ilwis

yea i was looking for nice rocks for the setup and my wife found him so i figured i cant pass up this opptunity i havent seen him around before and i figured he will help cycle the tank im not really in favour of doing the fishless cycleing so i thought yes ill grab him or someone on here might be fasanated with him and want him for their tank or i could keep him as im a bit struck with him its like constant supprising movement

thought you guys might be interested in this guy my wife found soon after getting him home he ate my crab took about 6 mins till he was totally gone! it's very active changes its body shape about every few seconds getting skiny at one point and like a balloon at the other end streaching his skin so thin you could see through it then thin again its like his entire body is covered in little balloons i havent touched him as i dont know if he is poisionus or not he is about 7cm wide and about 15 cm long (when balloond out tho it flucuates rapidly between about 3cm wide to about 12cm wide sometimes at the same time, both sizes at diffrent parts of his body) the first 2 photos was while he was eating the crab

Is there a reason why people don't use more bio balls or ceramics in their filtering then?

so what cichlids did you chose?

not really looking for stuff to take tonight just looking for when im ready to set it up so i know where i can find everything most of the things i found are all brown plants and ostyers (didnt tanke anything) i really want to find some jewels but ive never seen brightly coloured ones around thats why i was looking to hopefully find some and a place to find some good fish and if i use sea water and sea sand ect it speeds up the process id just add the fish slowley anyway its just the other stuff i find is hard to get ive got a nice cool spot checked out already so im not worried about the temp it sits around 18C most of the time

so with very little persuasion my wife has just agreed to let me set up a small salt water native tank :happy1: so i plan on going for a quick look tonight to see if i can find some jewels and anything else of intrest (if i see a oucupus and catch it i will be the happyest man in the world) but my question is about the jewels and other such creatures from what i understand jewels are poisionus so do i need gloves? or anything special to handle them? any way to know what ones to stay away from? i know a bit about the fish so im not too worried about them and i know most sea weeds need alot of light so any hints tips stuff i should know? im planning on starting it with salt water from the sea so i know all is perfect with the water (any good ideas on how in the car? ive got a chillie bin so thats my best option so far but water can still splash out through the opening of the top) ive had a few salt water native tanks that have worked well in the past but i never tried anthing other than dead rocks and fish (fish were alive and most released that way too the few that didnt make it went to dinner with other fish)(as in other fish caught and ate them) so any help would be great!

oh thats easy to explain he droped his rum so they chucked him over to find it, not looking for jewels at all

i wouldnt wright the loaches off yet they can be tough little guys and it all depends on how you climitise your fish when adding any of my fish to higher ph's i do it really slowley just get a bucket and some airhose step 1 but fish in bucket with water they came in step 2 using the air hose start a siphion slow enough to be just above a drip drip drip step 3 let the water run into the bucket for about a hour or as long as it take to have to empty the bucket once and almost have to empty it again step 4 catch the little blighters and put them in the tank just as a note i ALWAYS feed the fish in the tank at the same time as adding the new fish or seconds before adding the fish because the africans are very curious and will chase the living daylights out of any new fish if they arnt preocupied so thats it! if you can find a cheap loach give it a try, fish keeping isent really a science what works for one person may not work for another but i would give it a go because i have other tanks that if they look like they dont like it i can rescue the little fulla and put him where he belongs as a example i have a lake malawi tank but i have convicts had some red juwels (now in a new tank because i felt like it no other reason) electric yellows, red zebras the plecos and a bunch of other fish all in the one tank

lol honestly didnt see that one coming :rotf:

i didnt think of that....

just a quick question where on the shore did you find these guys? im thinking about going for a walk about and if i happen to come across some i might be allowed to take one home :slfg:

sweet ill do it tho will have to try to sneek another tank into the house lol ill have to set up in the garage to make sure i have everything then pounce it into the house while the wife is at work then be too lazy to take it down when she gets upset :happy1: then take her to the beach to find shells she loves shell and coral hunting (the dead stuff for the cichlid tank) lol

oh something else that i use that may interest people is a turkey baster ($10 living and giving) can be used for a few things picking up eggs, feeding specfic things to places (i guess feeding food to bottom dwelling creatures) so very handy! also the smaller verson you get for babys is great for messuring treatments since it has mesurements on it ($8 wharehouse)

sweet as! looks like ill have to spend a day at the beach... :happy2:

is there any chance of finding them in shallow waters? eg for me to find without scuba gear? i have snorkle and flipers but im a bit of a wuss when it comes to deap water mostly because of sharks ive swam with them before but im not comfortable about it and would they be able to be found where the water is a little less salty and more muddy? (eg auckland harbour just because its like 5 mins drive from my house) if not i dont mind driving about a hour from the north shore bho i would rather not if i dont have to they sound really easy to feed years ago i had a native marine tank but i only had starfish some crabs some gobbies some shrimp a little kinna (dont tell anyone (very very cool)tho i released him when i finished the tank) and a little agressive fish that was jet black with a white stripe down his head was quite thin and about 6cm long i also had a black maumau in a tank but i felt bad about having him in such a small tank so i let him go 2 days after i got him

oh i have some brine shrmp thanks! i might have to have a chat to my wife about setting up another tank now :thup:

excuse my naivety but whats BBS? and are all these corals found in nz waters? i didnt know there where such bright colours around here all ive seen is brown weeds/grasses yellow popping things the little brown guys kids stick their fingers in and green kinda dense wavy groth (kinda round strands?) i think i might have to start a thread asking what cant be put in a native salt water tank im thinking about starting one with all these amazing pics around!

i keep plecos (common and tiger) and algie eater(gold hibrid) in my african cichlid tank the higher ph has never bothered them so thats all fine and they have been happy in there for months just have to adjust them to the difrent water conditions correctly tho algie eaters will have to be of the larger size small ones get chased around forever brissle nose are also common in these tanks they some species live naturally in higher ph conditions in the wild anyway i have seen clown loaches in african cichlid tanks but each time i see it the people who are doing that dont rase the ph for the fish and so the loach is fine but the rest of the africans are discoloured due to the wrong water for them ive seen that with 2 tanks one im 100% posative they dont adjust the ph the other the cichlids looked a bit washed out and the people didnt seem to know much about the fish If its not a african cichlid tank and it uses normal water conditions you can put almost anything in there (so long as its not too small) oh there is one type of catfish from lake malawi you can buy but if you do you will find it very very dificult to breed anything else with them around they eat the young of other fish and replace the eggs of other fish with their own i cant remember the name off the top of my head but they are brown and kinda odd looking for a catfish

now that is funny :slfg: basically saying bears are depressed so they sleep, they are depressed because they eat too much, put on some calories, get sad because they are fat, so run off crying to there room and sleep not eating for 6 months till they can stand to look at themsleves, then come out gorge themselves because they are hungry and get depressed all over again with a bunch of mood swings... sounds fimilar somehow...

yea i did but i just ignored the person wrighting the title of the article as a idiot but i figured the article was ok prob had a mind blank and couldnt remember what a baby fish was called

i just cut about 2 inches off the cucumber then cut that lengthwise so its in halves i leave the green on there and poke it on a squeer (like a stainless rod you put bbq stuff on) to keep it down oh and i keep the green skin faceing back to back so the fish trying to keep the others away cant protect all of it so it gets around they dont eat the skin but it keeps everything together so you dont end up with a big mess in your tank not that it matters its mostly water anyway ant because they dont eat the green you just take it out with the squeer anyway

im feeling like subway now... !drool: :facepalm:

does that mean if i change the light it might cheer him up? ive been thinking about putting him in another tank (has red juwels x5 and 2 nicaragua cichlid's in) tho i have a bit of a problem with the nicaragua cichlid's ive got the one male and one female so the feamale is harassing the crap out of the male (a bit odd it being that way around im thinking about seperating them too)

it seems strange but thats the first time ive heard of feeder guppies strange the things you learn i might have to find some because it might be good to give the fish some better live varity tho to be honest the convicts i have a quite small the male is only about 4 inches long so it would have to be a small feeder guppie his mouth is only about 4mm across and the other fish will prob gobble them up before him

I have a lovely pair of convict cichlids last week I was waiting and waiting for them to lay their eggs They were happily both swimming around the tank at the same time so I figured they didn't spawn yet so I did a heavy clean took everything out of the tank vacuumed up everything and found 2 little eggs, since they usually spawn about 60 eggs I figured the rest are eaten so they got vacuumed too Since then the male has dug a hole in the corner of the tank and sits in there with his face pressed into the corner of the tank all despessed and doesn't want to swim much with the other fish He kinda went that way last month when they lost their last batch So is there anything I can do? I could buy him flowers and chocolates but I don't think he will enjoy the smell or taste it might be lost on him, he is a fish after all