Feelers

Nothing as of yet actually, odd, government services are normally so quick to respond I wrote a small essay, it will be interesting to see how they reply. I asked for the reasons behind their actions, and asked for it to be forwarded to a person who was in a position to change it. Ill report back IF they reply at all

Damn, they need to be approved, I tried to put up my ghetto tank, I'm predicting it might have some trouble. http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/friendEmail.php/imID1386 Everyone should put up their tanks, that sites quite a cool idea, you'll be safe in the knowledge that your tank will probably beat my one.

Its funny that no-one seems to be able to break the 8/10 barrier.

That must make things a lot harder!!! When did they make that rule?

Pies, arent you allowed to import live rock? Where does everyone get it?

And whats with banks ? 4:00pm, what the hell?

Can you please point me in the direction of what act the the new rules come under? What aspect has made them concerned with bioharzards to humans? I understand this is waste of time reef, however I might just learn something. What better way to learn never attempting to change the world than by trial and failure? Perhaps it could inspire my new book- The Insignificance Of One.

Done. I'll let you know when they get back to me.

btw reef, its great you are taking the time to list the species for everyone's benefit. I know stopping the process is very unlikely, but its still worth a try,

Why not a letter to Jim then? A torrent of letters from everyone here, it would be great. Any letter addressed to the governemt is required to be replied to.

Im not whining, I was asking if there is a way to stop the current process, however "whining en masse" is still able to acheive things. In this case, can anything be done to stop the current system crackdown? Who made the decision at MAF to take these steps? What is the normal process for fighting this sort of thing? For instance if they tried to ban every fish import, what would people do? There must be something? The governement is there to serve us, and whinging en masse is unfortunately how a lot of things get solved. Fart tax for example. Contacting the MAF guy in charge would be a start.

Out of all the species of tropical fish in the world it does seem a bit pointless to make a list of whats acceptable, perhaps complaining about the decision to make this list would be more usefull, and try to get the process stopped altogether. I would imagine there are lots of people who would be against this. What is the normal process for fighting bureaucracy like this?

Yeah I dont follow, why all the extra stuff when you can just have a durso? Does anyone else have any noise problems with their dursos?

Dropping the temperature is another method of slowing ich, from what I've been reading.

For some reason went spent ages learning about this type of interaction in my marine bio class, sometimes there is a small "group" that all interact within the same peice of coral, consisting of a crab, fish and shrimp. They all cooperate, and remember each other if ones goes missing, fighting off "replacements" for a few days, which is pretty amazing, they can all tell specific individuals from a species other than theirs. You could try and set the whole system up, it would be cool to see. I could have a look through my notes and see what species form these "communities". Another weird thing is lots of the shrimp who live with gobys have lost their ability to see. Also in reefs there are sometimes "cleaning stations", where cleaning shrimp line up along a crevice, and fish come in, in turns after waiting, just like a pit crew. Looks real weird.

It would be great if you could have it on very low but not off, I assume its only starting powerheads thats the problem?

Just got back from critter kingdom, regarding a new tank. They quoted 150 for a 30" tank, and the woman stopped in the middle of a sentence to talk to someone else who walked in- a more important customer than me :evil: , and left me there. Arrrgghhh I was so annoyed, the next time that happens I might give her a talking to. Oh they also said about $50 to resilicon the whole tank, well I think, that was sentence that was cut short by the more "respectable" customer. But I would also prefer not to spend any money there, ever. btw whats a good price for the jbl iron test kit? They had one for $4 marked down from $47, I could get it for someone if they wanted. The show tanks they have are FULL of algae, looks horrible. The baby emperor angle had algae like stuff growing all over its face.

Well, I got the photos of my tank, its very ghetto hahaa. Overall shot of the ghetto, and please forgive the horrible foam stuff under it, it will be going....... Next, the shocking black silicone stuff that was applied liberally, Now the shots of how the glass cutter fixed his mistakes, making up the difference with a small wall of silicon. And finally you can see how at one end the silicon extends out away from the tank menacingly in the direction of my bed. See what happens when student loans arent adjusted for inflation in ten years? At least I won't need a cooler for my tank, my house once got down to 4 degrees C inside. And the rats keep my flatmates awake at nite. $65 a week. Gotta love it.

Cheers for your info, I live about 200m from critter kingdom, but I don't like the female store person, I went to by a fish there and she caught 2 in the net and tried to make me by both of them because they were "hard to catch". Very very pressuring, made me angry, because they would have made a sale with a less affirmative person. :evil: Altho the guy who does the marine stuff seems nice, Ill post some photo's of my tank tonite, the silicon might be harder than usual as I think the person who built it made up for the discrepancies in glass length with large blocks of silicon. The octopus's ink is made from melanin, the same stuff that gives hair its colour, its all protein and gets skimmed out easily apparently. The toxic effects come from when the gills are coated and cause asphyxiation, altho they aren't 100% sure on this.

Ive kinda got two sides of the coin, my tank basicially has to be sealed to make it "octo proof", but I also dont want huge braces so I can put rocks in ect. It would be nice to get one with overflows ect already put in, but since I'm on an extremely minimal budget (by your guys standards at least :oops:(go the student loan), I would probably do things like that myself to help keep costs down. I would love a new tank, of similar volume with the overflows and drilled, but how much would that cost? Anyone know the right people? I know that the cost of a new tank is hugely different depending on who you go to, Its hard for me to figure out, I'm kinda in limbo.............

Anyone know what price a new tank of my measurements should cost? Ballpark estimate?

Not yet, I'm waiting till I move flats at the end of the year, which is good as it allows me to plan, and to start/finish my tank stand. Hopefully tomorrow I'm gonna try my octo trap, and pull it up on friday. Does anyone have any suggestions about getting my tank resiliconed? I think diy is outa the question.

Man economics is bizzare

Would you ever consider a skimmer from ebay? At the price you guys are talking I wouldnt have thought international postage would affect your decision. Obviously there are problems, like getting ripped off, ect. But being careful I dont think there would be need to worry. What about looking on reef central. I'm just assuming the skimmers (deltec in particular) would be more plentiful and therefor cheaper in the US? Gst isn't a problem either with a bit of creative pricing .

The coolest video ever........... http://www.abum.com/?show_media=6339&file_type=Movies&file_id=OCTOPUS.wmv http://www.abum.com/?show_media=10899&file_type=Movies&file_id=oct_vs_shark_050831.wmv it might take a while to load, but both videos are awesome...... It would be great to see more people getting octo's