DFishkeeper

Dennison Seeto at MaryAnnes aquarium is the go to guy for quality custom tanks : http://marysaquarium.com.au/

Probably not, most catfish are nocturnal Many catfish keepers set up their tank/s to facilitate easier viewing of their favourite catfish with structure including low platforms making caves that appeal to the fish and encourage them to be in plain sight.

They weren't mine personally, but I did see a young group of eyebiter x electric yellow hybrids quite a few years ago, there were only a few of them and they basically looked like eyebiters with electric yellow colouration including the black bar in the dorsal fin. I did have eyebiters cross with blue dolphins myself very early in my african breeding career before I realised you need to breed all malawis in species specific tanks. Many people don't realise that malawis can easily crossbreed either intentionally or unintentionally in the closed confines and limited water volume of an aquarium. When any pair of malawis in a mixed community tank start breeding they release pheronomes into the water which stimulate breeding activity in other fish in the tank, even solitary males often ejaculate milt. The milt is pushed around by the water flow and current and the whole aquarium becomes a soup of milt. The eyebiter x blue dolphins I experienced myself occurred in a 6 foot tank containing a colony of each with breeding platforms set up at each end of the tank. When one pair started to breed, so would the other at the other end of the tank. One platform was set up under the sump return and the other under the drain, the current just pushed the milt down the tank, resulting in mixed spawns. I thought it was a great way of maximising tank useage until I realised what was happening.

Its always the way mate, murphy's law I'll let you know if things don't go smoothly

All white lips are on hold pending

Thanks Wal

Placidochromis phenochilus mdoka "white lips" Fry available at 5 - 6cm $25.00 each or 10 for $220 Pickup only from Palm Beach, Gold Coast, Qld Will be waiting bagged individually with oxygen for pickup Contact by PM

Hi Winston, no longer having a big fishroom will definately decrease my stress levels as well as the strain on my dodgy old knees and back As far as my favourite memories about the hobby, these are my top few memories : (i) ~ I really enjoyed the personal contact and camaraderie in the hobby in pre-internet days, particularly the 1980's and 1990's when attending fish club meetings and auctions was the only way to meet experienced breeders and obtain information and hard to get fish. Most weekends I had lots of visitors who I enjoyed showing around my garage fishroom and talking about fishkeeping and breeding. Unfortunately the advent of the internet and facebook has changed the hobby and people in general, and in the last 12 years or so I found myself no longer willing to entertain strangers in my fishroom and home. (ii) I can't remember the exact date but a few months after the restrictions on importing Frontosa were lifted I managed to buy one of the very first imported wild caught groups of Ikola frontosa. I bought 7 young fish at around 12cm or so from Bay Fish and ended up with a nice colony of 2m 5f. After only having access to Burundi and Kigoma variants in Australia prior to this, the Ikola were a stunning contrast and were my favourite fish for many years. (iii) Around 20 years or so ago I managed to obtain an adult breeding colony 1m 3f of cuckoo catfish (Synodontis multipunctatus) at a time when they were quite scarce and expensive in Australia. I was fascinated by their breeding method and bred them in good numbers for quite a few years with a variety of hosts and never got sick of them, they have remained one of my favourite fish right to the end. (iv) In 2007/2008 my children finished school and became relatively independant, so I was able to get my wife's support to build a 12 x 4 metre shed in the backyard to setup as a dedicated breeding room. My old fishroom in the garage had evolved over the years and was made up of piecemeal racking systems and tanks, including some home made tanks. It was a dream come true for me to be able to design and build a purpose built fishroom from scratch and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole exercise. When I built the fishroom I planned to be using it well into my 70's, but the universe has different ideas, at least I got 12 great years out of it. Cheers, Doug

Thanks mate, no regrets so far about closing down and I am looking forward to a fish free future at this stage

Thanks mate, I am pleased also The first person to actually come and have a look at it snapped it up, it was really good value for what I was asking Deposit is paid, now just need to finish growing out and selling off the remaining fry and then the tanks, racks and equipment can go. Will be a big job taking out all the tanks, racks and other equipment, buyer plans on doing it in 3 big loads. Should all be gone in 3 - 4 months.

Fishroom has been SOLD

Hi John, I'm good mate I have a few people interested in buying the fishroom, including some from NSW, just waiting for lockdown restrictions to ease enough that they can travel to come and have a look at it in person.

That is quite possible Mick

So what has happened to the QLDAF facebook group? Has it been deleted by the facebook police?

Also included with the fishroom is a custom built water change tank that sits on top of the middle racks and holds 1250 litres, and a genuine Honda 4500 watt generator for backup power. As the fishroom is heated by an airconditioner during the cooler months, the water in this tank is warmed by the rising air to enable water changes with water the same temperature as the system during winter.