petplanet

Yep, red eye puffer. VERY shy. Snail (and fish) eating machines. I have one in my shop if anyone is interested.

Photos?

You can also sit another rock over them and they will move. When they hop on the small rock just take it out of the tank. That is a good method for ones that are well buried. The needle worked well for me. If they are in a hole you can also just seal them in with some aquastick.

That would be the flashest cannister filter I have ever seen (assuming it works). You would never have to worry about breaking the cannister.

Can you get the green coloured MDF? It's the good stuff that doesn't soak up water like a weetbix.

You guys are really going to love the new range just coming on the market. I am getting some in on sale or return. Soft corals made of rubber so they move with the current. Artificial rock that is more expensive than the real stuff. All in nice fluro colours.

I would caution against that type of tank. Anything is easy if you know what you are doing. Long term you will be very frustrated, tank to small, lighting not good enough, no room for a skimmer. 69 litres is not a lot of water. 3-4 small fish would be a lot. I would suggest buying a bigger tank, 3ft is a good starting size and can always become a sump tank later on. You can gradually build up your filtration buy adding powerheads etc, slowly increase the amount of rocks and fish. If the budget is tight you can start with basic lighting and add the flash stuff later. $$$ and research now will save you many times more in $$$ and livestock. The AR tanks are fantastic for freshwater but I do not believe they are suitable for keeping corals long term.

Just a little observation, moved a pair of common clownfish into a new tank (shop display tank) and they have had a noticable growth spurt. I have had these guys for a few years. Intitially they didn't grow much. Added a sea anemone about a year ago and they exploded. Moved them to a less populated tank and they have another growth spurt.

Hmm, nice idea. Couple of problems. Pet market is pretty competitive (regardless of what some people say) and I would have to be making a whole lot of money out of this store before I dreamt of opening another. Auckland already has 4 (two Hollywoods, 1 Big J and Massey Pets). I will make 5 and Goldfish Pagoda will make 6 if he puts in tanks.

The water looks crystal clear. I will try the bottle method.

Yeah, I would be up for mag. My calcium levels are great but magensium is always down. I have read that iodine is real dodgie unless you know exactly what you are doing.

At the moment I use normal tap water but I was thinking, every couple of days we tip out about five litres of water from our dehumidifier, why don't I use this water. Any thoughts? To me it would be about the same as water from a water distiller.

Great, sold heaps. Had to buy in bulk to get a good price of the wholesaler. Priced lower than EVERYONE. The damn things just didn't move through my shop. Put them on Trademe and 90% that have sold have either sold through Trademe or they have tracked down the shop because of it. If it was not for Trademe the tank deal would have screwed me over. Major (borrowed) cash outlay.

I agree with you Kim but hey 1/2 price is 1/2 price. Most people buy thier petfood at the supermarket, why? because it is cheaper. Why would you turn down half price fish if you could get them?

Just throw a tang in. Our one cleared a 4ft tank of inch long algae in a week. 9450 square centimetres of algae by my calculations. Eating machine and we were still feeding him!!!

Thanks Pies, couple of customers like you and I will be sweet. Whangaparaoa is a wealth area so marinesshould do well. Good point, I would buy the cheaper. Your price is a little off. The US$3 heater can land in NZ for about NZ$5.50. And if I am the one importing it and retailing it who will the winner be? You and me! All I need is $20,000 for the stock and shipping/clearance/taxes.

A very good point.....

Goldfish Pagoda did have marine tanks but took them out because he could not get any stock. Same thing that put me off getting tanks in. I found out about Alois and that changed things for me. All you could get before was the dregs after other stores had taken the bulk and selection. I think you should get a discount if you buy out of the box/bag. I have done this at other shops and not been given a discount. Retailers need to make a good mark up on livestock. 100% mark up is fare. If one dies you have to sell one to cover the cost of the two. Sell a third and you are making some money to cover costs. We are putting marines in our store for two reasons, one I love them, nothing in cold or tropical compare, and 2 point of difference. Jansens and Kings are 10 minutes down the road. Jansens has about 172 tanks (one of my spies counted them). We will do marine, if you can't beat em do something different. Will cost about 6K to set up four sale tanks and one display tank. Thats 12K worth of livestock sales to cover the tank setup. That will take years. So far the display tank is in and yes it is a nemo tank though not a AR380 nemo tank that some retailers have sold, but a 400 litre tank/sump system. I have and intend to tell customers about this site, especially for marines. I would rather they go in with their eyes open. A note on dealing with the "experts": Was at a shop one day when they were putting new fish in the marine tanks. One tank had a nice Picasso Trigger in it. Guy puts a fish in and the Picasso starts chasing. My partner commented to the guy putting the fish in that it was being aggessive and she knows nothing about fish! He looks at tank and goes away. Trigger nails fish and bites it in half. Guy comes back takes out half eaten fish and adds another. Expensive way to feed a Trigger! I would not expect livestock prices to come down more but hardware prices definately will. When a heater costs about US$3 to buy in China there is no reason for it to cost $20-40 here. Or the Queen Protien Skimmer for NZ$90-100 is US$3.15 or about US$6 with a pump.

What lighting was it under when you got it? Might need to move it down for a while. Mine sometimes closes for a couple of days.

I have had a number of sea anemones over the years and have noticed that when one florishes another, of a different kind, tends to go into decline. Has anyone else had this experience? I just removed one from my tank this morning and my other anemone is about 25% bigger than usual tonight.

That is one well stocked 380 death trap!

Interesting stuff. I just had to scrape two mushrooms of a rock because they had started damaging the brain coral next to them. they happily attached to new rocks.

The manual won't help, its crap. Same as any other cannister filter. Go to your LFS and ask them about maintance, media etc.

I have sold a few Pantadon Butterflies and found them anything but fussy. They would eat anything that floats - flakes, pellets etc. Put it in with reasonable large fish and feed them food that floats. it should get the idea.

You can legally buy small crays. There is a company that sell them. I had a price list sent to me but tossed it out. They do paua as well and there was a place that raised baby snapper and then released them.