Colour_genes

What sort of pond plants do you have? I might be interested in buying some. Have a pair of minnows that I could swap also.

The Rest Home complex where I currently work has a goldfish pond which needs many more plants to get back to a more balanced ecosystem. It has recently had a number of new fish added, but only has a half dozen waterlilies in the way of plants, so the pond is constantly going green & scummy, much to the distress of both staff and residents. Does anyone have reasonable amounts of any fairly 'pretty' or colourful pond plants that they would be willing to donate to an appreciative home? Please message me if you can help at all. There are also a number of wild-coloured / un-coloured fish that someone is welcome to take away for free, but must be assured of a good permanent home - some are 'quake survivors' recently rescued from another pond that has not been accessible since then, and are regarded with some sentiment. Thanks for any help.

Three plecos have turned up in a lfs, that I would like some help with ID please, as I suspect they are not exactly what the supplier has labelled them as (or, there again, they may be). There are 2 'gold stripes on brown types, and one black& white. The 2 gold/brown ones arrived labelled as Peckoltia vittata, but to my eyes they look quite different. Can anyone positively ID these, and are they likely to both be males? The black/ white one was labelled as 'Zebra pleco panaque sp' which looks like possibly a mistake as well, I thought maybe L066?? Here are the best photos I could get, what do you think? I don't actually intend purchasing any of these (at the moment anyway) but it would be nice to know a bit more precisely what the are.

Hi. Welcome to the forums. Cawthron Institute, right there in Nelson ( I used to work there, many moons ago, a very cool place!), grow oodles of live phytoplankton for their aquaculture facility /mussel hatchery out at the Glen. Take a look at this link http://www.cawthron.org.nz/aquaculture-park/ . Not sure if they sell to the public but you may be able to come to an arrangement. Good luck with your tanks.

Sorry to be so basic - but it might be worth checking that the heater/s are actually working correctly. Check the temperature on your tank thermometers, and make sure everything is plugged in, switched on, functioning normally etc. I lost almost a whole tank of fish a while ago because I didn't notice that a plug board fuse had tripped and gone off until too late. Or maybe some nasty parasite, but I think they tend to work a lot slower than what you have seen happen. Or the addition of the bristlenose has actually overloaded the filtration in both tanks with ammonia spikes both times? Anyway, good luck with getting it sorted.

Nice guppies Jasa. The Blue Tigers are real little jewels. Your 'something new' reminds me of a phenomena sometimes seen in birds (and other animals) called chimeraism (check this link for a general intro http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/jan/31/grrlscientist-halfsider-chimera-bilateral-gynandromorph-birds ) . The black looks to occur only on one side of her head, this could be one explanation.

Sure. Please send me a message to discuss.

Hi, they are big enough to be breeding! Youngest would be a year old, oldest about 3 years. Have already had one offer from Welly which has priority, but waiting a couple of days as I really would prefer to sell them locally if possible. Shipping means another few hours to source polyboxes, heatpack, arrange courier etc and would likely be next weekend before I could get that arranged.

I have 4 adult sterbai cories that are surplus to my needs (need the tank space for other fish). The group have been spawning recently, but I haven't bothered to save the eggs. For sale at $7 each, or $25 for all four if picked up this weekend. Would also trade for adult/sexable male golden longfin Bristlenose; or a calico bristlenose. Pick up - Shirley, Chch. May consider shipping.

Is that for whiteworms or microworms?

I agree with Shilo, the cat question is too much off topic here. For me personally the issue is simple. I have not directly contributed to the decline of whitebait, because I have never eaten whitebait and never will. If you want to help save the endangered whitebait population, do not eat whitebait. Persuade your friends and colleagues to stop eating whitebait. Explain the whole issue to them, especially to younger people who tend to learn more about conservation in schools & are more aware of the situation. Perhaps they will then choose not to purchase whitebait either- and so it would go on, snowballing over time. If the demand to purchase whitebait disappears, so does the commercial fishery for local sale. Removing demand for a product is always a more effective measure than banning it's supply. I don't know if whitebait are currently exported, but that definitely should be banned. Good luck to the aquaculturists farming inanga, but I expect the cost of their product will reflect the amount of technical input needed. Which is as it should be.

Hi and Welcome. Hope your tank goes really well. There are lots of very experienced people with really good advice on the forum here, so never be reluctant to ask even a trivial-seeming question!

Where did you get those neat-looking breeding caves from? I've been looking for something like that, but can only find open tubes /logs. Your fish obviously really like them!

Can't see anything in my Inbox yet?

Still looking for any of these fish, or a promise of some in the future, please. Surely someone here must be breeding some of these???? Or would consider any other Ancistrus species / variety, though not really into albinos. Happy to pay for the fish, & shipping, from anywhere in the country, will even organise the shipping if you don't have the equipment or inclination. Thanks for reading.

I used to get a similar problem sometimes when I was breeding goldfish, always in spring when the fish started feeding again. I put it down to particularly greedy fish gulping down too much dry food, & possibly air, in one go. Leading to some sort of gut blockage? Anyway, I pretty much eliminated it in my ponds by making sure I used pre-soaked or moist food for the first couple of weeks of feeding.

Maybe you can get one cheap or free from a kit that is about to expire? Try checking the dates on kits in your lps or ask if they have any they have taken off the shelves?

Much more fun than lawns! Go for it

Sorry to hear you missed out on the girls, hopefully some more will turn up soon. At least you will have a tank all up and running to put them in. Might be worth checking out some of the other lfs in your region or further afield, they may have some in stock as well, and good stores will be happy to courier to you. What variety of halfbeak did you get? I know that Redwood aquatics here in Christchurch had red fin halfbeaks listed on their last stock list, but don't know if they still have any. Good luck with your boy, he will probably love having a tank all to himself!

Oh No, not the dreaded Facebook, it would make the Forum as dead as a dodo, surely. I must admit that traffic /discussion seems very slow, and you almost need to live in Auckland and keep cichlids to get any response. Or maybe its just that its spring and all the sensible folks are outside enjoying the weather & mowing the lawns .

You might want to do a little research on this, but I suspect your tank may be a little small once your fish are adult size. If you can, perhaps start the tank with one fish and ask your store to hold the other 2 for a couple of weeks.

If the new tank is quite large in relation to the number and size of your new fish, and the fish are not a super-sensitive species, then you could probably get away with adding 2 or 3 new fish within a week, once the temperature has come up to their correct range. You will need a source of ammonia to 'feed' the bacteria you have introduced anyway and you might as well use fish that you want, so long as it doesn't cause an overload. But if you are looking to get a big, messy, expensive, carnivorous fish or something very sensitive to water quality, in a tank only just big enough for it / them, then you should be much, much more cautious. Could you tell us the size / type of your tank and what you are wanting to keep in it? It would help others to comment more helpfully. Good luck with the tank.

I am looking to buy any of the following, please - Calico Bristlenose, long fin or standard fin A male 'Rio Ucayali' BN (I have a female) Ancistrus claro Ancistrus dolichopterus (starlight BN, with white edges on fins) If I haven't specified otherwise, I would prefer an identifiable pair or two, or a group of youngsters. Happy to pay for shipping. May be able to swap for some spare BN or other livestock I have, if you wanted. Please message me with what have available. Thanks

To revive an old thread - Bought 2 of these a couple of weeks ago under the name 'mini moth catfish, Hara jerdoni' and have been quarantining them in a 20l tank. Both still apparently healthy, but I'm finding feeding of them a bit of a pain. The only thing they have really shown any interest in is microworms. Does anyone know if they can be acclimated onto either frozen foods or bottom-feeder tabs with enough persistence or are they strictly live-food-only critters? I'm was thinking of putting them into a 100l planted tank with 5 sterbais and a half dozen male guppies in a couple of weeks, but I'm now wondering if they might be out-competed for food, given they seem rather slow on the uptake. Any useful ideas or comments anyone can give?

Try Redwoods Aquatics in Christchurch, they do ship and have at least one larger puffer there atm, and seem to have them in frequently. Check their website, might tell you what they have now.