F15hguy

at which point you will need to out cross to maintain strength.... its a fun game sometimes

gidday, good to see the hobby taking off in Tga

check out your pond supplies shops. they do a good black one that we use in our ponds which lasts around 5-10 years. most pet stores can get it in from Kongs

avoid doing black outs, the plant's you have should out compete the algae, but the algae will survive better in lower light conditions. try trimming some of your plants to stimulate new growth. Very nice tank though if it was clear :-?

easiest way to get a fighter to pose is to put a mirror in front of him

lol personally I hate parrots... but then again I don't like neon tetras which are a natural colour. I promote the keeping of pure blood lines though for the main reason that if a species becomes endangered then we have a captive supply of them. many live bearers are extinct in the wild but thriving in aquariums.

LOL (laughing out loud) btw (by the way) IMHO means In my honest opinion and IMO in my opinion for the abbv.(abbreviation) challenged out there

IMHO unless the fish are supplied from a specialist breeder who knows exactly where they came from then there is no garrantee that they are what they say they are. most captive bred rift lake cichlids are probably not 100% pure anyway. and even wild caught fish can (and quite commonly are) natural hybrids. Im not against keeping pure strains (in fact I try and keep natural fish myself) but I do not agree with writing off a fish due to its heritage.

definately happy fish, :thup: good luck

yes it would be a shame to waste tank space on hybrids... such as platies, swordies, guppies, parrot cichlids, flowerhorns etc.....

It would be a bit unusual for the neons to nip at the betta's fins, maybe you have a bacterial bloom, is the water slightly cloudy?? also you state that the nitrate was "normal" I have customers that think 100ppm is normal. anything over 30ppm is very high in my books. also if you have a pH test kit do several tests over a few days at different times to see if there is any fluctuations. also you state that you added fish after the tank was cycled, how was this accomplished??? you may have had an ammonia spike that has damaged the gills of the fish, stressing it out and eventually killing it after the ammonia spike has subsided. Neons in general are hardy fish but unfortunately commonly get mistreated in shipping so they can arrive at your LFS in poor condition. they also have a tendancy to be dumped in a tank with a wait and hope mentality (dropping 50 -100 neons in a tank is a perfect example of only the strongest survive.)

Correct. tend to prefer faster currents and less basic water. They do well with most mid water cichlids (they are great with many south americans as well)

watch out for the curviceps, a most floating around are from the same genetic stock and a lot of deformities are showing up if you can get freshly imported ones grab them.

hello and welcome. look forward to meeting you

males to 32cm body length with up to 45cm long claws, Giant river prawns live in turbid freshwater, but their larval stages require brackish water to survive. Males can reach a body size of 32 cm; females grow to 25 cm. In mating, the male deposits spermatophores on the underside of the female's thorax, between the walking legs. The female then extrudes eggs, which pass through the spermatophores. The female carries the fertilized eggs with her until they hatch; the time may vary, but is generally less than three weeks. A large female may lay up to 100,000 eggs. From these eggs hatch zoeae, the first larval stage of crustaceans. They go through several larval stages before metamorphosing into postlarvae, at which stage they are about 8 mm long and have all the characteristics of adults. This metamorphosis usually takes place about 32 to 35 days after hatching. These postlarvae then migrate back into freshwater. "There are three different morphotypes of males. The first stage is called "small male" (SM); this smallest stage has short, nearly translucent claws. If conditions allow, small males grow and metamorphose into "orange claw" (OC) males, which have large orange claws on their second chelipeds, which may have a length of 0.8 to 1.4 times their body size. OC males later may transform into the third and final stage, the "blue claw" (BC) males. These have blue claws, and their second chelipeds may become twice as long as their body.[3] Male M. rosenbergii prawns have a strict hierarchy: the territorial BC males dominate the OCs, which in turn dominate the SMs. The presence of BC males inhibits the growth of SMs and delays the metamorphosis of OCs into BCs; an OC will keep growing until it is larger than the largest BC male in its neighbourhood before transforming. All three male stages are sexually active, though, and females which have undergone their premating molt will cooperate with any male to reproduce. BC males protect the females until their shells have hardened; OCs and SMs show no such behavior."

not a gurnard, gurnards have the front pelvic fin used as feelers, has a nose like a blue cod

looks like a type of scorpion fish, probably deep water by the way the eyes are popping out

yup, have witnessed this, the guy ended up cutting the plastic around the eggs leaving it in the tank (weighted down with a small stone) and ended up with fry parents didn't care about the fiddling round.

dunno if they still do but Bluelab hydroponics used to mix fertilisers to order (this was years ago)

maybe she has decided he isn't good enough for her. human females do that then get nasty

The supplier is Aquascope Fisheries, dunno how their breeding scheme is going, but I will be getting some as soon as possible. the old male they had was one of the nicest fish I have met, great personality and very peaceful

cheers for the help

a pet eel to eat all theducklings :evil:

Have a customer interested in a harem of Lamprologus ocellatus. a species I have not kept before. any ideas for potential tank mates in the future. I am leaning towards Brichardi's but wondering if they might get a bit territorial. The person is not too worried about mixing Malawi and Tanganyikans. Would like to provide useful info

tried that, also made a report, no response and my message got deleted