henward

i just stab it into the bits of wood

raw kumara?

why do you remove the seeds from cucumber? i didnt remove it and it was totally untouched thsi morning. left it over night. does the seeds put them off? or does it indicate perhaps the catfish in the tank, numerous catfish are all not hungry? Kumara sounsd like a good idea, higher in protein too.

fair enough any other vege they can eat?

which is better? i know my ones are OMNIVORES BUT i put cucumberes in there what has better protein content? courgettes or cucumbers, anything else that can be stuck on something that doesnt float around? like a solid chunk stuck into a drift wood or something?

Gold nugget l018 is bravest, starting to test the tank and going on the substrate to forage for food. niveatus and cactus, i still dotn see them but im sure they eat when im not there lol dont wanna stunt them but gonna stop feeding lights out, and will feed during day light only to train them. is that a good idea? Or should i just feed at night too? Royal is a pig, eats when ever ther eis food. i think its starting to get the whiskers but not sure... has some sticking out now. but very short, may amount to anything.

When you live ina country where 99% of the population is poor - unfortunately, cutting trees, destroying nature is the only way to live. i guess we are just animals in the end of the day. Cutting down forest to grow crops for fuel and food - is just normal, shame but nothing else we can do i guess. shame about the species, only a few weeks ago i saw an article saying they discovered 1200 new species in the amazon.

i believe they will graze on some plants like soft amazons, i remember, they demolished my vals awhile back, i mean over a day, nothing was left. but we dont have that, so your plants may be ok keep it well fed! it should not have so much urge to eat plants. love the flag tail, so tempted to get a shcool. but they flight when older unless in a massive tank.

not sure there are some images of actual albino clown loaches, extremely rare as in the wild they die rapidly i believe. but its weird, it really stands out, maybe when older it will get more orange, ill see when it grows 1cm but looks cool very white body, black stripes. maybe semi leucistic, is there such a thing? dont know, maybe nothing, but curious none the less lol

http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?imgurl=h ... x=60&ty=45 Looks like this

ill try to get some, jsut hard they never ever stay still, my camera is too cruddy to take pics like that

no, definitely a clown loach. just very light in colour. weird, i didnt htink much of it when i got it. but when introd to tank, ti stands out like a sore thumb. schools wtih everyone else.

i just got an oddbal clown. small2.5 cms max 3 cms tip to tip. got it cos of add LOOP patters on body. anyway, its healthy, robust and very fat, active in fact eats very large amounts too. but its colour is weird. not orange, very pinkish whitish colour. a tinge of orange but definatley stands out like a sore thumb. i know clowns can change their black stripes and to a certain extend their orangeness. but i have many in there and have seen them do that. mostly they turn black to grey ish... when i got it, its been like that and still now, eating, active and settled in, its still very much a weird colour. any feedback on this?

Common name:Gold Nugget L number: L018 Common name:Bary... Niveatus L number: L026 Common name:Royal Panaque L number: L190 Common name:Cactus leopard L number: L114 Common name:Long fin BN (1blue eyes albino, 2 normal) L number: ? Common name:Common Ancistris (gold black eye) L number: ? Common name:Common Sail Fin ALBINO L number: ? WANTED: IN CASE ANYONE THERE HAS ONE AVAILABLE Titanic Pleco Polka dot lyre tail Pleco Histrix Pleco Scarlet Pleco ANY PLECOS THAT GET LARGE EXCEPT COMMONS

yeah im sure they are ok, just wondering lol would be cool to see a bunch o them come out to feed during the day i made sure they had food at night while they settle in, ill stop feeding at night and just feed through the day i guess.

my royal, as soon as i get in front of teh tank or put food in, its in there, eating like a maniac. just wondering, how long do you think it takes for plecs to settle in and feed? while im there during daylight? im sure they are eating when im not there, but wonder how i know they are eating

i am unsure, but i dont think dovii will survive and thrive in nz waters...?

havent heard much though, maybe they can be more vocal about it. ill pitch in if they put in some species i want to bring in lol Simple ones too, endli bichirs and more bichirs species for example.

as for changes to the rules. there will always be changes to the rules part probably is maf wants to justify their existence more, thought ehy are usefull. changing small things on such a small hobby is really useless, but they still do it - beaurocracy. is there a lobby group out there? can we lobby maf? maybe lobby an mp?

yeah, for one, selling really cruddy discus on TM - msot of whcih are deformed, lying about age and stuntedness. Buying from retailers - i know im getting something good 99% of thwe time. they wotn lie to me, as least i dont find they do. If we buy from local breeders who breed and sell at a premium and keep the fisht o themselves, this is whats harmful. With no lfs, there are no importers only lfs around the country buy in such bulk to warrant importation. from a business poitn of view. Costs of compliance, time in quarantine all equal money. water, salt, power, tank space... slowly moving stock, would mean less can be pushed through the market. The future of this market is not from Breeding fish IMO, it is from more importation, to replenish our deminishing bloodlines - which i have seen in deformed and easily stricken fish. Importation also adds variety. How do we do this? Applying for IHS for new species. Simple right? NO because IMO (correct me if i am wrong) but this is my IMO from analysing the business side of importation as in one stage i secured the exclusive rights to import discus from a reputable singaporean discus breeder, after seeing costs to set up and compliance, it was too much for me. The reason why applications to IHS is slow i think is because once you have teh IHS, this is not an exlcusive license. You do the hard work, and everyone gets a free ride. Say, we can bring in freshwater rays - someone has the IHS for that, every importer can also. Just like asian arowana, now its legal to be imported, everyone can do it. Weather it is justifiable to do so is another question, some can and specialise on it like KING, but others dont because they cant move it properly and fast enough. So the probelm here is that importers probably say "why would i spend money to do it, and everyone gets a free ride" But really perhaps we should be looking at collectively pitching in applying for new species. but once again, importers may say... if i do that, they i have more competition - perhaps once you get the IHS, you can bring in a shipment before anyone else and make money on that, capitalise before the other importers realise its ok to bring that in. our market is so small - that is the issue. Another idea is to have soemone like this forum, get together and make applications. Isnt that the purpose of this forum (i dont know if this is happening already) If someone here said, pitch in money to apply for species, and you can apply for more than one species at a time with one application fee. then i would be more than happyt o contribute IF its being spent right. Hell, if it would mean we can get rays here, or armatus, or african arowana, or dovii cichlids, or other cool stuff - why not? i spend thousands now buying fish i like but not really love because i have nothign else to keep and grow! why wouldnt i invest in something like that. how many membersdo we have. an application for IHS is only i think $400 ish. woudlnt take much to get it approved, then we can get hff to push for importation when we have the IHS perhaps. just an idea. theindustry behind the hobby needs the most support. i will pay more for a fish from a shop like hff than buy it on TM if i can help it. Because with out them, there is no hobby. fish food too... i would buy there even if its slightly more. its only a few bux and you get to have some interesting convos too! sure, i will still try to get some discount, but thats probably in my genes as im asian:) but you know, supporting the importers, retailers is key. anyone keen on doing the research and putting together an application? Ill put in the first $20 towards it.. Who is with me?? 8)

thanks guys

100% wc is a Damned if you dont damned if you do type of scenario. soemtimes you gotta, and its not good either way but ist a risk you gotta take. the fact fish are alive is a good thing for clarity what sort of filtration you got? the order of the basekt in there with wool, foam and bio media. if thewater parametersa re ok, then the clarity will come in time. i find when i set up a new tank, always has a slight cloud to it, inexplicable white tinge to the water... but goes away rapidly in a day or two.

david has a point. for example, some species will never survive this climate. sure disease may be a problem thats what quarantine is for. say the south american payara armatus. Heavily tropical. If you release one in the wild, it will die for sure. catfishes i can understand but most species we want to bring in will never establish let alone survive for a moment. why are freshwater stingrays illegal.... you can get stung and find normal sting rays in our beaches.... i guess what i get out of it is that there is a major inconsistency with logic and common sense when it comes to govt and MAF policies. snakes and reptiles i can also undersatnd, some MAY breed. but most fish never will. like i said, bar some very selected groups like cat fish - they can survive an african drought in extremely toxic water. I think Maf systematically places policy to revenue gather. cos they can. not against maf as such, i just think its soemthing most govt departments with power do

the tank i had before was much shallower, so could use the hose. wonder, where cna i get clear pipes? i like seeing things go pass lol no big deal though.

petition? how do you stop it?