DCallele

Anything that is rated for drinking water, potable water should be safe. Generally this means the white pipe and not necessarily the black... although that is not always entirely true. HTH, David

It looks like some form of "spiney eel" but I would need a closeup head shot to tell for sure... Interesting :-) David

I, too, have eel issues http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=5657 Welcome to the club! David

I'd suggest we bring the fry over to meet the Polypterus? -roll- Oh, oh, oh... that's just harsh!!! -01- David You are a baaaaaddddd man!

Very nice Sean! Now, beer at my place for polleni fry or beer at your place for Polypterus gazing? Hmmm, doesn't matter much 'cause there will definitely be beer!!! :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

Last pics for a while. Everyone is now free swimming but they do like to hang out in bunches. and

Double ditto! Those are great fish :bow:

:bow: You are a much better poppa than I would ever be!!! - Nice fish, can't wait to see how the offspring turn out..... :thumbs: Thanks - I'm getting pretty tired though! Here are a few smaller update pics: and

Thanks! At the moment, I appear to have between 50 and 100 wigglers like this one. Took it out for a closeup then returned it to the tub. Still changing 33% of the water every 2 to 4 hours but things are looking pretty good so far David Thanks Sean. Sorry about the pic size... too much excitement can make one careless.

Just an update: At about 24 hours, as predicted by the few people who have spawned this species in an indoor aquaria, the mother started to eat her eggs. Since I was being paranoid and checking every half hour, I caught her at it. So, I removed the remaining eggs into another tank where I have a tub within the tank with gentle aeration, one egg tumbler with gentle aeration, and one egg tumbler with slightly stronger aeration. The apparent hatching rate on the tumblers is significantly higher than in the tub, with a slight bias toward more success with stronger aeration. However, the aeration rates are much, much lower than with mouth brooding cichlids. I've been changing 1/3 of the water every 4 hours (including all night... thank heavens for alarm clocks) and maintaining a malachite greeen / formalin treatment to protect against fungus. It is now somewhere around 36 hours since the spawn and the eggs are starting to show tails. I've been taking pictures every few hours and once things are settled down I will get Froggie to put together a proper web page. 12 to 24 hours to go... David

After 2 years of nursing, feeding, providing dithers to beat on, etc., my Paratilapia Polleni Large Spot have finally spawned! I'm bouncing around here like a new father, sheesh! :beer: :beer: :beer: Here is Dad. He is about 6" from top to bottom. Dad above, mom below, eggs, well, follow the arrow... by the way, those are 4" pipes for scale. Eggs from one side and a different part of the mass, from the other side He'd already beat most of the others up pretty badly - ever see a 6" Nimbochromis Polystigma cower before? So, I've put up a mesh wall and now to keep my fingers crossed for the next few days. If they don't eat the eggs in the first 48 hours, the fry will start to hatch and I will be dancing in the streets of Saskatoon! Now, to worry... David

I think that this link may have already been posted on the site before but check out: http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/race/media/photo_...h_by_family.htm Almost every fish off of this page is seriously ugly... especially the lumpsuckers at http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/race/media/photo_..._lumpsucker.htm and http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/race/media/photo_..._lumpsucker.htm I would *almost* set up a chiller for these guys... I was house shopping today because I am at 14 tanks and I am running out of room. Which is more expensive, moving or therapy??? Hope all are having a great weekend, David

You know, when my cray escaped it was quite a feat. He shot water up out of the tank which shorted out the alarm system, which brought down the force field, and of course the electric fence. After that it was a simple matter for him to pick 3 padlocks, and then lift the custom made lead canopy. He then rappelled 3 and a half feet to the floor, climbed up my computer speaker cable and hacked into my computer to defeat the building motion sensors, and of course, made good his escape. :ph43r: :ph43r: OMG... got caught reading this at work, I was laughing so hard!!! -roll- -roll- -roll- -roll- -roll- -roll-

I've always wondered why so many people keeping "escape artist" inhabitants, such as crays and many of the fish species, seem to keep their water so high in the tank that it is only a minor trek / leap to get out? I know it isn't as pretty, or quiet, but I tend to keep 2 to 4 inches of air between my water and my lids, on almost all of my tanks and it has pretty much eliminated any escapes except during feeding time... I once had an eel come about 18" out of the water with a chunk of an earthworm, right in front of my face. Almost fainted, I did Got the lid back on in a right hurry! Another time, a big Aulonacara went out the top, over my shoulder, and smack into the floor about 5 feet away. Took her about 30 minutes to start swimming normally again, poor thing. David

Take a look at www.snakeheads.org to see what they can do. I had some advice on another forum that I should invest in "butcher's gloves", those chain mail gloves that they use to ensure that they don't accidentally cut off a finger, if I planned to work in the tank at the same time as the fish were in residence. Unfortunately, my guys were killed off in a bad water change accident... David

:P DCallele====> Well now I have to go and check that out!!! Did he have a price tag? This was last summer so I really doubt that it is still there. There was no price tag at the time, just a basic sense of "stay away" 'cause this guy is nasty... Had it hidden away in a tank behind a stack of other tanks. Have you ever seen http://www.snakeheads.org ? Everything from species info to recipes. :P The pics of the micropeltes as truly, umm, somewhere between sobering and frightening. I used to have 3 young micropeltes but they died in a horrible water change contamination. One used to jump out by punching the lid to the side, then walk a couple of feet across the counter to the sink. Once there, it would jump in, then wiggle down into the garburator. Found it in there 3 times, always crossed my fingers when I stuck my hand in 'cause I was afraid I would get bitten. Read a comment about them from a British shop owner: when a customer comes in wanting the freshwater equivalent to great white shark, this is what I give them. Have wanted one ever since... but, when you consider the safety issues it might not be a good choice when you have kids or other pets. Any fish that is capable of stalking you is one to be treated with the utmost of respect. Sigh, these guys and chaca chaca... someday I will have each and get them out of my system :hey: Cheers, David

Actually David they are Channa Bleheri. They will look just like this at full grown, 8". I am now feeding them NLS in the morning and krill at night. Actually, what I meant is that, whenever I think of snakeheads I think of micropeltes, not a relatively "normal" species like a bleheri... sorry for the confusion. I was at Riverfront in Calgary and spent 10 minutes watching a 20" plus micropeltes launch itself from the bottom of the tank, up against the lid, repeatedly, in an attempt to get out of the tank. They had a 12" cinder block (concrete block) on the lid and the fish was bouncing the block slightly into the air with each hit so that there was a bang... bang... bang... as it kept trying to escape. Yours are so "normal" in comparison, at least for now

I'm like Toirtis: I evaporate about 40L a week into the air, and that is with a relatively closed off, basement fish room. Humidity at about 35% with the door closed, over 50% if I leave it open all day. If the door is oen, my evaporation rate jumps dramatically. Whenever I catch a cold, I just go sit in my basement: about 550 gallons of tropical temp water... Really, I am sitting there watching the fish, for my health!!! -roll- David

They are soo cute... and so tiny! I always have this man-eater vision of a channa micropeltes in my head, it just never occured to me that they would look like little blennies when they are young. Thanks for sharing! David

That ape is pretty darn rude too

I was rather surprised when I saw the photo on the computer later for I was just trying to set my focus before taking some other photos. Very odd.... if not rather disgusting in a mammalian sort of way. Yeesh. David

Great looking tank. What are you planning for long term inhabitants? David

Positively a camera-hog in the making... mine let me get off 2 shots, then moved, and after the second group basically told me to leave him alone.

I keep mine with some small Victorians. Both are skittish in species tanks but when they are together sudenly everyone is out and about. Weird, in a way...

He's about 6" long. We used to have one at about 4" but I haven't seen her for a few months. I suspect that my Tire-track eel caught her one night, :cry: Cool find if you can snag one at a Walmart! David