alanmin4304

Mealworms are pretty fat and should not be used as a staple in my view but can be part of a mixed diet.

I have reared a number of clutches of beardies without any problems with MBD or missing bits of toes or tails. I spray them every day and let them sit in a bit of water for 10-15 minutes then fed them small mealworms with calcium and D3. All this in a large plastic container. Then released them and fed neonate locusts coated with calcium and D3. I leave a container of mealworms in with the adults all the time, fresh salid every day with liquid vitamins every second, locusts and waxmoth larvae pretty regularly. They will go for them in preference to mealies. All live food coated with calcium and D3. Young and breeding females need a lot of calcium and they cannot utilise it without D3.

MEK has a distinctive smell (like PVC solvent cement) so when that smell goes away it should be as safe as a PVC food container or water pipe.

I coat the live food for both beardies and leps with calcium containing D3 because I have seen a number of lizards suffering from metabolic bone disorder but have not seen any suffering from D3 poisoning (not to say it is not out there). I am more careful about adding general vitamins to salid for beardies and the types of salad they get. The fat soluble vitamins including D3 can be toxic because they are not as readily excreted but small amounts added to food should be beneficial. I raised a number of leps from babies to breeders without D3 or added to food, just a container for them take calcium when they wanted it and they were all OK. Since then I have had the odd one with calcium problems which may have been a genetic predisposition to non absorption of calcium, but they have been alright since I added calcium with D3 to their food. There are a number of foods that can probably cause more problems such as carrot with Vit E. or phosphates and oxalates that hinder the absorption of calcium. I think there are probably more problems from not using it than from using it.

I think it is just PVC disolved in MEK and when that evaporates you are just left with PVC.

If it was made for a use where it did not need to be food safe or by inference fish safe it may have had chemicals added for all sorts of reasons that have leached out. All of these compounds are like rubber which is a bit like DNA and is a helix that is then (in the case of natural rubber) cross linked with sulphur that then increases the modulus. This means that if you stretch it out it will better return to its original shape. I think this occurs with diene being cross linked with peroxide. In a previous life my kids had those magic bouncy balls a couple of years before they came on the market. Polybutadiene is the synthetic rubber used in making them and was also used in the tyres used to stop aquaplaning. I was playing around trying to develop a cheap golf ball. It didn't work as a golf ball but made really good magic balls.

Lets try not to get personal here. There are some facts with this case which I was trying to relay. 1 The fish died and were poisoned. 2 Carbon would probably remove the poisons and may or may not dump them back again. 3 Water changes will remove the poisons.

All sold and looks like next clutch is being negotiated over as well.--supply and demand.

Pray tell me the name of your herb.

Hemianthus umbrosum is good in terrariums but does not do well submersed.

Above is true but also true is that there are a lot of fish that are approved for import but are not for variety of reasons.

I have not seen it here but watched people catching squid off a jetty in Melbourne.

Also a problem for people working with silica sand such as sand blasters. That is why they don't use silica sand.

Silicosis

Silicates are pretty insoluble so I would expect not. Dangerous if inhaled as dust though.

The picture is either valisneria (not twisted) or sagittaria. There are two types of twisted vallisneria in NZ and they do go under different names. We used to call them V. contortionist (taller, narrower leaf and more twisted), and torta or tortifolia(wider shorter leaf and not as twisted). Vallisneria spiralis actually has straight leaves and the name refers to the flower stem. Sagittaria has seperate male and female flowers on a single stem and Vallisneria has usually 3 flowers branching off one stem and they are bisexual. The cell structure is more pronounced in Sag.

I would say that it is leucistic, which is a genetic characteristic that prevents the proper depositing of pigment. It can be complete or partial so can cause light patches, complete light colouring, light colouring with normal patches or a general lightening of colouring.

Sounds like Cryptocoryne balansae--Comes from Tailand and grows in areas of limestone where the water will be pretty alkaline and hard.

The best spawning I had was over 1200. They can lay every 10-14 days for 18 months so that can add up to more than the market can handle very quickly.

Not the same 8 pairs but about 30 years ago a lot would have been. Mostly imported today I suspect.

Do they have spotlight in China?

Are you sure that the LFS is not getting their stuff from Para?

Sold them to a wholesaler who onsold them to retailers all over the country. I was breeding 8 pairs of angels in those days (amongst other things) and there is no way the market would take them today. People must have wised up to them. The market now will swing towards those fish that the maf requirements will be hard on. An opening for someone.

They can be picky about their greens. If you have the odd weed or dandelion they usually leave it and eat right around it. Mine don't go for the lush fresh grasses you might expect either. I have been using crystal rain but I might get rid of that for a while and see what happens. Some people use vegetables such as carrot or zuchini.

Yes. Makes life a lot easier when you are breeding 50000 fish a year. Basically overfeeding to get rapid development. Heaps of food and heaps of water changes.