and they even changed the name to confuse us more. I "did" see something of interest which I posted on the Poecilia site, http://poecilia.net.nz/members/messages/ which may be of interest to others. All is not what it seems... I've often wondered "why" they only bring certain sexes of fish into this country... namely males. For our considerations, the Male is signified by the prefix XY... and the Female by XX.. but now I find out that they have produced not only XX Males... but also YY males... but wait.. there's more as the ad says.. They have also produced YY Females.and also XY FEMALES... So what has all this to do with males coming into the country you may ask..? Well.. here's the thing. The XY Male is the one that carries the gene to determine the sex of the offsping.. and the XX Female is just the carrier of that gene.. as she is in a number of things... however.. By crossing the XX Male to a normal XX Female the result is 100% FEMALES By crossing the XX Male with the XY Female, then the XY-female produces 25% daughters, 50% normal sons as well as 25% YY-males! On the other hand, if the YY Male as mentioned above was mated to a normal XX Female.. then it would produce 100% MALES. Prior to all this they could control the outcome ratio of males and females by feeding gravid females with either oestrogen-enhanced or testosterone-enhanced food The Genetic Scientist has stepped in, and now these XX YY males and females are fully functional, in all respects, and by the look of things are producing millions of offspring for the big names in the overseas export industry. Possibly they are doing this overseas to prevent certain species being reproduced to a high standard. Happy Days Bill.

Hi Tek, Welcome to the NZ Fishroom. Good to see you have posted in the Killie Section, as you will get all your answers there. You might consider joining the NZKA.. (Contact Alan).. where you will be in touch with other breeders, and possibly have access to other species of Killie. Bill (Pegasus)

Hi Helene, Funny you should mention this. I have a male Guppy that I have watched developing. At first I thought it was a Top Sword... then I thought it was a Double Sword.. but then it seemed to develop into a Triple Sword.. but now looks like it is dragging a "torn coloured flag" behind it At this point I began to wonder if something had taken a good munch from it's tail.. but the extensions it shows are quite uniform... and is definitely some form of trait from the breeding that it is carrying. It's only a quite small male, compared to my others, and to be honest it is in the cull tank ready for feeding out.. but I "may" just stick a couple of virgin F1 females in another tank with it and see what develops The F1's are from large bodied quality females.. so who knows what the results will be. Some of the fry from another batch of F1's are now just over a month old and are showing some fantasic tail colours .. mainlly solid red at the moment. Hopefully these will develop into some good breeding stock. Just had another look at it.. 3:10am The tail is now in "four" seperate extentions.. and the "splits" as it were.. extend to half the length of the tail... but don't come to points as in the Swordtail... and the dorsal is also quite long as the tip of it .. (which is quite thin and stringy).. extends well past the front part of the tail. The rear half of the body is a very dark (almost black).. blue colour, while the tail is variety of colours, with the forward body area is a silvery green almost. Sorry... before you ask... no camera he he. Must get the daughter to take a decent pic of it. Shall we christen it the Poecilia Quadrupilatus GEEZ Helene... I'm not gonna get to sleep now... (Bill thinks... "Now how do I go about fixing this gene for the tail...? "Well... I could start by.... "... Ha ha. "Ok Guppy... you got two months to show your stuff... then you are history " Great stuff Helene Good to see your posts again, Bill.

Scooby said: It was not long ago that a NZ Goldfish Breeder on TV said that he was exporting fancy Goldfish for... $5,000:00 each He apparently exports many hundreds of thousands of the more common types each year. Bill.

Choice... we now have "ChatterVision" Good one Jude

Hi Shaun, Good to have you join us. If you are just setting up... do it slowly over a period of time. Thing is.. the site is open 24/7.. so there's tons of stuff to read up on Catch you around. Bill.

What's up Alan... can't sleep.. Just looking at your pic here NM.. What is the tank sat on...? It's not a radiator or gas heater is it..? What temperature does the tank get to... have you any idea...? Certainly a bit mystifying. Bill.

From Nemo's mum.. This (IMO) is a big mistake. You have a problem that needs isolating "before" you start to add new fish, so now you are getting a repaeat of what happened in the first instance. You say: If this is happening with the NEW fish.. then your water is VERY toxic, or they are being poisoned in some way, as seemingly healthy fish just don't keel over and die for no reason. To find the problem.. take the fish out of the tank and put them somewhere. Empty the tank COMPLETELY and wash out thoroughly in a very mild bleach solution... then rinse out thoroughly and refill with fresh water. DON'T add ANYTHING... no salts.. no gravel or ornaments. Leave it to stand for a few hours to disapate any chlorine. Put the fish back and leave for a day or so... feed sparingly. If you get no losses after a week.. then the prob is in the things you are adding.. so they "may" look pretty.. but dump them. Bill. .

There might be a member that ccould nip around and have a look at your tank if we knew your location... NZ is a big place Welcome to the NZ Fishroom BTW Bill.

Hi again, Tank looks ok, and your feeding is ok too, so hopefully we will get some other suggestions. Only other thing is this white slime you mention, which might have been the start of fungus.. possibly through the fish flicking on the gravel or something. Did you notice them doing this.. or any other symptoms you can give us..? They "may" have also been stressed out through the move.. it's hard to say. Bill.

Hi NM, Welcome to the NZ Fishroom.. Add your location to your profile and introduce yourself in the Welcome section. Your fish... ? Three Goldies... Ten Litres.. not really a good mix. Goldies are great starter fish, and wonderful for getting the kids interested in the hobby. Hard to say from your post what caused their demise, but my guess is it could possibly have been caused by overfeeding which has caused your tank water to become harmful very quickly. With only ten litres of water you would need to be doing water changes just about every other day to keep the water in condition. Goldies are messy eaters, and produce several times more waste than most other fish (size for size).. so they need much more cleaning out than most tanks.. and this is escalated because of the small area you have. If you replace the fish, then just get a couple of the smaller ones and do regular partial water changes several times a week. There are means of removing some of the wastes that the fish produce, like special filters and such, and we will be happy to explain all this or direct you to the info. All the best,

Hi Pearlyred, Don't have a pic.. but I'm sure there will be some on the net. When your Swordtails are pregnant.. (they always "will" be if they have been with males in a tank).. they become darkened around the vent area. The darker this area.. the closer she is. She will of course get quite a bit fatter around the belly area. Avoid putting her in a breeding trap if possible, as my view is that this stresses the fish out. Throw heaps of floating plants in the tank if you don't have a separate tank to put her in. Quite a number will survive, and they are fairy prolific breeders, so you should get drops of fry around every six or so. HTH:)

Hi Kirsty, Good to have you join us. Looks like you have the bug alright... but please... take your time with the fish.. don't overstock if it's a new setup.. and read all you can in the meantime. Bill.

Hi again Roy, I second the above... "No probs with your English".. Great stuff that you have learned a second language. Oscars... Yes.. we have lots here, as we most fish species. The ones you don't "generally" see over here are such fish as Piraha.. Tilapia... and such, plus many fish are restricted like Koi Carp (although many have them).. and our fisheries control board (MAF) are very strict about what is allowed here due to many reasons.. but it all boils down to protecting our waterways and restricting unwanted species into the country. Certain plants are also on the restricted list. At the head of te main site you will see a "FNZAS Homepage" title on the right. Click on this and you will go to another part of the site. You will find some details of restricted fish.. plus a breeders list... plants and so forth. Hope that helps, and hope you find lots of interest here All the best. Bill (Pegasus NZ)