Nauticus

Thanks Jay, I think I might know where to get some starter worms from too.

My fish room is rapidly growing and I need to start some live cultures to feed my fry. I was wondering if anyone could share some tips or ideas for beginner live cultures I could try.

Hmmmm, he might not get along in my community tank I'll pass on the group buy :drool:

That looks awesome, I love the progression. It would look great with rock works on the back covered in java or anubias.

My Dad used to leave the house all winter to go logging. No one home, no computer, no lights, no fish tanks, most electronics unplugged - basically just the fridge and freezer. The bill was pretty much the same as when he was home all the time. This is mainly because the companies do two kinds of readings: estimates and actuals. You have to schedule actual reads otherwise they just estimate most of the time. I have had them do the actuals a few times when I knew that our usage was down a fair bit and it did make a huge difference on our bill, nearly half. When we installed all compact flourescent lights in our house our bill dropped by about $15 -$20 a month but then started to creep back up until I had them do an actual reading. Experiences will differ though I am certain.

This is an easy fish to breed, hopefully this will encourage more hobbyists to breed saltys and decrease the strain on wild populations.

I grow a lot of plants using shop lights from Home depot. Try to get the T8's or T5's Unfortunately they are harder to come by the T5's that is. Then when you do choose bulbs just be sure to grab bulbs of the high K rating. I found the liquid ferts to be too time consuming and expensive to maintian great levels. I therefore went and bought dry ferts and trace elements mix from a local garden guru store. There is a pinned thread that tells which chems and at which levels to add. CO2 is the other thing that will make plants go. Get a diffuser and if you like you can build some DIY CO2 generators, they will however not be very consistent. I did that for a short while, before procuring a canister and regulator for my CO2 bottle. I have never kept and Ocelot sword though so this may not apply. I have kept Osiris swords and Madagascar swords, and lace swords. Hope it works out well for you.

I keep inkspot Calvus, Black Calvus, and Gold Head Comps. My Blacks are full grown, the Inkspots are about 2 inches and the gold Heads are an inch right now. They are in a large tank with other Tangs and Malawis. I have found that the Black F2 or 3's are very shy and like to hide alot, slow to eat, and easily bullied. My other two strains are wild caughts and they run the tank. I have seen them take scales off of my adult peacocks and yellows to protect their territory. Tiny fish with big attitude. I love keeping them, as they are really unique in behavior and attitude. You really should provide them with some caves, shells, and condos though.

I just lost about 700 dollars of salt water fish and corals when the temperature in my salt system hit over 92 F. I live on the third floor and I do have fans, AC, and floating bags of ice. I tore down the system and will not do salt again until I move.

Good to know. I hate how 2 names can get mixed up and used to describe one fish, like P. insignis and P spinonotus in this case. They definitely have the horizontal barring, it is broken like a blotchy line. It is a bit more defined than the images you linked but looks similar. I am looking forward to seeing them in full color. How quickly will they grow? Are they slow like Calvus and Dolphins or fast like other Haps?

I will when they finally get some color. Right now they look rather plain, like female peacocks.

Are those from me? The babies are small, I tried raising them with my electric yellows and peacock fry and like a stupid I lost them all. I guess they made great snacks for the other babies who are now quite fat.

So I grabbed a bag of three of these guys from the last auction. They were about an inch and a quarter but have grown to about double that. They have still not shown any color except for the bland barring. The thing is I have no idea what these fish are and there is not much online about them that I could find. They look a lot like peacocks. Can anyone help me out with this. What are they like etc. Thanks

I have kept these fish and have always loved their unique character and quirky behavior. Enjoy yours.

Partly due to the color. You can also check the gills of a decessed fish. If they are red and inflamed that is ammonia.

THat looks realy cool. It must be like swimming through a log or something for them.

miffed that this was even brought UP! I concur. For me, the most embarrasing aspect of this thread is not that there might be something wrong with the MOTM but rather the blatant assumption that the mods on this site ,sit around twiddle their thumbs and then choose one of the many members out of a hat. I know a couple of the mods personally and know that they take a lot more pride in this site than that. As a noob to the site and a rather new hobbyist I also am embarrased that someone would assume that quanitity demonstrates a greater value than encouraging those who are just starting out or those who are trying to get involved more and more. If there are future suggestions please remeber to give them either in private if you are unable to refrain from devaluing others on a pubic forum, or making them in a mature and appropriate manner that respects all involved. Thanks for even having a MOTM.

Vince down at Little Oceans is going to sell them out of his basement I think so go ask him. Apparently he is going to sell them for cheap, might be wholesale.

That is great to hear, If "she" continues to improve it will be easier to tell. Even from your other pic this fish looks like it will be really gorgeous once she is healthy and colored up. Great find.

Looks like you picked some of the nicer species of triggers. Sweet setup

That is perhaps the best looking madarin goby I have ever seen, nice work.

I agree, if you have the space, a small filter, some dead quiet space, and lots of plants you will do just fine. Degrassi is your betta male or female? That sounds like a really nice little tank.

I have furcatus rainbows and yes they are very peaceful, they do not eat my endler fry or my cherry shrimp. However, as already mentioned you must have a nice quiet spot for any labrynth type fish like bettas or gouramis as they are not keen on frantic swimmers. Those rainbows are very spastic swimmers that will annoy the crap out of the slow moving bettas. You might try some croaking gouramis and let some duck weed or water sprite or riccia cover the surface of the water with lower flow. 6 or so of those little characters, the croakers, will hide and make funny sounds for you. They only thing is they are rather dull in color. My suggestion is not to mix them but if you really want to try the female splendins as they are quirky, colorful, and not going to kill the rainbows. Oh , and have fun with it.

If you can quarantine then do so and try to treat it. If you think you know what it is then don't hesitate. Especially if there is a chance of it spreading and taking out other fish.

I have tried a bunch of sites, maybe those. There just isn't much about Darwins clowns. Maybe they are the same as other clowns for spawning, I don't know.