Luke*

Hopefully I will be breeding one day, just have the wait until the discus decide to Goodluck PS yes the LFS prices are hideous, e.g $130 for a big eyed unsymmetrical runt... tis a joke.

Yeah i would've firstly suggested epsom salts which flushes out the intestinal tract. Good to hear things have improved! Keep us posted.

There's metal hallide and high pressure sodium bulbs. The HPS is really only for making things flower and I think it's more red spectrum which isn't good for our purposes. You just want normal metal hallide. HTH

If Brian has the sign up on the til saying "Daphnia 1L for $3" that means it's available and he just has it outside the shop probably in a bathtub or something. I've tried to use some of the 1L to start my own culture in a bucket of green water but doesn't seem to work, yet. Thanks for info Caryl

wicked EDIT: I hope to be successful and will let you know Cath

I think you can also find it under breeding zebra plecos. I thought they weren't breeding fish anymore??

I have 3 Corydoras Adolfoi and i think they are the best cories (no bias of course). I saw them once at the LFS and decided i'd buy all of them but when i went back there was only 3 left! They are very popular and come at a price of about $30.00 each. I have 2 males and 1 female which i'm trying to breed currently by replicating the rainy season and have them in with just 3 peppered cories which have bred in the past (only know because i found one baby) and apparently the hormones from the peppered cories when breeding stimulate the adolfoi to breed. One link on the web said in pristine conditions of 6-6.5 pH they breed readily but i have maintained this with no luck so far. However there were neons and some other tetras in there which may have eaten the eggs. They need very soft water because usually come from the wild. Every now and then I see one in Auckland, sometimes just the writing in twink on the tank but nothing in there so sourcing them will be difficult. Ask at your LFS about them because NZ can get them and does have them

I have doube dosed with a tetra and clown loach tank with no side effects other than it did kill the bba, it does take a while to work tho and depending on the size of the tank you made a few bottles which are relatively expensive.

There's skunk botias (another type of loach) i believe they originate from indian rivers but they are semi-aggressive so you'd want them in with something that can look after their own, not neons. I ended up selling mine. I've got 6 clown loaches now which are much friendlier but they never rid you of all the snails.

Any updates here?

Great information thanks Bill. Also under "Be Prepared" it is a good idea not to feed the fish for 24 hours before you send them to prevent waste and further ammonia building up in the bag.

Where are the earthworms coming from? If you have a culture then you can be more sure they won't have any diseases in them. I found one in my whiteworm culture and put it in, the discus went nuts, one grabbed it but because it was quite long it still stuck out then another grabbed it, and stretched the worm twice as long (between both of their mouths) as it originally was! i thought it was going to snap in half then it just pinged out of one of their mouths and the other one nailed it. very cool

argh you're right! i did the link from when i was logged in, not too sure how to hyperlink it properly. anyway she has since passed away today but at least i found out the cause...last night little red worms were actually coming out of her anus! i treated with cure-ex which treats a range of worms, i think these were roundworms? but unfortunately today she was dead.

Hello, my poor blue ram female has some kind of parasite/worm/illness going on. She is very red around the anus and looks like something is trying to come out. Also her gills look inflamed. Can anyone help identify what is wrong so i can best treat it? I have tried epsom salt to clear the intestinal tract so far and food with garlic. Have just added some normal salt now. There's a very bad photo at the link below but you can kinda see the protrusion http://community.webshots.com/myphotos? ... ity=DeXGeJ Thanks for taking a look

Thanks HummingBird, great set up So cheap too.

I hope the piano doesn't still work

link didn't work for me :-?

The fert is possibly increasing it, additives can do that. Try leaving a bucket of water out over night, one with it in, one without, see what the pH is like after 24 hrs. Peat is the best idea or you could get pH reducing liquid and find out how much you need to add to each bucket to match the tank's pH and stick to that. Peat will do it too and the fish love it.

i have some of these i'm wanting to breed...how old/big are yours? Put some methylene blue (drop or two) to help prevent fungus and put an airstone in to keep them aerated.

where can you buy reasonable size CO2 cylinders from? Those aqua medics are too small. I rent the smallest size from BOC at the mo lasts me about 4 months for a 75 gal tank

lol - bit of a problem then

There is a local breeder in Hamilton with some really good quality ones who supplies the LFS (seems to be mainly Aquarium Bowl). Someone here may know their contact details. I bought 3 yesterday. Cheers

Brian sells 1 Litre for $3.50 I fed half and put the other half in a bucket full of green water but they all died. Maybe the water was too foul? I think a paddling pool could work well.

Catch fish in net, apply dab from cottonbud dripped in formalin. This worked for an old male siamese fighter I use to have that was even doing death circles and displaying similar symptoms.

lol true i got about 10 now. = more tanks than i have room