Bilbo

Hi. Looking for starter cultures please if anyone has any. Daphnia - The farmers troughs are all empty Worms - Black, White and Grindal Thanks

I know this is a bit old now, but I have used aquatic mix and it seemed to work well. My new tank will be using a mixture of garden soil and aquatic mix, just to see how it goes. capped with about 3 - 4cm of Daltons propagating sand Tried organic potting mix once but the tank didn't work very well.

Hi guys. Its been a long break Kept looking at the dusty old tanks in the shed and decided to fill one up. Just a small planted display tank at this stage but who knows.... Will need to start in the "Wanted to buy" section as no longer have any filters or pumps

So thats the problem ... and a female. Put a bit of driftwood with a few thumb sizes holes in it and nature will usually takes it course.

I would think its more important for the apisto's because they live at the bottom and there nature is to sift through fine gravel or sand. Just get some fine river sand

What ya breeding? I do just what Joe said and it works fine. Just do water changes from above the peat layer

I have seen pictures of people putting ceramic floor tiles on the bottom of their tanks. It looks cool and gets away from just plain glass. Easy to clean too.

How many times!! Blue circle white spot cure is the best by a long shot. Its the only stuff I use. It has never failed and I have never lost a fish from using it.

At least a 1200x600 or 1500x450 footprint minimum. The bigger the better because if they get grumpy with each other them the weaker will need room to escape. We used to laugh at a 40cm pleco curled up inside a flower pot just to keep out of the way Remember Oscars are very smart and will bite the hand holding the syphon tube trying to get the eggs or wrigglers out. I have had them make a knuckle bleed when my brother and I were trying to get the fry out. Also they eat enormous amounts of food and really grow fast. You need to be prepared with live food on tap otherwise you wont have many survivors when they start cannibalizing each other.

We were $500 last month. 5 tanks with heaters, pumps and lights, around 1000 ltrs total.

I remember that from when I was a kid and my grandparents lived round the corner. I suppose everything has to change.

I have a friend who has 3 huge green houses full of them. I think he even has developed a stunning pitcher plant and gets royalties for it. If you really want to grow Venus Fry Traps from seed you will be waiting a few years before it comes to anything. Better to split an existing plant.

That is awesome Caryl. I have heard about that place but never got to visit it. By comparison these are a bit small but here you go Grindal worms White Worms Daphnia

Will try to take some shots tomorrow. But for starters I have a small pond just down the road which has a few cyclops in it.

I keep them on scourer pads with a CD cover on top as a cover and to use to feed them out. Feed them cat biscuits. No dirt no mess. Infusoria is easy and OK but almost pure paramecium cultures can be achieved within a few weeks using lettuce and dog biscuits in a coke bottle. Green water is a pain and a waste of time, only really good for feeding daphnia. Rotifers are time consuming and need space so I wouldn't even bother. Cyclops as above. But all of the microscopic food is a pointless if you don't have bbs to follow it up.

Don't write off grindals so fast. They are the easiest off all worms to keep and you can culture massive numbers in an ice-cream container. I always have live food cultures and feed heaps of it to all my fish, Currently I have 5 types of worms, daphnia, cyclops and paramecium. Grindals are the least hassle and the biggest return for effort and space.

Its a shame that its fins are bent otherwise it might be a nice fish. The silvers do have a nice blue under the right lights.

That makes sense but pretty confusing if the store cant put the correct name on them. I have some from Danval as well and the are stunning fish.

Hongsloi are awesome but I have lost my last 4 males (over the last 2 years) so I now only have females. You can buy them off me if you want. Get a male from HFF and get the proven adult females from me for half the price of the shop stuff There is no such thing as blue apisto Its is probably Apistogramma sp. 'Steel Blue'. The only other fish known as the blue apisto is the A. panduro but I dont think thats in the country anymore.

Convicts are, more or less, a just add water and wait deal. The usually use a flat stone but will lay directly on the sand or gravel or even the glass bottom of the tank. Both parents will look after the eggs and fry and you can feed them microworms or bbs or crushed flake. They aren't really fussy on water but medium to soft and about neutral pH. Eggs hatch in 3 days. Best of luck

I think 2mg/l is about right so 1 tab of 50mg per 25 litres. I think it lasts 3 - 5 days from memory. I will double check later if no one else answers and corrects me.

Baby apistos eat live baby brine shrimp. If you are caught short you can try micro worms but BBS is the best. Apistos are hunters not grazers so they need food that moves. If you really have too you could try decap or GP but they will never do as well and I found most times it just goes rotten on the bottom. All my apisto fry get paramecium for the first 2 or 3 days and then start introduce BBS and copepods if you can get them.

Where did you find that? I thought they were from blackwater pools in Brazil.

That was way hard and I only got a 36. Got to love the meters with digital displays

Many garden shows have it. I have seen it in Palmers here in Palmy. Be careful with it, it's nasty stuff.