Ishkabod

Wow i'd love a pair of yours when you have some up and going. They are stunning. thanks for sharing the pictures. L

Stripping her has 2 benifits. 1. if in the future you want to or need to change your setup and sell some fish you won't have to deal with passing on hybrid fish to another and 2. the female won't have to go through the starvation they do when they are holding the eggs so it's much less stressfull for her. Unless you have allot of small small spaces in the tank that they rest of the fish can't get at or have a hard time doing so then you most likely will have no surviving babies anyway and then a female that hasn't eaten in a month. I know about the thrill of having the first female holding babies and my favorate thing to see in my tank is the inside mouth of one of my electric yellows with the small little itsy bitsy babies stuffed inside. If you don't want to strip her then may i suggest waiting for the female to spit and then catching her and placing her in a recovery tank. I'd do that for mine except the fact that it's a 4 hour job with little chance of success on my part because of the rockwork and my lack of talent in catching the fish so it'd be waayyy more stressful for all the fish let alone the female and not to mention me in order to do this. Good luck L

check to see if they need 2 to reproduce or not. you could also add a small piece of driftwood hidden in the back to attract it to lay eggs on it instead of the glass or other areas you don't want them. Good luck L

From what i understand some aros change colour as the grow older so it might not be unique but you sure are one very very lucky guy. Hmm what about breeding them? Good luck L

Cichlids especially Africans are rarely crossed and if they are they don't normally get sold or the like. With a pair like this i'd have to say that most likely no one knows. The only thing i can say is be a good hobbiest and don't pass them on to someone else. Good luck L

try a fish trap

I personally think the reason that fish don't get the protection that other pets do is that MOST people still don't think that fish feel any pain. It's untrue as new studies in the last decade have come to light but still it's not something many people know so they don't think twice about it. I really dislike this practice and if those molly's show up again in another store i might be suprised because when they order fish like that they read a line on a long list with a breif description and if that is what they get then they must sell them. If they don't get any more after this batch then it must be a one off and they learned their lesson. Anywho I don't like to see fish like this and if people actually knew what they did to those fish to get colours like they have then i don't think there would be much of a market for them. As it is people like us on sites like this and some store employees are doing a good job of making the practice less and less profitable. Go us. Thanks for sharing. L

Thanks soo much. I'll be by to pick them up and my order soon (within the week i hope) i just need to figure out my work schedual and then i'll give you a PM to arrange some time. Oh and about the sump or cannister on the Edge well it's sittin on my counter behind my sink in the corner. It took me 2 hours just getting the wires to stay put and the thing in the right position so getting a sump system or a cannister for it is pretty much out of the question unless i start to drill holes in the countertop... not gonna happen. Anyway thanks for the input and yes i personally don't like HOBs much myself but in this case it simply was a nessasary evil. Thanks again everyone L

Big fat belly equals pregnant from what i can tell. And about the skew from male to female what you said about the smart ones surviving.... well my mind went in a completely un fish related direction :smokey: and i had a laugh. But to answer your question 100% my guppy tank wasn't heated and there was a decent mix of male and female guppies with the females being less in the winter months. Hope this helps L

Thanks for the info on baby shrimp being sucked up. As for the other thing well i was feeding some critter crumbs for the snails and the white stuff leftover might have gotten stirred up somehow last night and clogged the sponge. As for it not being the reason the filter stopped well that is settled by letting you know that the second i removed the sponge the filter started again. I just redid this tank and moved it about four days ago including a complete scrapeing of all the glass because of the green slime algae problem and replaceing the substrait. So apart from the lack of filter there was very little to almost no bacteria colonizing the tank itself. The reason for the filter intake cover is because i had my one and only male shrimp dissappear up it once. Thanks for all your help and input everyone Here is some good news 1 of the fish recoverd when i wasn't looking and so i only lost one. 2 one lone male shrimp was hiding in the plants and is currently enjoying scurrying around the tank looking for food. Now does anyone have some extra cherry shrimp? Thanks again L

I woke up this morning to a wonderful suprise. Cloudy water and the filter not working on my fluval edge. The shrimp are all dead and as i watched while doing a major water change 2 Harliquin Rasboras passed away before my very eyes. The Culprit. The Manufacturers Pre filter sponge attatchment. I've had the sponge on for more than a month and every week it reduces the water flow gradually to the point where i take it out and clean it. Well this time it clogged over night and so my fish and shrimp all died as a result. They were fine and the sponge was fine last night before i went to bed. Does anyone have a solution to keeping shrimp in this tank but not using or using a different sponge?? L :cry:

They have examples of these tanks set up at PJ's pets in Londonderry They look okay but for shrimp you'd have a hard time growing out adults from any babies produced because the filter easily sucks them up. Other than that they look really nice and would be great for some taller plants. L

Sad to say but i agree with you on that one. It's the not so desperate or uneducated ones that really get me going UFC anyone???? I won't watch it or support something like that in any way shape or form. They are athletes but they deserve NO RESPECT from me for what they do. Animals at least don't have something telling them what to do other than instinct. Enough of my rant sorry it was a bit off topic. Personally i don't see a difference in watching and enjoying UFC and enjoying two animals fighting. Horrible. L

I thought so too. L

Live and learn Basicly i follow one rule of thumb and that is double check whatever a sales person tells you. There are those that really know their stuff and those that are there just for the job and have picked up bits and pieces of information along the way and some of them supplement that information with conjectiure and sometimes the information they base that on is completly wrong but they know how to throw a good sales pitch and sound like they know what they are doing. If you want I'd start again. Plant some plants for safety. Keep the Cherries in the tank after a cycle and check your parameters before you add anything else. If there is a hint of ammonia or Nitrite then don't chance it. Double dose with stability and keep dechlorinating with prime. Good Luck L

YOur witty comment was hilarious. Welcome to the forum L

That's true and i did consider that but there is still importation of wild stock and how would they differentiate between wild and tank bread discus? I personally think regulation of importation isn't the answer but regulation of sale of some species could do soo much more and more effectively than import regulation. For example Koi are on the list and i completely understand the fact that they have invaded some lakes allready but i'm pretty sure that the main reason for that is that some retailers completely neglect to inform their customers how BIG they get. Same with goldfish and Gouramis. The guppys????? well at least individuals are still allowed to import with paperwork from what i understand. It'll make it very very difficult for most of us but i'm not sure what can be done but to contact your rep in the federal government. The more people that do that the better the chance of it being defeated or repealed. It bites but there really is only one way to possibly fix it. I hate to point the blame for this legislation at one retailer but based on some of the species on the list and how horridly inexperienced most of the staff in the fish/bird/hamster/everything but dog and cat section. Its really not just that retailer but personally i think they are a large part of the problem. I caught a program on TV recentlly about the catching of pet fish in the great lakes and they had caught one of those black moor goldfish on that particular trip and it was HUGE. They have a list of the most common species found in the lakes and i know at least two of those are on the list. L

The thing about discus is maybe the fact that they are disappearing in the wild so they have put the ban to stop that as much as possible but unless the states and other countries do the same it's not going to make a dent at all. L

Wow really nice fish and i love the setup you have with your camera. I guess i could sell all my fish and equipment and buy a setup like that but i guess that would defeat the purpose..... or not.... hmmm it's almost too tempting right now. I better sleep on it. thanks for sharing L

In terms of size they should be okay in a 40 gallon when they are smaller but you would have to plan for the bigger tank. I've seen pictures of two of these guys paird off with the arrowana and various other much larger fish keeping as far away as possible and the fish were only quarter the size of the other tankmates. They more than likely would be best on their own in a very large tank and will live for quite a few years Good luck on your choices and maybe google some more information. L

If thats all then i'll take four.... But seriously when useing my test kit i stood in my bright bathroom light and in the living room and the one that gave the clocest colour match to the background is the one i went with in terms of shade. When it comes to MOST aquarists the only parameters we are concerned with is Ammonia and Nitrate. PH really only for fish that you want kept at a different PH and even then a general sense of the ph is usually enough. test tube kits really are the only affordable way. Some people mostly use test strips for general weekly tests and occasionally test with the tube kits to be sure of accurate measurments and to double check if there is a problem. You can get them but the ones i have seen were anywhere from 250 and up EACH. Hope this may shead some light on the subject for you(sorry for the pun but i couldn't resist) L Oh i forgot to mention that they reccomend that the electric ones be re calibrated every year?

Thanks for the advice the only problem is that knowing me it'll be a few hours in the bucket not just a little time. Knowing how long it'll take me to make everything just right and how many plants i have to add and then be sure that the water added to the tank won't be cloundy i'm expecting it to take more than 3 hours. Should i put the shrimp in their own bucket separate from the Harliquin rasboras and snails? and if i do that where should the filter be thanks L

Hi I'm new to shrimp and i'm planning to completely redo the substrait and plants in my fluval edge. Should i remove the shrimp entirely from the tank durring the redo and if i do that where should i keep them for those few hours and should i save the water from the tank from before the redo to keep parameters as cloce to the original as possible? Also how long would they be okay lets say in a 3 gallon ice cream pail(baskin robbins size) with the other inhabitants of the tank be okay. I'll add the filter to the side and the heater too but the water will be half of what it was with no food and the tube doesn't reach near halfway to the bottom so i'm worried about lack of filtration at the bottom. One last thing i'm worried about possible contaminants from the bucket when they are in there soo long with a heater. I regularly use these buckets to warm filtered water to room temp but i don't leave warmer water in them for extended periods of time unless i'm rinseing them out with hot hot water. Does anyone have any suggestions tips or tricks that might help Thanks L Oh and they are cherry shrimp

Since edmonton water has a high PH are you treating the water to lower the PH before you add it to the tank? The immediate PH change from such a large water change can and will cause stressed fish until whatever you have in the tank that is lowering PH has time to do it's job. For the Filter i think the expert rule of thumb is if it says rated for a 55 gallon max then get two for a 55gallon or go one model up. Two is always better in case of failure and to allow you to clean the filters alternatively so as not to cause a cycle. The fact that the ammonia drops back down after the water change suggests to me that the bacteria in the tank are perfectly capable of doing their job well and you shouldn't have to worry about that. Don't clean the filter until you have this issue resolved so it'll be easier to pinpoint the real issue. the other thing is the cloudiness could be from the difference in PH between edmonton water and your tank. I don't know for sure but for some reason that is what is popping into my head. The fish distress could also be from that allthough ammonia could be the real issue. Most test kits though will read both the free ammonia and the stuff that has allready been bound by the detoxifier(waterconditioner) this includes the API one. I'd suggest switching to prime to eliminate the chlorimines as an issue and double the dose just to be 100% sure. then if that doesn't work The PH might be your next battle. Good luck L Edit If you do a waterchange check PH before and after and you can also check the ammonia content of the added water. Good luck

You might want to try an add in the buy sell section. You never know what someone might have for you Good luck L