John in NZ

Oops ... I've been a little preoccupied recently so apologies for not bringing you folks along for the ride. The continuation runs something like this: John thinks: "Lets move all the fish to the new, larger tank" Fishes think: "That's better, lets make some babies" The result being that 5 pairs of Polar Parrots spawned at the same time. As result I've rehomed two pairs of Polar Parrots and two male Angelfish, and i thought that would be the end of it, but no. The remaining adult Polar Parrots have become even more territorial, and two pairs have spawned for a second time! The current idea is to thin out the PPs so that I've got one or maybe two pairs, and then start considering my options for re-stocking. On the subject of stockings (or socks if you prefer), I hope you've all been good boys and girls and Santa brings you plenty of fish related goodies. Merry Xmas ...🎅

Did someone say kissy-faced fish? The link takes you to a clip of two of my males in a kissing competition, to impress the ladies no doubt ... 😄 Kissy faced fish ... 🙂

Your wish is my command ... 😄 This was earlier in the week, but things seem to be settling down a little ... 🙂

Or to put it slightly differently, the more you know, the more you realise how little you know ... 😎

Thanks for the kind words ... 🙂 As I said, I'm quite new to all of this, so I knew nothing about the Polar Parrots until I brought the 150L tank home (they are all from the same brood). As I've only got one Blood Parrot, and I'm pretty sure it's a female (named Sonja, after the 80's sword and sorcery B movie), so I wouldn't expect her to get too territorial, but the Polars, both male and female, chase her away if they have claimed a plant pot as a nest site. Also, one reason for getting the bigger tank is because I've seen one brood of fry in the tank, so I'm hoping that I haven't given away a fertile male, the other reason for wanting to keep them is that I think they are good looking fish, now that they've coloured up ... 🙂

That makes a lot of sense, especially when you consider the way that Cory likes to pre-filter with the foam over the intake. It also fits that, even if the filter is neglected, the ceramic tube or bio ball will provide some mechanical filtration. Thanks ... 🙂

Yep Mitch, That comes across quite clearly in the video, but in one case he dropped ceramic tubes into a filter, so clearly they do have a place in the filtration process. After all, if the different foams could cover all of the filter requirements, why do we bother with the other media?

Hopefully this question hasn't been done to death in the forum, but here goes. Last night, I was watching a youthful Cory, back in 2016, explaining how to hot-rod your filter. It's a great video, thanks Cory, but it did throw up one question in my mind, and that was about the function of the various filter media that are available to us. I understand that we are hoping to achieve mechanical, and biological filtration, and that the biological filtration splits into aerobic and anaerobic filtration, but I'm not sure how foam filters, ceramic tubes or bio-balls fit into that picture. So, can anyone enlighten me ... 🙂

Hi folks, my user name might give you an idea of where I'm currently living, but I moved from the UK to NZ in in 2004, but since then I've moved about a bit, and I've lived in 4 countries across three continents, which is why I've only recently been settled in one place for long enough to get my first aquarium. So, back in March, I bought an older 150L (~40 gal), and it came with around 20 juvenile Polar Parrots. Since then I got chatting with the owner of a local coffee shop, and swapped some of the Polar Parrots for some Angel Fish, and after that, he's given me a Blood Parrot too. I've added a few fish that I was keen on getting, like Clown Loaches, Plecos, Common and L183, and when the tank was overtaken by Black Beard Algae, a couple of young Hillstream Loaches and Siamese Algae eaters. However, as a new aquarist, I hadn't considered that fish need more space and filtration as they get bigger ... oops ... 😁 My solution to that problem was to buy a larger tank, so I've got a 320L (~90 Gal) that's waiting to be built up, and that may or may not happen next weekend ... 😎 As I said, I'm new to keeping fish, and friends have been complementary about the tank, and the community that are swimming around in it, but I'm keen to learn lots more ... ☺️ Here's a clip of the polar Parrots doing their thing.