Pegasus

Hi Ira, Get a net backscubber... or net mop as used in the bathroom or kitchen. Cut the tie in the centre and unfold. There's around two metres of mesh here with about 4mm holes, and it is ideal for the purpose. You could even just drape it in the tank so that it goes just a few inches below the surface. This would save you making the net box up, and would be easier to store. Looking at the piece I have in my hands right now, it can be easily stretched to over a half metre wide on it's width once the stuff is cut down it's length, as it comes in tube form, and is what was used for the breeding traps my daughter made and I posted about. (see pics on my site) Any supermarket sells the net mop things, so you should have no probs. Regards, Bill (Pegasus)

See the Heating Multiple Tanks post in this section Dianna. Email me your ideas... I'm keen on more thoughts about this.

Hi Frank, welcome to the forum. Just jump in and get your feet wet... lots of info, and lots of fun. Bill (Pegasus)

Would feeding the females in the breeding tank then adding the males work? Yup, that would work... just lower the water.

Hi Shilo, The system would also work that way. I did a little test by placing two thermometers in the lowest tank, (one futhest from the heat source) and the temp is the same in both the upper and lower regions, and is within one degree of the tank with the heater. My original "Fry Saver" had a tube right to the bottom of the pail, and from the trials on that I decided to apply it to tanks. This filter thing is going to take a lot of thought, and I am looking at a system that will not cost me an arm and a leg to replenish when the time comes. I'm also looking at using one of those nylon boxes you get to store kids toys, as this could be chopped and changed easier than glass. Good to see you are keen on the DIY HI Jaze, Sound like you have the perfect place to sit and dream how it will all turn out. The cascade system on the link I posted would look choice if you had the room Regards, Bill (Pegasus)

Hi all, Here's a couple of links that may inspire the DIY in you. They were provided by Delta (Dianna) on the Boronia forum in Australia, http://pub64.ezboard.com/bboroniaaquari ... ctivepages which by the way is another great site. The ideas are simple, but could add another dimension to your fishkeeping hobby. and with a bit of thought could be altered to suit your needs :) www.theprofishionals.com....hitek.html http://www.mrfelix.com/storyofwater/designs.html Thanks once again for the links Dianna. Regards, Bill (Pegasus)

Shilo said, Problem here is "Balance". You can never balance the siphons exactly, and in the event of one of the siphons failing, you would end up either flooding or emptying a tank. With the above system, the worst that could happen would be the overflows getting blocked with plant matter, which can be avoided if the correct strainer is used. There are no tubes to suck in this system, as it is air driven, or you could use a powerhead. Sure have :) In fact I tried that very thing last night. I am trialing a filter medium that .... well.... shall we say "It just didn't come up to expectations" Early days yet. I have dozens of tanks waiting to be fitted into my fishroom, but until I am absolutely sure the trial systems work (which the cascade one does... flawlessly) then they can remain unfilled. Hi Caryl, As I mentioned originally, the cascade system is nothing new, but the basis for this can be used for so many things, from just saving on heaters and such, to fantastic filtration systems, or just a simple fry saver. I have a single cascade on the end of my big tank with a pair of spawning Angels in. It runs off the main tank and has allowed me to combine the same conditions as the tank they came out of, with no concerns about water conditions and such. Hi Jaze, The "Betta Condo" in this section might suit your needs, as all you need is a piece of spouting and some nylon screen mesh. Thanks for your input folks.... I just love this DIY stuff. Sorry about the sleepless nights Dianna :) Regards, Bill (Pegasus)

Hi, How are the Zebras doing Ira,... any results yet ? Kriber sent me a PM asking about the net breeder mentioned above. The link is here : http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=105 He also asked about the "secrets" to spawning the Zebras, but there's no secret. Best results are obtained if you can seperate your fish into males and females. Feed them well, preferably on live food, but not imperative. The females will fill out over a few days to a week, and the breeding area should be set up ready for their arrival. As mentioned, I used three males to one heavy female, but two will work fine. They will spawn in groups, using the same 2 or 3 to one system. Temperature. Well zebras can live in a wide range of temperatures, and I've kept them in unheated tanks and spawned them, but around 75 to 78deg should do fine. If the pairs are ready, they don't seem to mind a few degrees either way. Set the box netting ... or whatever you use, about four inches off the bottom of the tank, with around four to six inches of water above the base of the net. This gives them little time to gobble up the eggs that are scattered as the females dash around and the males follow spreading their milt. If they start eating the eggs they will lose interest. Put the fish into the breeder late in the day prior to lights out. If they are in good condition and ready to spawn, the eggs will be laid early the next day. Many sites (even today) recomend using marbles... which work fine... but what a pain. Sure enough, the eggs drop down between the marbles, and invariably the fish can't reach them, but to get to the eggs you have to remove all of these marbles... very carefully. The choice is yours, but I find the netting gives the best results with the heaviest yeilds, and the least stress to the fish. Hope this helps Kriber.

Hi again Joey, Watching the overflows you can actually see the flow of water shooting down to the lower regions of the tank below. If a bit of duckweed gets sucked in, (which it will if you don't use the strainer on the overflows) you can see it shoot down at least two thirds of the tank depth, so obviously there is good circulation. Regards, Bill (Pegasus)

HI all, There's a nice little site here that is not too technical, and has heaps of info on tail shapes and colouration (purples etc) http://guppyplace.tripod.com/index.html If you want to get deeper into the subject, then inputting "Guppy Genetics) into your browser will .....................send....... .........Argggg .... you .... absolutely..... potty ..... with ..... info :)

Hi Joey, Great to see you on the forum again. Been watching for you on the "other" board, but don't see you there much. If you look here in the technical section, there's a thing called a fry saver. The same concept could be used as a filtration system. Some form of seperator would be needed to just clear the bottom of the pail, and the return (overflow) would draw water from beneath this seperator. Stagnant Water ??? In the cascade system, the water is lifted from the lowest tank, and from the lowest "level" of that tank. The water from this is pushed (by whatever means... airlift... powerhead) up to the highest tank in the line. The water from this (the highest tank) overflows into the next lowest.... and so forth, so there is no "stagnant water" allowed to settle, as everything is on the move. I still run a box filter in each tank on my setup, but am working on a central unit for the whole bank. If you intend using a single heater, you must keep track of evaporation, for if the tanks get low on water, the overflows cease to work, and if the overflows cease to work, then the temp could drop in one or more tanks. Thanks for the feedback Joey. Any probs... you know where I am :) Regards, Bill (Pegasus)

Hi Frances, We love for people to "burble on" :) What a great interesting post. Hope to hear a lot more about your efforts, as there are quite a few of us going down that path just now :) Regards to Peter if you meet up again. Bill (Pegasus)

Hi Dianna, The rounded tail is not quite as large as the delta tail (not yet anyway... as these are still young) but I imagine by the time they mature that it would be about 15mm or more in diameter, and hopefully I can improve on that. Often you might get a great tail, but the rest of the fish is poor, or the angle of the fin is wrong, so it takes a lot of dedicated time to get the results you want. There may be bigger ones (rounded tails) out there at the moment (I don't get to the LFS's much) but there's plenty on the websites that show the varios types, along with line breeding and such. Cees posted a couple of links (A Few Guppy Links) in this section that were quite good. Guppys 'R' Us is another good site. Regards, Bill (Pegasus)

Hi there Colin, Real pleased to see another Discus lover here, a warm welcome to you. Lots of members here with Discus. Everyone is... or should be in bed (2:56am), .... me... I'm just a night hawk Hoping to start with some juvi discus shortly, so I'm watching all the related posts with interest. Great to see you here. Bill (Pegasus)

Guppies are just about born pregnant (gravid) They can drop their first lot by six weeks old, and can take twice this time to dry them out, but even then, there's no guarantee that they will throw true to type. I have some nice round tailed ones on the go at the moment, and a buttercup coloured one that is about to drop any time now. I also have several good looking males that I hope to improve on. An example is : We recently bought some Sailfin Black Mollies. These were hand picked for their true black colour and shape of the finnage. They are still throwing rubbish (mottled... patchy... poor fins...) even after their third drop, depite having top notch males. No other livebearers are with them, or have been with them since they were purchased. Takes lotsa time and space Dianna if you want a quality guppy But don't give up, the end result is usually worth it, even if it is only for your own satisfaction. Regards, Bill (Pegasus)

Hi Frances, Saw you had registered but remained hidden for a while. Glad you decided to join us. Welcome to the forum. Would be nice to hear about your fish in the Welcome section. Bill (Pegasus)

Hi All, A few pics here (at last) showing the system working. Only three tanks are set up as a trial at the moment, but the system has worked flawlessly since it was set up. One or two things I will do with the next lot are, Add a small piece beneath each rectangular overflow to prevent dripback. This only happens if the water gets low due to evaporation, and when it happens and the water has less flow, the water tends to dribble back along the underneath of the rectangular overflow pipe. A small piece of plastic stuck beneath the pipe prevents this, as can be seen on the tank with the yellow overflow. The other point is, I would not use the knife holders again, as I find they can't cope if the flow is increased, so I would opt for the 40mm type. The pics are here : http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/grumpy ... 0Tanks.htm Happy Days Bill (Pegasus)

Hi again Ira, You can also force them to the surface with heat from the base of the box. Another option is to tip the lot into an onion sack supspended over an open box. Heat from above will force them to drop through the sack and into the box. Seems a shame to dump them just in case there's some still in there.

Sounds good Ira. My main WW culture packed a sad and I flooded it for a while. It's in a large plastic washing up bowl (I prefer wood, but...) It brought all the worms to the top and I scooped em up and started another culture. Might work for you :)

HI PW , Ira, Never heard of using a colander. The Danios are among the fastest swimming fish we keep, and none interested males will quickly snap up any eggs that hang around for too long. I suppose it would work, but the Danios and Barbs like the chase, and I found the box net gave the most productive results. The females are deeper bodied and much rounder Ira, plus the males seem a bit smaller, so chances are you have at least a pair. Feed them up for a while and you should see a difference. There could be some finnage differences in the Hi Fins.... not too sure... must have a closer look at the daughters 8 or 10

Hi Ira, I tried many ways and many setups, from marbles to slatted bases, to stuffing from old chairs (horse hair) to heavily planted tanks, but the most successful method that gave optimum results for the Danios and Barbs was the box of mesh net as mentioned. A two foot tank works, but some of my breeding tanks were three foot but only ten inches high. Just lower the mesh box into the tank and peg it about three or four inches off the bottom. They scatter the eggs and they drop through beneath the netting. The tank is bare bottomed, so the eggs can be left there and the adults easily removed without disturbing anything. Never bred the Hi Fins, (daughter has some just about ready) but I can't see them being much different. I used three males to each heavily filled female. I also kept them seperate for a few days prior to spawning with both the Danios and the Barbs. I fed almost exclusivly on live food during the seperation, to both the females and males. If the females are ready, then the males are more than keen to oblige :) Even a single layer of mesh supported off the base of the tank by a light wire frame would work in preference to a box type. As long as the mesh has around two to four millimetre holes it should work ok. Happy Days, Bill (Pegasus)

My wife and daughter just visited Hollywood yesterday. They said the tanks in both the marine and tropical were excellent, with not a sick fish to be seen, and lots of variety, and also commented that the staff were very helpful. They came away very happy :)

HI Kriber, Choice you found the eggs and fry before you flushed them :) If the worms are flattish and have pointed ends, these seem to appear after a bout of overfeeding. Don't ask me how they get there, but they don't seem to cause any harm and seem to vanish in a day or so. There's a post about them somewhere.... but finding it is a different matter Regards, Bill (Pegasus)

There is an option in the codes you can input where you can have a one to one conversation without others seeing what is being said. Tried a few times, but the room is always empty... perhaps it's haunted

Hi there Larry, A warm welcome to you and your good wife. Hope you find some interest here, or possibly create some more interest in the Lake Malawi and Tanganyika species. Certainly got your hands full with 135 tanks, and it seems you've found a good lady with the same interests. (my wife is as keen as I am I'm a CT member as well, and like this, it is also a great forum. Look forward to seeing your posts. Happy Days, Bill (Pegasus) .... (Pegasus NZ)