fish2water

Watch in HD, this is a box of fish that we have sent to Kamo Pet and Aquatic in Northland. We proudly supply non-wild caught fish that are frikken awesome. We are open to the public and are based in Tauranga. We guarantee our fish arrive in the best condition and that you will love them.

Make sure you adjust the resolution located in the settings menu button on the bottom right of the screen. Watch in 720p This is our sale tank with African cichlids from lake Malawi and lake Tanganyika. It sits behind our 2800L indoor tropical display aquarium which plays through at the end. You can collect your fish from our venue in the Bay of Plenty or have them shipped to your doorstep guaranteed arrive alive.

Our customers brief was that they wanted a natural looking aquarium that was easy to maintain. We set the filter up as a sump filled with Poret foam including an aquaponics section with LED lighting. The aquascape is very basic and open to accommodate the large open water species. Lighting is a Marine LED unit that I love. So easy to control with the wifi app. The marine lights do a great job of showing the purple color of the Blue dolphins which are the feature fish of the tank. I hope you enjoy and make sure you watch in HD.

It has been a while since putting this post up. The feeding experiment is still going on. We now feed a combination of krill and nori blended together, Norill. Since it is Winter time we have been running shortened lighting periods, lower temperatures and way less commercial food, Hikari. Results are excellent with fish like Tropheus relishing it. We have had zero outbreaks of internal flagellates in a year since starting the feeding experiment. It seems the high the vegetable diet has made the import of meds like metronidazole unnecessary. Tropheus and Labeotropheus are very similar fish both favoring the shallow waters where there is lots of algae. When it goes wrong they are the indicating species. They are doing well on the diet of Norill (60% nori, 40% krill) and earthworms gut loaded on kale, carrot and other goodies. Our suggestion is to feed Nori as a supllement food with commercial foods making up the major part. This is not due a health issue more a clarity issue. The nori is not broken down easily into minute partciels and if your filtration is not up to scratch you will be infuriated by a revolving nori poo remnants. For us the health of the fish is the most important aspect, but I am realist and there is a balance. Cheers Greg

A pioneer has passed. http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/c ... p?sid=6841

Excellent point. My comments regarding a neutral cure silicone was in reference to the bonding of glass to acrylic and not acrylic to acrylic. Moderators, Im using the commercial account as I do not have access to the email address registered to my personal account and therefore cannot get a password resent. I would love to rectify this with your help. Thanks Greg

Wicked idea. Nice finishing. Good work.

Hey there, Its always really difficult to id sickness from afar. Looking purely at the photos my spidey sense is picking up a bacterial infection either of small wounds from tank mates maybe or from travel. The cotton wool like tufts are a good indicator. Its hard to determine the difference from fungal and bacterial. I would suggest increasing the temperature and oxygen. This will aid the metabolism and immune system. I dont think that it will go away on its own. To treat bacterial infections you will need Furan2. If you cant get that I would suggest increasing the salinity of the tank to a level the fish can cope with. 3 - 4 salt dips a day will also knock the bugs back a bit. Google is your friend regarding the salt dips for concentrations. The moment the fish turns on its side, its time to return it to the aquarium. You need to think back to before the tufts occurred. what caused the opportunity for the infection to take hold, an ammonia spike, cold water change etc. It might not seem obvious but there will be a root cause. Good luck and feel free to email me if you have any issues. Greg

Hey Daren You will want to talk to Raymond Klein if you are based in Auckland. His fnzas handle is Valray. I think there is a link for his details on our website fish2water.co.nz Good luck Greg

Hey there fellow forumers. We have just launched a website dedicated to the care and maintenance of African cichlids. We look forward to any feedback that you have. http://www.fish2water.co.nz

A quick video in our series of Setting up a low maintenance African Cichlid aquarium. This episode shows some of the fundamental tips that have helped us out. Enjoy

A quick update of our discus aquarium. 3 pairs of fish have paired up on regular occasions laying eggs on driftwood , glass and now plant leaves. Over time the eggs get hammered by the various other inhabitants. I have added some plants (to brighten up the fish) trying to incorporate the bare bottom style while still having some greenery. I have changed the flow of the filtration to limit the amount of current in the tank. It now goes in through the overflow, down to the sump and back into the tank. The outflow is directed behind a piece of black foam which hides the heater. The water passes through HMF and back into the tank. Ill put together some pics in the near future.

A quick update. All fish are feeding with gusto. A mixture of homemade food and whole earthworms that have been gut loaded on a mixture of trout pellets, spirulina and native spinach.(check out the video to watch them fighting over worms.) The red map pair have been preparing to breed again. I have reversed the flow of the Hamburg Matten Filter to reduce the current in the tank. All branches have been moved to one side of the tank to create an open play area. The blue discus are all still very skittish requiring slow movements, which is a bit of a chore. I have added some clown loaches to the mix. Tested water conditions are all excellent. I'm still a little concerned over the residual damage from the cloudy eye on 2 of the fish. The others have all improved greatly.

I still make time for Family Guy. The mentality around the large number of fish is to encourage the shoaling nature of discus. Spreading the aggression across a larger group. So often I see an aquarium with one highly dominant fish and all the others are cowering in the corners. After reading the information from the good people at Stendker, on how to minimize aggression and prevent any one fish from feeding I couldn`t help but try it out for myself. This method of packing in the fish has worked well with all the cichlids I have kept to date. I will be sure to keep you updated on any successes or failures of the project as you cant have enough transparency ey.

Thanks again for the feedback Jim, Silly me, I probably should have clarified that the pictured aquarium is different from the one shown in the video in the original post. I totally agree with you regarding it pushing boundaries with only 29litres alloted per fish. Perhaps I could change the title of the topic to "Going from a Discus aquarium that is easy to maintain to one that is very high maintenance." Regular siphoning up of waste and water tests interrupt our regular TV programming. Cheers Greg

Thanks for taking the time to give feedback Jim. I'm sorry it has taken so much time to get back to this. Addressing your concerns, are you referring to water quality, space for the fish to move or the visual aspect of a large fish in a small tank. Only having kept discus for a short time I`m still experimenting with the boundaries. The one thing that I know for certain is that I am constantly learning from others and their experiences. Best thing I have discovered to date regarding discus, is the amount of protein that they require. These fish came to us in a very bad state they had been kept in aquarium with only aeration and heat for a 2 week period due to the owner being out of the country. Bacterial infection had upset the osmotic balance of the eyes filling them with water. I had chatted to DISCUSGURU( Thanks again) regarding the treatment. He suggested FURAN2. I held off for a while treating them with daily salt baths, this was only successful in preventing the infection getting worse. In the end I went with treatment which seems to have worked in killing off the bacteria(CLOUDY EYES) unfortunately there is a lot of existing damage. Hopefully over time with great food and water quality it will improve. The stocking rate comes courteousy of a Stendker discus information booklet FAQ http://www.diskuszucht-stendker.de/gb/582,0,stocking-rate-other-fish,index,0.html They mention having a very high stocking density. Initially I doubted the success of this system but so far it has worked well with this group of fish. The tank in question is a 300l aquarium. There are 11 discus, cardinals and Rams. The sump is loaded with Poret foam fulfilling a mechanical and biological role. The left hand side of the aquarium is made up of a large Hamburg Matten Filter run on an independent setup to the sump. This all means that it is very biologically stable and over filtered biologically. The bare bottomed effect makes it easy to clean up any waste. Nothing is guaranteed and at the first sign of distress an ulterior plan will be made. Our motto is that we will do everything in our power to ensure the wellbeing of our fish. Oh and Water quality comes first and everything else follows. Thanks for reading. Cheers Greg

Cheers dude, Given the tanks small size we needed to ensure that it was well designed as we didnt have the fall back of a large water volume. I guess its my version of a nano tank.

Tank measures 60x45x45cm 100litres. When working out the design of this tank I wanted to provide an environment which complemented the behaviour and nature of the discus. They are so nimble and nifty with the way they get around the tank and forage for their favourite treats. It was seeing how agile they are that made me want to create a tank which they could use as an “agility” course, but which would make them feel safe and happy. Making sure the water quality would be as high as possible is one of the most critical parts of this picture. The first decision was what type of filter to use. I opted for a corner HMF which would push water around the outside of the tank and back to the filter, thus creating an eddy in the middle which would make clearing out excess food and poo easy. To make sure nothing collects unawares on the bottom there is only one plant actually planted in the substrate, the rest are plants which grow directly on the wood (Java fern, window love, African fern and anubias). The next decision was which type of substrate to use. The substrate I went with is quite fine in nature, although it isn’t graded so has larger stones as well, to make sure excess food and poo doesn’t get stuck in the sediment. I also wanted to create different “zones” in the tank to ensure all inhabitants had an area to hang out. I wanted to maintain an open area in the tank to help balance the dense rooted area in the centre. All in all I have been really happy with how the tank is operating, the filter is doing the job and the eddy is making my life easy when it comes to clean up time. The Ramirezis have had two spawnings now and the discus have also had one attempt (and the cardinals are fat from their late night raids). So I am going to take that as a win when it comes to the “are my fish happy” test! Now I just need to wait patiently for my plants to grow to the size they are in my head! Check out the video to see how it all comes together. http://youtu.be/uQJFcpIVJE8

Looking good David.

We have tank space and power. We are based on the Kapiti coast. If you need help with your fish, contact us and we can arrange from there. You will need to bring your equipment. Cheers Greg

Cheers for the order David, It has been dispatched and should be with you shortly. Using the 3 densities consecutively should ensure great clarity and quality, I look forward to seeing it in action.