Which part of the world are you from?

[broschultz]

I'm from Long Island, NY in the USA located just south of Canada and north of Mexico on the North American Continent and just south of Lake Ronkonkoma where I caught my first catfish back in the 50's which was about the same time I bought my first green cory.

[corybrummie2010]

Hi!,welcome to planetcatfish

[rhibear]

I'm from the UK originally, currently living in Virginia, USA.

[hankbuck]

I am from the seaside town of Brick in New Jersey, USA.
I am in need of some advice for my upside down cat which is actually a featherfin. he is old and very passive and lately just on top swimming. His partner died and he is with 3 gold fish(large) in 30 gal Tank. I could move him to my 20 gal with 12" pleco and 5 cory cats but he has a bit of white on the mouth snout/area. I dont know if that is an indication of disease or from when he bangs into something. He sometimes spooks but not much. Any ideas? Thanks
Hank

[Kayla]

from tokyo japan

i love ageneiosus

[corybrummie2010]

Konnichi wa Kayla,welcome to planetcatfish .

[ichtyophile]

Hi, everyone. I'm Arya from city of Jakarta, Indonesia, the (usually) underrated 4th most populous nation in the world....
But, I'm very proud of it, since most of tropical fishes being exported from Singapore, actually bred or caught in Indonesia...
It's hard to find beautiful cats in Jakarta, since most LFS in Jakarta are heavily infested with flowerhorn, arowana, bettas , fancy goldfish and kois....

[Richard B]

Hi, everyone. I'm Arya from city of Jakarta, Indonesia, the (usually) underrated 4th most populous nation in the world....
But, I'm very proud of it, since most of tropical fishes being exported from Singapore, actually bred or caught in Indonesia...
It's hard to find beautiful cats in Jakarta, since most LFS in Jakarta are heavily infested with flowerhorn, arowana, bettas , fancy goldfish and kois....

Welcome to PC

Any chance of going out into the countryside & catching your own cats?

[ichtyophile]

Hi, everyone. I'm Arya from city of Jakarta, Indonesia, the (usually) underrated 4th most populous nation in the world....
But, I'm very proud of it, since most of tropical fishes being exported from Singapore, actually bred or caught in Indonesia...
It's hard to find beautiful cats in Jakarta, since most LFS in Jakarta are heavily infested with flowerhorn, arowana, bettas , fancy goldfish and kois....

Welcome to PC

Any chance of going out into the countryside & catching your own cats?

Thank you, Richard...

Well, I would have done that, if I had had time to be spared.

Actually it's hard to find native fishes in Jakarta's freshwater bodies (river, ponds, etc), since most of them are highly polluted or infested with invasive species like common pleco, common carp, guppy, tilapias, etc.

[katgermain]

Hello,

I'm from Toronto, Canada.

Just became a surrogate mom to two fish, which i was told were plecos. Apparently they're not. Have never had any fish before, so i'm very new to this.

The fish were depressed/ dying (i'm not sure about others' opinions on this site in terms of fish emotions, but i am pretty sure they were depressed!) in their own filth in a school i was working in and was convinced to take them home. The filter was broken and a kid had dumped a load of food in accidentally... and of course there were the kids constantly banging on the glass and tormenting the poor little guys. Also found out after the rescue, that they also should have had a heater!

Anyway, i (mistakenly, i found out too late) cleaned the tank really well, threw out all of the water (other than what they were in, in the bag for transport) and cleaned the heck out of the filter too to see if i could get it working again. They guy at the aquarium store was very distraught about my over-zealous cleaning of everything and said that there was nothing else i could do but put them in and hope for the best, but it was likely that it would be too much of a shock to them. Well, it's been a week and a couple of days, and they seem to be just fine. Actually swimming around as opposed to just hiding on the bottom of the tank. They're eating well (i'm worried i'm starving them, they're eating so voraciously) and foraging through the pebbles for more. They've both changed colour - one subtly, one more obviously and have a little shimmer to their scales now, so i'm hopeful they've survived the shock of a clean environment.

One, i just found out in the "What's My Catfish" forum from someone's post, is a Hoplosternum littorale. She (? no "thickened orangish pectoral spines") is about 7.5 cm (3 in). The other i'll be posting soon.

Nice to find this site. I'm sure it will be really helpful as i navigate my way through new fish-dom!

Kat

[corybrummie2010]

Hi Kat,welcome to planetcatfish
You definately come to the best catfish website on the web,there is plenty of informations on everything catfish and also the most informative forum.

[moonbunny]

North America, USA---born in Michigan (is it any wonder I'm a freshwater fish person?) stranded in Arizona

[Viktor Jarikov]

Hi Kat! Welcome! Greetings from across the lake!

Easy on the feeding ESPECIALLY when your tank is cycling - you have no-to-little bacterial cultures in your filter/gravel bed to process fish waste - sounds like you've eradicated them all. With feeding, the rule is that less is better, within reason, of course. If waste products like ammonia and nitrite keep accumulating, they will kill the fish. You may consider adding a bacterial treatment to you tank that will seed and boost the bacterial cultures you so desperately need right now - I'd recommend smth like Petsolutions bioboost (petsolutions.com, 1/2 gal $20.00) or Microbe-Lift PL (e.g., 1 gal ~$60-70). The cycling process is long, up to a few months (!), and just because you are ok 9 days later, you may be way, way far from being out of the woods yet (unless your tank/filter are huge relative to the amount of fish).

Also, when you need help/advices in the future, make sure to post them in the right forums. Serious or semi-serious inquires are often overlooked in this forum as this one is meant for a different purpose.

Good luck!!

Viktor

[crkinney]

Hello
I am from Florida USA born in southflorida and now live in central florida just north of Mickey Mouse.
I really did not realize how diverse this group is .
What would you feed a two hundread pound wels.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Welcome, Crkinney! Greetings from the other end of the USA. Please, say hello and convey our best to the Mouse. Tell him if he does not straighten up his act, he will meet the 200-lb wels (as opposed to the 900 lb gorilla)
--- Viktor

[crkinney]

Viktor you can have that bigearedblackrat for your wels just come and get him he has ruined this part of the state.
What part of up state are you in? my wife is from Plattsberg ny . Weather sucks

[Viktor Jarikov]

I'll try to remember this when I will have gotten my long desired wels (that is true, no joke, I want one) and will have grown him to a decent size, say 6-8 feet. Poor little Mickey! What did he do to FL?

I am in Rochester, that would be on the shore of lake Ontario, 1 h east of Buffalo and 1.3 h east of Niagara Falls. I've heard of Plattsburg, my friends have a chunk of land and a cabin for hunting there. It is roughly 2 h south from me though.

[crkinney]

In the days I'll call Pre mickey this area was a small, slow, friendlly place .It had farms and cattle ranches lots of trees great hunting and fishing .I did not have locks on my house. You did not ask for help it was given .What a lovely place to live .Then came the RAT and started a snowball of amusement parks and people and cars and garbage and litter and hate .With this came the theives and crooks and bunco artest .Yep I LOVE that bigearedblackrat.

[crkinney]

Sorry for blowing my cool it's kinda a sore spot
CRK

[Viktor Jarikov]

Yeah, I hear you. I suspected that what you described was the case you first had vaguely hinted at. Oh well, what can you do right? It's bad but it's not all bad, right? Some good must be there too, even besides the obvious humongous money river flowing toward the area... And there is still plenty back of the woods places, like the Everglades... yeah, yeah, I know what you gonna say: until the oil spill wipes them out, right?

[crkinney]

I was raised in miami just east of the glades and mover into central fl in1970
the everglades are my farorite place in the country .It is so differant from anywere else I have ever been

[crkinney]

Having never been to Africa I was wondering if South Africa is as well devloped as it appear in the world cup pictures?
Were the great vinues built for this show?
It appears to be kinda chilly there also.I know it winter in that part of the world .How cold does it get?

[MatsP]

I've never been to South Africa, but as I understand it parts of South Africa is much on par with Europe or North America. In the past, South Africa was very split between whites and non-whites, and whilst the laws separating the two, there is still a big gap in income between the whites and most non-whites. And that will probably remain. Of the African countries, South Africa is definitely one of the more developed countries - even when you take into account the poorer areas.

--
Mats

[Bas Pels]

@ temperature, South Africa tips the 35 South line. close to the coast the land goes up and up, so that also helps. The north is much warmer, but European colonists (settling there to provide fresh food for ships coming along) were happy with the mild climate

35 north goes through Lisbon, Portugal (also on the coast) which can be quite cold in winter - just to compare

[Shane]

Having never been to Africa I was wondering if South Africa is as well devloped as it appear in the world cup pictures?

I lived there 2006-09. The answer to your question is both yes and no. Parts of Joberg, like Sandton, and Cape Town could be upscale districts in any US city. However, just a few kilometers away are townships like Tembisa and Alexandra that are often used as backdrops in movies as disaster areas or refugee camps. Watch the movie District 9. It does a great job of showing the disparity. District 9, where they move the aliens to, was not a movie set but is Chiawelo in Soweto... just a few miles from Soccer City.

The movie is a play on the real District 6, a township near Cape Town, and events during apartheid. It was decided to open more living space for whites so 60,000 non-whites were evicted by force from District 6.

-Shane

[crkinney]

It's hard to belive ,they forced 60000 folks out of their homes .I wonder how many had to move to build those big football fields.

[Bas Pels]

Although these numbers are shocking, srkinney, the 2008 Olympic Games in Peking were worse

I did agree with China, and many of the athletes, the OC have nothing to do with Tibet. However, were I an athlete, I would not want to perform in a stadion which needed thousands of housed demolished.

It has surprised me nobody spook about that

[Jools]

Good thoughts folks, but it's taking this a little off topic. I'd like to get back to this topic being for people to say hello and tell us where they are from.

Cheers,

Jools

[crkinney]

OK hello, Jools

[Bernardo Roxo]

Hello!!
I'm from Rio de Janeiro, southeast Brazil.