Tanksman

What time do you meet?

Thanks Amazonian - I checked out a place in Parramatta which also recommended that shop so I checked it out - It is awesome. There is another place in St Mary's which was really excellent for cichlidophiles. And I have also had the pleasure of seeing the Sydney Aquarium. That is spectacular. Man this is a huge country - No rainwater tho if thats what you use to do water changes :-?

I have a few weeks to kill in Sydney while I await the next leg of my journey. What places do you recommend I check out so that I can "get a fix" of fish - as I don't have any fish at the mo. Thanks in advance

I had one of those when I first started out - I found it difficult to use and to read accurately - It is cheap but you get what you pay for.

Good on you guys

Is it or was it on TV here Mooloo?

Thats bad luck SS. Commiserations. Did you lose any fish?

That looks like either a male or a female Feed it up on zuchinni and other good stuff - don't treat it as the cleanup crew. They start developing bristle's around 3 inches or 18 mths old.

Would love to come but working as usual. Have a good time.

Good for you gannet - with the price of coral sand you don't really want to be syphoning it down the drain.

It does look like black beard but the pic is not that clear. Is it slimy or furry? If it is black beard there are lots of people here who will agree that flourish excel is the best stuff to treat with. Usually double dosing is recommended but you might be able to trial it at normal rates as no one else seems to have trialled that.

Eggs maybe but once fry are free swimming they would have to be pretty hungry cory's to catch them. They are not hunters. They are bottom substrate feeders and use there delicate barbels to scavenge for food on and in the (hopefully) sand. I have kept 1 inch cory's in with 2 week old kribs with no problems. They helped keep the tank clean.

Jansens Mt Eden usually have a few.

the fish not Mat 8)

Do you know how old he is evil?

I had problems with cyano in a lowly lit tank earlier this year. I replaced the light with an AL-30D by aquaone which came with a purply light of 15000k and a white light of 10000k. The cyano melted away instantly and now the plants are growing great. There is no CO2 though. So your 14000k light should work OK. Let us know tho. Are those bulbs goiing in the MH shop lighting you got?

The filter wool can get clogged quickly reducing the efiiciency. It needs changing or at least rinsing probly fortnightly. I run my canisters without it and I don't open them for 3 months or more and then it is mainly as the hoses need cleaning as they get clogged with algae / slime. This can be done by holding the hose to the hot tap for a bit or using a pullthrough. The plastic bio - ball type things are for beneficial bacteria to colonise (ie live on) which is the biological filtration. The balls should really be in one of the baskets otherwise they may clang around and or not work as efficiently. The ceramic rings should also be in a basket.

No aggression ever observed in my cory's either.

I agree with Caryl. I struggle to get 2cm Bubba B/noses to move between tanks let alone selling them as some do. Once they are around 3cm they are much hardier and you also notice them pick up in growth.

I would strike pet city off your list. That will save you time. But Goldfish bowl is the best LFS in Hamilton so check that out. Maybe you could come up or go back via Tirau. There are often some rare fish at Tropical Blues in Tirau. And then of course Rotorua has a better shop still in Wonderworld.

There are many guppies with sword tails and lyretails according to Dr Axelrod's mini atlas. Would they be pure guppies or hybrids?

That sounds like the behaviour of Pomacea canaliculata, a.k.a golden apple snail the aquarium chainsaw. Do you have them in your tank?

Well gee one more reason to jump ship I reckon. After the week I have had at work and and and .... keep an eye on trademe. Besides this flat is getting too small for my addiction. Selling up is probably an easier option than shifting.

Baking soda will not affect your Gh. only your Kh and ph. Rocksalt and Epsom salts will effect your Gh but not the Kh nor the ph. Kh is about alkalinity and as sharn says is a good indicator of the stability of your water. I would say a kh of 4 - 6 dh is what you would be trying for. I don't know alot more than that. You can look those terms up on http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/man ... ater1.html or http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html Using shells or coral rubble in the canister is a good way to raise your ph quickly but less dramatically than baking soda.

My albino corys (bronze) spawned again yesterday morning and as I had the day off I got to sit and watch the antics again. Ok perving . Anyway the three females place hundreds of eggs all over the glass and plants about every 3 weeks usually following a waterchange and bloodworms but this time it was only bloodworms. I have some eggs in a trap and will see how it goes this time but I think my poor wee male simply has not got enough "juice" to fertilise the eggs as They have been doing this for sometime now with no results. However now there are no rogue juvenile cichlids the eggs are still there tonight and the corys aren't interested in them which is great. Who can tell me what colour fertilised eggs are after 24 hours. I have three females and one male - I think I would be more successful with that the other way around. I also have other species of cories and are trying to get them to spawn also, but I have not been trying seriously enough and might get more serious if I could solve the simple ones first. These photos were from yesterday two hours after roughly.