henward

fair enough - just exploring ideas i guess. infighting does cause ALOT of stress for any fish.

yeah i guess if you dont get any joy, then no other choice how bout water temp? constant water temp is important right? what temps should ikola be

Dywlkr - i think there is a simple solution to this. get a very large tank and get an arowana instead:D seriusly... dont know much bout africans, but from my experience, some fish really really cannot handle 'meat' so as nzdiscus man said, in the wild they eat predominantly algae/spirulina, getting a feed that is mainly spirulina is probably the key. Youc an get spirulina flakes on Trademe. As well as spirulina tabs you can probably crush up it may not be spirulina, it may just be plant fibre they need. so a wheatgerm feed may be beneficial to avoid blocking. http://www.hikariusa.com/ for such a huge investment in livestock, you could consider ordering this from overseas. its seaweed extreme, has 67% seaweed. maybe google a TROPHEUS forum, that specialises only in tropheus, they MAY have more exprience overseas if that particular species is rare. Omega one is very good http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/fish/fish-food/auction-439547253.htm wheatgerm http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/fish/fish-food/auction-440956082.htm http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/fish/fish-food/auction-440262495.htm Another one http://www.jehmco.com/html/pure_spirulina_flake.html Also, keep in mind that when these fish feed in the wild, they dont eat CHUNKS, they have a raspy mouth and proabably scrape particles off rocks and wood. so maybe ground the particles to a smaller granule prior to feeding. OR what i have tried before with smaller fish is soaking the pellets you have, and when fully soft then feed. so it breaks apart and easier to digest. The dry granules may impact their digestive tracts. just some ideas. not all fish can digest massive balls of feed you see. (also check water parameters too - due to tank volume, amonia spikes may happen and then disappear after a few hours) concentrations of toxins is directly related to total dilution. Spikes can cause retardation of digestive process and in a highly basic high ph tank, Amonia will be more potent than it will be in acidic tanks. just some thoughts.

haha must admit, its one of my favs! its huge! eats well, but feeds one day and doesnt for another couple of days. doesnt need so much food anymore it seems as its big. its a monster though, had to weight down its tunnel with a massive piece of wood to stop it from turning it upside down!!

I am gonna start tanning arowana end of month, one more photo shoot, then tan it. i think i may have to put the tanning light under water as opposed to above reading all the articles, reflection alone is a huge factor of reducing UVB.

awesomne article thanks

does anyone know, say a light tube with 6% uvb and 27% uva... how much of those uv rays will penetrate through water and how deep? say the tube is just on the water line OUT of the water.

haha yeah amazing isnt it how cheap they are overseas. rays too are very cheap in the US. but in some places, water is expensive lol

nice! love the phantoms! bought davids blue phantom - whcih was unplanned and out of my budget, but heck! so was my aro, and my hobby for that matter :slfg:

any colour substrate willb e fine. just keep in mind of the theme you want and the type of fish in it, fish will change colour according to substrate. when i had discus of all strains - i had silica sand, and man, the colour was light, pigeon blood showed little to no peppering....

this was taken 6 months ago, the eel has grown a lil bit since then. i think its pretty much reached its max, getting old im sure. but very thick! tank height is 71 cms

if he doesnt get a constant supply of bloodworms, fire and tt eels naturally i find tend to go towardfs raw shrimp and meaty smelly foods like mince beef heart, shrimp and fish fillets - all raw. never cooked. pellets is good, they get a massive concentration of protein and vits and grow rapidly but i have only ever had one fire eel that actually hard out fed on pellets, i mean ate pellets like it was prawns. the growth is faster, girth is better BUT as far as pellet growth vs meaty - i did not notice a drastic difference as i did other fish so i would say, might as well just feed prawn (my next eels i will not bother with pellets) when big enough (40 cms plus) you can stuff pellets into shrimp to boost its growth. basically, dont let the eel starve, when teh body is tapering thinner than the skul thickness, its starting to get stunted and chronic malnutrition. Also remember - most , a large majority of tt and fire eels will NEVER reach full size potential due to multiple factors. 1) not enough room 2) not enough food 3)quarantine stunting 4) lfs age unknown actually, this applies to most fish that dont move too rapidly in our local shops. basically, if a fire eel stays in a shop for 6 months whcih happens regularly, and it only grows 2 cm in 6 months - whcih also happens, then you know this is more likely gonna be stunted. Bird barn in auckland had a massive fire eel, certainly not stunted to get to that size i got one from hollywood that ate massivore and hikari arowna sticks - that was not stunted, i got a 40cm tt eel from I FORGET WHERE lol and not it is literally 73/74cm+.... thats luck IMO. This i found is similar to clown loaches. Once i had more than 80 clown loaches - HUGE SCHOOL. only about 15 to 20 grew fast, even though all of them ate lots and always fed well, water is perfect. Then after a few more months, the 15 to 20 grew rapidly and kept growing while everything else grew very slowly. This could be hormonal, genetics or stunting in quarantine or all of the above perhaps, who knows.

always weird when someone posts a question like this and suddenly stop scommenting or participating in the thread..... strange :dunno: anyhow, by far, the largest fish you can get in my opinion is a PACU. a pacu will grow MASSIVE, and readily available and cheap too. A pacu by weight, size and appetite will trub any fish i know that is COMMONLY available in nz so far. they are awesome! but HUGE! they also grow fast unlike giant gouramis, when a certain size, growth tapers dramatically. pacus will grow and grow provided a good tank size and lots of food. problem is, how big is your tank?

i find smaller tanks harder to manage that large tanks, ppm levels are much harder to get stable due to lack of water volume.

how about breeding arowanas?!?!

not at all! good price really:D

http://www.gillhamsfishingresorts.com/

awesome! we used to feed our snakes in philippines whole live chickens. it is amazing watching them dislocate their jaws

http://www.maxwellsci.com/print/ajas/v2-106-110.pdf interesting, effects of spirlulina

if small enough, i put on the net and just smash onto the wall, they die immeidately, if its big, then you can use clove oil or take a very sharp knife and sever the brainstem

yeah, fair enough - sad still, i like snakes, more interesting to keep. or even monitors are pretty cool

considering adopting a red ear or snake neck, instead of buyin, i hear that many of them escape or freed and end up in a shelter, does anyone know the contact for that lady that takes them in and helps them find homes?

i hear that snake neck turtles are really aquatic turtles and dont need basking space and can be fully aquatic, is this true?

that is insane! love it!!