JaSa

Cheapest submersible pump from Bunnings will do: Click That one puts out HEAPS of water with 2m head & through a 13mm, 5m long hose... Cheers, JaSa

Lol @ blueether: I only managed to give you ONE lot and you still stuck with them? Must be very fertile, eyh? I have now way more tanks so you can imagine how much are floating around atm.... How are the Leopard Fish doing? @leetric0: I have probably 100 - 200 that have to go if you want. Blond x Albino, Asia Blue, Wild Type, Blond, ordinary Gray ones, ... all mixed up. Let me know... Cheers, JaSa

Male Blackbar Endler Guppies trying to impress the ladies: Cheers, JaSa

Thank you guys for your help I was more thinking about a fish that can handel adult guppies - should have mentioned that in my first posting, sorry. I normaly raise 2-3 batches of fry, separate the females from the males and leave them alone for 3-6 month. After that I select what fish I will use for the next generation. The guppies I have left over are therefore fully grown... The Butterfly fish looks promising. Any other ideas? Cheers, JaSa

Hi there. I always have too many guppies from my various breeding projects. Therefore looking for a fish that is not too big in size but comes with a BIG appetite for little fish. In the past I had Belonesox belizanus but like most fish he is a big No-No in NZ. So if you can give me some ideas what to use that would be cool. Thanks, JaSa

F1 of Blau2 x Albino at the age of 2 month: Blau2 transforms red into blue/green in heterozygous fish. That is a good way to tell the difference between Blau1 and Blau2. As you can see there are two typs in the F1. First 2 pictures show type1 and picture 3 & 4 show typ2. I won't use any of these since the father (Click) is still alive and he will be put together with a couple of his daughters out of F1 ... F1 of Albino x Lutino; 2.5 month old: As you can see, there are two different typs again in F1. I will most likely use the fish in picture 1 for F2. There should be Albinos, Lutinos and Gray ones then. Little Tiger Platy: Cheers, JaSa

Marley Gold PVC Cement from Mitre10 for $14.50... Cheers, JaSa

Rule of thumb: 8000 Lumen per m² Watt is no good as it doesn't tell you the light output - only the power consumption of a light source. Kind of the same thing as asking for the fuel consumption of a car per 100km and getting told it got a 70l tank... If your tank is higher then 35cm you need more then that - for your tank I would say ~10000 Lumen. All that light (10000 Lumen / m²) has to get to the bottom of the tank so make sure you got the right angle of your LEDs sorted otherwise you are putting light through the sides of the tank instead of getting it down where the plants are. But yeah, it is more religion as science with LEDs these days.... Cheers, JaSa

A few more pictures... Blond Leopard Fish: Cheers, JaSa

RD1, Wrightsons, Farmlands, ... and pick up some clear, non-toxic tube while you are there. Much more flexible + thicker then garden hose. You will get drums for a $5 donation for the social club. Acid drums are easier to clean then drums with teatspray. Make sure you rinse 3-4 times and then let water sit in the drum for a few days and rinse again. I would go for a 200l drum now which would safe me filling up all the time... JaSa

My water conditioner: 100l drum with selfmade level indicator. Cut a lid out of the top and attach hinges; lid helps to keep humidity down. Use old juice bottle and drill holes in bottom & big hole for pipe in lid. Fill with stones, activated charcoal, oyster shells and a bit of the white filter stuff on top to keep erverything in place. Insert pipe in lid, add a air stone and some airline and hook it up to your airpump. The air takes water up the pipe and it starts circulating through the bottle & drum. On it's way it flows through the filter media and get's rid of chlorine + gets a bit harder in my case. I also add 1 teaspoon of salt per 10l (thats why I need the level indicator). If I do waterchanges I use the cheap submersible pump that lives in the drum, a few meters of hose & a waterer from the warehouse. I then re-fill the drum with tap water and by the time the next waterchange is due the water is free of chlorine, the salt is well disolved and the water has the same temperature as the air = same temperature as the tanks... Cheers, JaSa

Hmmm, I tried the taps you can buy 10x in a yellow bags from Bunnings for the 6mm lines but they leaked water - not to mention what they did with air :-? Might picked a bad batch though, dunno. Cheers, JaSa

Yep, preety good I recon What kind of taps are you using for your airline. I mean the ones that come off the main line and go down to the tanks. Cheers, JaSa

Haven't read a single word from any one here that would proof the genetic theory but you guys MUST be right. Excuse my naive theory about stressed and hence vulnerable fish due to transport, different water, food and housing. It must be 100% genetics since so many people belive in it. I also believe you that Importers and LFS are creaming it so they don't have to care about their product and their loss by selling knowingly sick fish to customers and that this is called "good business practice" here in NZ. Further I believe you guys that the breeders happily decreases their margin by buying antibiotics and other meds so they can go on breeding infertile, slow growing, sick fish for export. I will be a good sheep from now on and humbly follow the flock...

Genetics can be the reason - but I don't buy it. Do you know why? Look at the whole thing through the eyes of a commercial overseas guppy breeder that lives from exporting fish AND from the view of the importers here in NZ AND from the view of the LFS: The breeder has to earn money. He is earning money by selling fish. The more fish he can produce with less food, energie, water, medicine, ... the bigger his margin. Now he needs customers to sell them. Once found he want's to keep his customers happy + he wants even more customers to sell more fish. The last thing he wants are complains from them (or even loose them) due to dead shippments. So he will - no, he HAS to purely because of financial reasons - make sure his strains are fertile, healthy, grow fast and are robust and fit. Do you really think a commercial guy that breeds fish with a "predisposition to a disease or weakness in immunity" will be in business for long? He will get ABUSED big time by the import people that have to spend a fortune to keep them for 6 weeks in quarantine and have to watch their shippment die or have the LFS ringing up later complaining about dead fish and unhappy customers. Well, at least I complain about shitty products and swap store. But could be the importers and LFS are different and like to loose money, dunno ... JaSa

I don't say it is not the case. But proof would be good. Since you have some of these weak fish we can start right here to set up a DB of weak strains / traits + how many generations they have been line-breed. This could be a very interesting thing if people put their experience with their strains in here. JaSa

Okay... So enlighten us with your list of "hard" strains and "weak" strains we get or have over her in NZ. Or at least tell us what trait or combination of traits make them weak. Then we will find some breeders of these strains or work with these traits you named and get their opinions concerning the vitality. Because putting the general term "genetics" out there without any proof is just JaSa

Imports yes. Just think of the jouney and changes in water, temperature, food, medicine (or not), and housing they had? Then at the LFS there is a net (that is used in other tanks :-? ) every hour that get's them in panic over and over again. For weeks they can't relax - all stressed out and it doesn't take much to knock them out... Another picture - young ones this time:

Get a good, stabilised (!) DC (!) power adapter - makes a difference My 5m (cut in 4 pieces & connected to the same adapter) of 5050 cold white is running since ~8 month and I will never ever go back to another light source for my breeding tanks... JaSa

Wish we would see some of them over here...

Def. import fish. Saw today the same fish getting unpacked at the LFS...

F1 of Blue x Albino: Breeding pair male Lutino x female Albino: Compare his eye with the eye of the albino female. It is dark-red and his body is more yellow then the white / transparent body of the albino. Goal is to establish this rare strain. Means putting him together with his daughters and sort out the Lutinos from the Albinos and breed then pure Lutino. But that is still a few weeks away. In the meantime pictures of F1 Lutino x Albino: Pretty ugly fish to be honest - but F2 and back-crossing will be full of Lutinos...

Only the breeder of the strains can answer you this question as he should know the different traits in his fish...

Female is "Half Black" on grey and male is "Red Tuxedo" on grey. He is something "special" coz Tuxedo tend to have larger fins but his tail is more round and small - but might still grow with age; hard to say how old they are ... Two different strains and the F1 will be a big mix (mess) :slfg: JaSa

Looks good to me - if you are confident to buy some aluminium U profiles from Bunnings + a power source and solder it all together... Good luck, JaSa