caserole

YES thats right Bluetom the fry will take "newly hatched" bbs on day 5. as the fry are sensative to light it may pay, on day 5 to feed just a little bbs but leave covered. after 10 min shine a light in the tank to see if the fry are eating ( brite orange bellys). if they are remove the cover. good luck ps if it does not work this time , try, try, try again

the small trumpet snail gets in to your gravel and airates it ,so I wouldn't call them bad. have heard COPPER kills snails . if you don't like adding chem's to your water this is what you can try:- buy a 9v(small) battery connect the + to the - with a bear copper wire ( that is you remove the plastic insulation ), loop the wire in the tank. this creates a small electrical current causing the copper wire to release a copper compound which in small doses is harmless to your fish but will kill invertebrits, eg snails. never tried it my self thou.

I know of a breeder in Napier with some ready to go. "Julidochromis marlieri" if your preperd to have them shipped to you, pm me with your details and I can contact them for you.

GeeTee, I apears you tap water is very hard, and if you realy want to do some thing about it you may have to buy a reverse osmosis unit. this will remove the calcium and magnesium that makes you water hard. (correct me if i'm wrong please) however alot of fish that come from soft water biotypes can handle hard water ( orthou yours is very hard). I suguest you go to your lfs and ask them what water they use it's probably the same , if it is look to see how healthy there fish are . you will have to be VERY CAREFUL if you buy fish from out of town as there water may be very differant which can lead to gill shock and death. the smart thing to do how ever is to listen to BlueandKim's advise and stick to fish that like hard water, this will elemenate problems with fish not liking your water and the fish will be so happy they spawn like crazy

There also used in the killifish hobby. (or thou not by me) Many species particularly south american annuals have lost there sex gene. The almond leaf extract is used to trigger a sex change in fry so you don't end up with all 1 sex. Unless you have particular need to use it, peat has the same effect, lower ph simulates black water conditions anti fungel and bacteria propertes etc... as HummingBird posted

I'm not sure how many I have maybe 20+, unfortunatly I did lose quit a few. there size verys from the slow growers at 1.5cm to 3cm, how ever most are in the middle 2 - 2.5 cm Just read that report CAT, the lucky bugger 8 females at once :lol: well that answers my question, thanks

LOL , thanks but no thanks, my tanks are "FULL" of SJD'S, and other killies.

well this is the 3 time my s/p - b/n have breed , this time I was expecting them to breed as there breeding once a month and i've been checking them every day after work for a week and a 1/2 now. but when I got home today the female was in the male's hole laying eggs . I checked them an hour later and a small bunch of pail yellow eggs were siting at the bottom of the tunnel with the male faning them and the female was siting just out side the hole skiny as, the second female was still full of eggs. 2 hours later I was feeding some of my other fry so I checked them again and found a female in the hole laying eggs , ?, I cheched the tank for the other female and realised this was the second female, both females had spawned ?? has any one noticed this before with other bristle nose species, I know I have not .Infact last time they breed I am positive only 1 of the females breed.

Something you may not have considered in Caryl's post is that they will spawn 400 + eggs . If you have a succesful spawn, will you have enough space to grow the fry when they get a little bigger in say a month of growth? At a rough gess you will need a 900mm + tank to grow only 100 fry to 3cm at which time there big enough to pass on. good luck congo's are a wonderful fish to seen in large shoals.

At a gess i'd say 13cm including the tail Kyle.

YES thats him , except he's bigger and reder now. the pic was take by Andrew Broome thanks Andrew

To those killifish nuts out there, there are over 300 + sjd fry floating around the country. so in about 1 to 2 months there will be plenty of pairs to go round to all how what them. may be someone with the pic of my adult male will post it here as i'm incompatant. :lol:

what are you water perameters?. I know wellington water has low buffers, and a good filtration system creating nitates can give a tank large ph swings between water changes. just something to check,not ness the problem.

DID YOU CALL :lol: :lol:

spawning neons:- tank - 30x20x20cm is all they need. temp - 18C-22c water - rain water substrate - thin layer of socked peat ( this will make the water acidic ) spawning site - small clump of:- spawning moss, java moss , nz native moss, christmas moss or equivlent. add 1 male and 1 very fat female , black the tank out any way you can. they should spawn the next morning - remove adults - leave covered for 5 days then feed bbs and see what you have . :lol:

PENEJANE you said they look like little ants , could they be springtails? free food either way :lol:

I think you will find that the high phosphates are coming from the blood worms have a friend with a CO2 injection system which developed a very bad alge problem, he track it back to high phosphate and the blood worms. If you find that it is the b/worms creating your problem and still want to use them what he does to get around the phosphates is to sock them before feeding and discarding the socking water with most of the phosphates. hope this helps

Rob , do you have the gold nugget pleco, with intentions to breed?

yes, the 1 in there at the mo is almost full sized female

I've just started breeding the commen b/n again and I also breed snowflake b/n L059.

of cause it's impresive but EJ isn't the kind a guy to do a sing and dance about it , SO nether will I.

I use an aged sponged filter as Alan mentioned with 30% to 50% clean tank water and tap water i've had bubbling at the correct temp for at least 24 hours. this is for a spawning tank, were you don't feed the adult fish, when fry are ready for food in 1-2 weeks only small feedings are made at first so the filter ages as the fry need more food.

Guppylovers increase the temp to 30C, all the fish you have mentioned like it warm ( or can handle it for a short time ) and it will kill the white spot . bring the temp back to norm slowly thou, you don't want another brack out.

what is the temp in the tank ?

I'm not familar with the AR380, but a breeding pair are very happy in a 50lt tank 600mmx300mmx300mm or similar.