JJWooble

Are you able to tell them apart to some degree? Would be interesting to see whether those who sit higher in the heirarchy of 6 come out as more dominant once in a larger group-- also is there a tendency for males/females to take the higher/lower positions in the heirarchy or does the sex of the fish not seem to matter? Sorry for all the questions, I just find chocs/samurai really awesome and was wondering how they differ behaviourally to my honey gourami.

6+5=15?? Anyways, how are the new lot going? Any improvement in how reactive they are? Such cute wee ones :3

Oh dear I seem to have lost the text in the previous post lol... And the pic is sideways ah well Hehe, love the shot of your golden relaxing in front of the marine tank Adrienne. Clearly xmas agrees with her Went and got us a tree the other day. The cats have decided that the red baubles (not any other ornaments, just the RED ones) aren't worthy of being on the tree so there has been a daily pick up of ornaments since it went up. Meanwhile everyone has been preparing for the upcoming 6 xmas parties in the next week tis the season

Gave them a go with some repashy spawn and grow that I had out for some other fish and they were straight onto it, grabbing chunks and fighting over it like they do. Also saw someone popping in and out of a cave today. Stoked.

Oooo sounds awesome

I bought a group of 6 bumblebee gobies last Sunday for my hardwater 30 litre tank (previously just had guppies in it). They were a bit nippier than expected, so I moved the guppies out and was originally unsure if I'd be able to keep them long term. Thankfully the guppies now have their own separate set up so I can keep them They're currently in a 30 litre rectangular tank but will be upgraded a little bit to a 50 litre hexagonal once I reseal it. Substrate is aragonite, filtration is a sponge filter, plants are java fern. I will get a refractometer (better than a hydrometer I was told?) and start converting them to brackish over the next few months. Question is-- they seem content to munch down their frozen bloodworms but I'm aware this is unhealthy for them long term. Is it worth trying repashy products with them/has anybody tried this previously? If not, I'm planning on setting up a culture of whiteworms and trying them on that and some frozen BBS to see what works. Also-- from what I've read on them they form territories and these territories are largely based around caves. I've given them plenty of caves to choose from but so far the only thing that anyone has fixated on is the largest rock in the tank which (naturally) the largest bumblebee has taken up residence on. Does this territorial behaviour regarding caves only occur when breeding or will they form these territories over time as they settle in the tank?

Love the colouring on the blue tongues, is the orange 'normal' or specifically bred for?

No probs Post up pics once you've got it all running, always love seeing new setups

My first spawn of honeys were sold out at the Auckland Fishkeepers Association tank crawl-- I do have another spawn going which should be ready in a month or two though, will post up on here so keep an eye out I sell them for $8 each. Have so far had no issues with the parents, they're part of a group of 6 who I've kept for a while now and they are all very healthy fish, absolutely adorable too. Would say that they would go fine in a tank with the GBRs etc. provided its well planted as they do like having a bit of cover to retreat to on occasion. Go Harlequins may just be my preference, but I have a group of 21 in my 200 litre and they are absolutely stunning, very active and are constantly moving together as a group. Also have Rummy Noses which are pretty cool, but the Harlequins are the ones that your eye is drawn to Would also suggest increasing your numbers of julii cories, they can be quite shy in numbers below 6 so you may not see them as much in a 160 litre in a group of 4.

Personally would suggest you add at least 6 corys as they can be quite shy when in smaller numbers. Zebras are awesome, love high flow and are very active. I'd lean towards the cardinals over the embers. Cardinals are a bit more robust, more active and will deal with the zebra's high activity level better than the embers I'd say. When I had them, the embers would always be hiding or lurking about near the back of the tank unless feeding lol, and could be a bit shy, whereas the cardinals were more active and confident. In terms of temperature compatibility; Zebras - 18-25 degrees Cardies- 20-29 degrees Embers- 20-28 degrees Peppers- 22-26 degrees So they're all compatible temperature wise, you'd just probably want to go somewhere around 23-24 to be on the safe side for the Zebs and Peppers. If you do go with a school of tetra, maybe wait a few weeks after adding the zebras and peppers before adding them so that your tank can adjust to a higher bioload over time. Also, with schooling species, the higher numbers the better- I'd put 10 zebras, 10 cardinals, 6 peppers in a 70 litre eventually, just keep an eye on the water parameters at first.

Interesting thread as I'm about to buy a CF1200 as a secondary filter for my 200 litre, glad there's some positive feedback on it. Will be fun to see how it compares to the Fluval 304 in the next few months

Welcome! There's the Auckland Fishkeepers Association if you're keen to join a local club. There are regular meetings- including a tank crawl that just happened which was awesome, got to see a lot of local member's tanks which always gives a few ideas Had a quick look at your youtube page, nice Red Tail Shark you've got there.

Welcome

If you're gna go with feeding them mystery snails, make sure you start feeding them early on-- my puffer won't eat snails over a certain size. I've currently got mine mostly eating ramshorn snails with a few bloodworms here and there. Yet to try him on white or blackworms but have heard good things so will probably buy a culture at some stage.

Tadpoles are pretty hardy but you'll find that you will lose a lot of them if you just keep them in an icecream container-- I kept mine in a 20 litre and did frequent water changes with dechlorinator and they all morphed successfully. An ice cream container definitely wouldn't work for them sorry What will you do with them once they become frogs? Ideally they need an aquarium or vivarium with a footprint of at least 60x45 with land and water areas and a large supply of live insects.

Finally got my Dwarf Puffer fish :f77: A bit skinny, but eating and seems to be settling in ok

I think you can only really just give it time, as its hard to know how long the clown was out of the water and how badly it was affected. Personally I'd just keep an eye on it for now and watch for improvements/it going downhill or other issues e.g. getting bullied by other tankmates.

Unfortunately not so well- one little one is still alive and doing well in the parent tank , but the rest of them didn't make it I think what happened is I did too large a water change for them to handle, and didn't have enough tannins in the water, as they would start dying more frequently after a water change over 30%.... My corys are still spawning semi-regularly but I'm going to leave breeding them until I can set the fry up in a ~30-50 litre breeding tank and when I can commit to doing ~10% water changes twice a day and feed them less more frequently. Congrats on the babies I don't think they eat their own eggs/young, but the babies seem to be very sensitive to changing water conditions and are very easily sucked up by a filter, so one of these things could account for the disappearance/some of them dying? Sponge filters seem to work well with them though and it might be worth separating them from the parents to see if it makes a difference. Usually what happens with the eggs in my tank is they hatch, and then the bubs disappear after a day or two, usually sucked up onto the filter or (more recently) eaten by my ember tetra. I don't think they would eat them -- that said I can't be sure as haven't tried it myself. Fighter bubs are usually reasonably big at 3 weeks so I would just try and have a look at the pygmy corys mouth size and if you think they're too big to be eaten, they should be fine. Mine are really chilled out fish who mostly keep to themselves too, though they do try to school with my ember tetra at night.

Am I correct in thinking that it is illegal to return them to the native waterways due to concerns about disease transfer, etc?

Most of those plants will do fine under just any old clip on lamp. Have a look in the Warehouse or Kmart, I got one there for round $20 and a friend found one (that probably does the job better lol) for $10 at the Warehouse. Pretty sure dwarf hairgrass can be picky though, but dwarf sag is a reasonable substitute for it

Yay nano marine :3 what kind of shape are you going to go for with the coral rock?

Sounds awesome, will keep an eye out for your log best of luck

Hi Adrienne, Just discovered yesterday that what I thought I was doing on the weekend of the Wellington trip fell through, so I would be really keen to go. Is there any additional info I need to know? Sorry for this being somewhat last minute

The new stocking ideas sound awesome, love pygmy corys With gourami, dwarf gourami or dwarf honey gourami (Trichogaster chuna) could be options. I would suggest dwarf honey gourami as have heard that dwarf gourami can get sick quite easily/randomly due to breeding issues/susceptibility to some kinds of diseases which honey gourami don't seem to get as badly. Very cool fish, you could have a single male or a male and a female in your tank which I think would do ok Here's a good article I found on them a while back: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/tr ... ter-chuna/ Java ferns are awesome I don't think it matters either way in terms of adding plants before or after cycling, I always add them at some point whilst cycling as it gives me something to do whilst waiting for when I can add fish lol.