JaSa

Get a 200l drum (ecoLab, FIL) from a farmer in which he had acid (Optimum, Optimum2, AquaKlenz, KlenzAlltemp or Jetset) for his shed. Triple rinse it, fill it right up with water, leave it for a few days and empty it - job done. I have one to age my water in and works fine...

@blueether: Very good - if you need more let me know! Moving houses next week and can't wait to put the empty tanks into the dedicated 12m2 fishroom. There will be heaps of feeder fish for you then JaSa

@ livebearer_breeder: I would be interested for a exchange if you want. Flick me a PM... JaSa

Depends what "cold water" is for you... They can survive down to 8°C but do best between 15°C and 20°C. Just check out the average temperatures where they come from (Uruguay, Paraguay).

Once it is a bit warmer I will courier you a few females if you want. Not too keen atm because of the temperatures. Remind me in Oktober Cheers, JaSa

Not designed to run continuously. Will overheat and cylinder will seize up after a while. 12V applications like a fridge (which is basically just a compressor) also have a realy high initial voltage. Chances are good that this thing won't even start off your solar panel. But if you go panel => solar controller => batterie => compressor it could work. The batterie will buffer and provide the high initial voltage and after that it's back to low voltage - but see first two sentences ... JaSa

Water, electricity and a (hot) light bulb in a easy melting poly box - great !

I use 1 tea spoon of sea salt per 10l + a little bag (old sock) of Oyster Gritt behind the HMF. Seems to work okay, have to weed out a bucket of plants every week and the livebearers are breeding like mad JaSa

The are called Pallecon's and are around $300 to $400. Normally used @ the rural retailers to sell 1T of Mollases to farmers. Nor really good for milk or collostrum - can't clean them that well... JaSa

We had a temporary pool made out of hay bales stacked two high and in a round shape and put a silage cover in there. Hooked a wetback to it, big pile of wood and it was nice and warm after a day Worked very well but had to put a rope around so the water couldn't push the bales out. Silage covers 10x25m from RD1 for around $200. If you have a corner in a garage go square and a 5x50m cover will do & you can make it double- or tripple-layer + it's cheaper. Good luck, JaSa PS: Ring RD1, PGG and Farmlands and ask for returned 200l drums. They go for free or a few $$$ for the social club. Mostly just acid in there and after a good rins they are as new.

I have connections to pure strains (pure breed from wild caught fish) in the USA, Germany, France, Austria and Norway who will send them even for free (!) to me - but I can't find a transshipper / Quarantain facility here in NZ that will acceppt them. If someone sorts out the quarantine then there would be no shortage ... JaSa

Emailed with the owner and she wrote back that they wont get them in anymore coz they are high risk (?) and haven't sold that good. They might chance their mind if more people ask for them... JaSa

Yup, same kind of hybrids. First three (very poor) Blackbar-Hybrids with not much Endler in them anymore and the last picture typical Tiger-Endler-Hybrid. Cheers, JaSa

Redwood wont import any more Endler-Hybrids by the sounds of it Even more important to keep the existing strains pure ...

Oh, I forgot to say, we Germans call "Platinum" a "Stoerzbach Metal" @caserole: Thanks for backing up my theory about Magenta and breeding him back with his daughters

The fish in the picture is base colour Blond with Magenta & maybe Stoerzbach Metal. Look in google picture for "magenta guppy" & "Stoerzbach Metal guppy" and you will find different versions depending on the base colour (albino, blond, gray, ...). On blond and albino and in combination together they look like your one ... This is the second time I see Magenta in NZ. Keep him together with blond females and mate him back with females from F1 and you will get what you want in F2 because Magenta is autosomal dominant Nice fish, JaSa

Depending on the guppy strain you have, you wont be able to tell the difference. Not without testing them against a Tiger Endler male and check the offspring in F1 anyway. Hybridization is the biggest danger / issue with Endler's. That's why we only have watered down versions around. Especially with a Tiger Endler, which is already a Hybrid. Doesn't need much to loose the few Endler genes this strain has. I don't want to be rude or anything but giving away these (un-tested) females as Endler wouldn't be fair... JaSa

A picture would help a lot - platinum is a very wide definition. Quick fix would be putting him together with a female with "blue2" aka "asian blue" (not the classic blue or blue1), "white" or "silver" base color. These base colours can't show yellow and red pigments. Means in F2 or F3 you will have a few males without any yellow or red. Not sure where to get these base colours in NZ from ... Have a read HERE about half way down the page. It explains how Blue2 replaces red. Good luck, JaSa

Hi Ange_AJMS The first picture is a Blackbar Endler Hybrid. Easy to spot on the snakes skin pattern in the dorsal fin. Pure Endler no snake skin, mosaik or anything like that. Second picture is a so called "Tiger Endler" which is a cross between a galaxy guppy and a female Endler. So both are no pure Endler - but nice fish without a question JaSa

Yup

You guys are probably right. Gambusia on it's own might be enough to make them a big NoNo. It's a shame - they really look nice with their sharp silverish bodies and black spots compared to the rounder, brownish phalloceros ... JaSa

Hi As we all know, Gambusia affinis are classed as ‘unwanted organism’ in New Zealandunder under the Biosecurity Act 1993. Big red flag, not to be kept, breed, transported, sold, ... or released into the wild. But today I saw a few nice spotted (both males & females) Gambusia holbrooki in a pet shop: I'm 100% sure it is Gambusia holbrooki (or a hybrid between affinis x holbrooki) since I have Leopard Fish as well which look almost the same but not quite - gonopodium, body shape and mouth are different. So the big question is: Is holbrooki illegal as well or good to go? Please let me know what you think... Cheers, JaSa PS: Pictures are examples from the net to show you what I saw today.

No (pure) Endler in NZ. Redwood Aquatics in ChCh had some Tiger Endler (which is a cross between a galaxy guppy short tail male and a endlers female) a while ago. They looked pretty good but still not 100% pure. Was too late to source some from them The only way to get 100% Endler is from AdrianHD over in USA. He collects them himselfe and keeps them in his fish room that holds 500 tanks + an army of drums: Source of images = Click Another source is Phil in France. He collects Endler himselfe every now and then and is a great source for Endler in Europe. All the rest (AquaBid & PetShops) are not to be trusted... If anyone knows a transshipper for NZ or someone with a Quarantine Room is interested, I would be keen to spend a fair bit of money to get some strain over to us. Please PM me if you can help with that matter... Cheers, JaSa

Not very popular these days. There are a few guys in Japan which still have Glass Guppies. Closest you will get here is probably something like Blue or Red Grass? Check this one: http://topswordguppy.blog.so-net.ne.jp Cheers, JaSa