African_Fever

I think the drip tray would get too clogged with algae and wouldn't function.

He's definitely a great looking marble! I think he might even be one of the ones from the photo's that I was sent initially, which is great to see. And he definitely looks like he could be quite the stud too; claspers look to be fully rolled!

Great looking stand, and definitely solidly built. It is a huge looking bolt, but as the others have said, that's a LOT of weight to be distributed on the 6 bolts (somewhere around 700 pounds each). I've never seen a commercially made stand with any sort of adjustment like you have, and I think there's maybe a reason for it.

Amazing shrimp!

polleni-puffer - the pic you posted isn't an albino or leucistic ray, but just a young flower ray that has yet to darken up (not to mention that it looks deathly thin). Is it yours?

What kind of pipe is this on? Schedule 40/80 pvc, or the lighter weight stuff?

Just out of curiousity, but why are you even trying to feed your aro beefheart? Do they regularly eat that in the wild?

One of the seams in my tank was actually leaking; you could see water in the seam about 6" from the top of the tank to halfway down, and the tank leaked it was more than 3" from the top. I didn't really have a choice, because I kept having dreams about the tank blowing it's seams in the middle of the night!

Is that Frank's new pearl, or the leo? To the best of my knowledge there's three albino rays in the world at this point, and all female; one in New York at H20 (a pearl), and two with Frank in the Netherlands (pearl and leopoldi).

Not to hijack this thread, but has anyone sealed a tank over 100 gallons? I hear of smaller tanks being done all the time, but can't remember hearing of anyone doing something as large (or larger than) 100 gallons. I've got a 130 I'm in the process of tearing apart to re-seal, and am wondering if I'm nuts and better of doing a couple ply tanks, or should just re-seal this one.

If you're going to be running a pump to help increase the flow, I think you'd be better off just having a separate circuit with the pump, heater, and reactor. I wouldn't think that the pushing or pulling on the canisters' pump would be very good for it.

I would think that it would be in the vendors best interests to at least attempt to work something out. Having poor colour in 1/2 of the groups after that length of time, when fed on a high quality food would lead me to guess on the actual lineage of the fish, or the breeding practices of the breeder. I know if it was myself selling the fish and they turned out poorly, I would try everything I could to rectify the situation; ie. if I was still breeding the same fish I would send replacements, if not I would attempt to find some customers who had good success with the same fry and see if there was anything done differently, or even attempt to find replacements for the fish. Nothing is worse with cichlids than waiting a year for them to mature and their colour to develop, only to realize that you have 'duds'.

What kind of info are you looking for? They're a syno, so do best in groups of 6+, and due to their large size I wouldn't recommend them for anything under 4'x18", preferrably 6'x18" footprint. They are a very cool catfish that almost no one has, because the exporters'divers don't catch them themselves. When someone wants them, the exporter puts word out to the locals that they're in need of some and the locals use traps/bait to catch them and will show up on the doorstep with a bucket full of cats. Kind of weird, but it works. They also haven't been bred in captivity (to the best of my knowledge, at least not when I was over there), which makes them a little more difficult to obtain.

Size of the tank depends on what rays you can get (and hystrix are now available from one supplier in the US). If it's hystrix, you'd probably be fine with a tank 6'x24"x18", but for motoro's and most anything else I'd go at least 30" wide to give you as much space a possible. A lot of motoro's would/could be fine in a tank that wide for 5+ years, but some may outgrow it faster than that. Ply tanks are definitely the way to go with rays; you can actually build a tank large enough for them for life without having to drain the bank like a glass or acrylic tank does!

I've personally never kept eels, but from what I know of them their growth can be quite slow. 'Stunting' is usually going to be due to a lack of food and water changes rather than too small of an aquarium. The fire eels will grow large, but if you get them small I'm guessing it'll take quite a while for them to outgrow a 65. Not too sure what kind of ray you have, but NO ray can live for very long in a 65 gallon tank (1 year is pushing it, and that's doing multiple 50% water changes per week); it's just too small for the life of the ray. A 180 would be the minimum for any ray, and that's only if you've got true hystrix.

Great looking silver!

Pretty cool video, and makes sense to fish that way considering the grass mats. Tigrinus don't get that big, but looks like a TSN (Tiger shovelnose) or of that family.

Riverfront carries live BLACKworms, which is what most people seem to mistake for live bloodworms. They're not cheap, if I remember correctly somewhere around $45 a pound.

There's very few people breeding retic's, so good luck! Max size is about a 14" disc, and with their long tails they can be 30"+ long. Sexual maturity should be about 8-10" disc, and feeding them good food will make a difference. Hopefully yours are able to eat a variety of food, or at least chopped shrimp (pellets would be great, but I haven't heard of many with retics on pellets). You'll want a tank that 24" wide and 6' long for them for life, though 30-36" would be better due to their long tails.

Amazing looking Pheno Neil! Definitely well worth the wait; he's a show stopper! I can't say I've seen any captive raised Pheno's that look even close to that.

Wicked looking P-bass! You only need a ray or two to fill out that tank and it'll be a display that can't be rivaled by many.

By males I meant males of mouthbrooding cichlids in which the females carry the eggs to term. There are also a number of Tanganyikan sand dwellers (Xeno's etc) that the males can hold to full term or take turns with the females. I suppose thinking about that (with Tangs having a number that share duties compared to no Malawian's that I know of), there is the possibility that the male Cyp may hold the eggs until the fry hatch. It's definitely interesting to think about!

Some males of some species of mouthbrooder have been seen holding eggs in the past by others (I've never personally had any), but to the best of my knowledge they've never kept the eggs for more than a couple days. No females carrying at all?

You're sure it's a male?

Most people who've had motoro's for years recommend 48" wide for life. But with that being said, I think 38" would last most motoro's at least 5 years, possibly longer. They can have huge growth spurts and grow from a 4" disc to a 12" disc (and then 24" long) in a year and slow considerably after that. I use silica sand for my ray tanks (and all tanks for that matter), and I get frac sand from a local oilfield supply company for free. The sand doesn't need to be as fine as possible - I have some that's comparable to sugar and I think it's almost too fine and prefer a bit larger. When a ray buries itself or swims up the sides of the tank towards the surface there's a lot of force of water under it's disc, and if the sand is too fine it really blows everywhere and will get in everything (ie. powerheads used for extra circulation).