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hairyfil

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Everything posted by hairyfil

  1. Hi all, I have a breeding colony of Blue Dolphin cichlids. Just this week one of my cuckoos has come out of hiding and is heavily swollen with what I assume/hope are eggs. I'd rather not leave the cuckoo to its normal breeding practices and wondered if it was possible to separate her into a breeding net/tank. Will see eventually just lay the eggs? What can I do to help them survive? thanks Phil
  2. I noticed with the first net that fry sitting on the bottom were getting attacked by fish. The new smaller net has a plastic base which should (I hate using that word) avoid that problem. The one fry that I have from the previous attempt is in a floating hard plastic trap floating inside the confines of a large net trap. Belt & braces approach :-) Other fish include 1 x red zebra, 1 x demosoni, 3 x peacocks (1 male + 2 females), 3 cuckoos (1 adult 2 young) and a young frontosa I've kept fish for years, but this is the first time I've had a breeding group. So I'm an anxious father ;-P
  3. Hey all, I have a mixed cichlid tank with 3 Blue Dolphins. 1 Male and 2 females. I had no idea they were breeding till when a few months ago one of the females spat all the fry into the water when I was feeding them. Needless to say all the other fish ate them up while I was in panic mode grabbing a net trying to catch some. Now that I knew they were breeding I prepared myself. I got a breeding net to have in the main tank stuck to the glass. I waited till one of the females showed signs of carrying eggs, waited 2 weeks then popped her into the breeding net. All was good for 2 weeks with 30+ free swimming fry. One morning I came downstairs and found that the whole breeding net had sunk - the suction caps were still attached to the glass but the whole thing had slid down to the sand. All the fry were gone/eaten apart from one. The one is now in a solid floating hatchery and growing quite nicely. I bought 2 new breeding nets. 1 small and 1 large. and last weekend transferred the other female who was now carrying fry into the small breeding net. Over the last few days we've seen more and more of them swimming free. Then, and this where things went weird.... Last night as I was heading to bed I switched off the room lights - the tank lights had been off for a while. Seconds after the lights went out I heard a lot of splashing in the tank. Put the light back on and found BOTH females in the small breeding net. The non pregnant one had jumped out of the water and into the net. I was in a panic - worried that she'd eat all the fry. Hands in the water I caught one of them (hard to tell apart during the day, impossible with the thank lights off). This one didn't spit any fry so I popped her back into the main tank. I then caught the second one and she seemed to spit some fry so I popped her back into the net. I can see 2 fry under the plastic base of the net but no more. So I'm not sure if they've been eaten by the mother, the other female, or is the mother holding them or...??? Would a 2nd female eat all the fry or would her instincts kick in and have her gather up the fry into her mouth? Why would she jump into the net? I've never observed any of my fish doing this before - some minor splashing for surface food but nothing like this. The top of the net is a good 1cm+ above water level. Should I expect this to happen again? I don't have room for a 2nd nursery tank. Thoughts? Advice? cheers Phil
  4. Hey all, I have a 240ltr tank with a sandy bottom. I do regular water changes and manage to keep all parameters nice and low. I am getting a growing amount of large particle detritus which my syphoning will not pickup. Likely from the drift wood after the plec has munched off pieces. Against the golden sand it looks terrible :-( I'm using a syphon that is connected to a tap so that it draws dirty water straight into the sink. It provides quite a lot of suction, certainly more than a gravity syphon but it just isn't pulling out the larger particles. It does get pulled into the tube but just not all the way through to the tubing and out. I've tried various techniques but to no avail. I've considered something like the Eheim quick-vac but at $140 that's a large outlay for me - especially if I don't know that it will do the job. Checking Amazon I see that Hagen/Marina do a cheaper one - but can't find it locally in NZ. Any thoughts/suggestions? thanks Phil
  5. Hey all, I'm looking to add a few more cichlids to my Malawi setup. I want to add some colour to the tank that is not blue/yellow. I really fancied flamebacks but HFF say they don't/can't get them. What other options do I have to get some Red, deep/bright purple/orange that would be a nice contrast to my dolphins/frontosa/demosoni/electric yellow mix? cheers Phil
  6. Ah i was aware of the other lakes but with my marine background I couldn't get Tang straight in my head re. cichlids :-) I'll check up on those other options & also thanks for having patience with me & posting links for Jullies & Shellies. The help & advice is very much appreciated.
  7. Jullies? Shellies? Only tangs I know of are Marine.
  8. Thanks guys/gals. Looks like the yellow labs & dems coming out as the recommendation - so I'll go and do my reading/research on these. Need to figure out groupings - singles/pairs/shoals etc. I assume I can mix in something like a bristlenose cat into the mix or a plec (mind you my plecs in the past got larger than a 620T would accomodate) any dward plec varieties. I swear my last plec was getting out in the middle of the night & helping itself to veggies in the fridge it was getting so big :-) cheers Phil
  9. Assume that I'm stuck with the 620T - believe me it took a lot of persuading and measuring to figure out we could fit that in :-) With that assumption - what's my best bet?
  10. Hi all, I'm new to the board and new to the NZ fish scene. Back in Scotland I had various tanks over the years. Starting with the standard 20 gallon tank of misc tropical fish. Upgrading to a larger tank with Oscars then finally to a large marine tank. I came to NZ in 2008 and only now getting around to starting up a tank again. Planning stage at the moment, planning to buy mid year, stocking July/August onwards. I've got very limited space and have agreement from the boss that I can fit in a narrow tall tank such as the AR620T. I'd like to keep Lake Malawi Cichlids and I'm looking for guidance as to which, readily available in NZ, fishes I should be looking to stock this 130ltr tank with. Torn between the idea of a mixed community tank (selection for compatible breeds will be crucial but I need help here) or to go with a single breed. e.g. I love the look of the Blue Dolphin Malawi but I suspect it would be too big for a 130ltr tank. Also, I've heard conflicting info about stocking levels with Cichlids - i.e. dense stock to avoid territorial behaviour, add ALL the fish at the same time to avoid any individual/group staking a territory. This is contrary to what I've learned over the years - build up bio load slowly, keep stocking levels to low/modest levels etc. more daft questions to follow :-) cheers Phil
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