alanmin4304

Whistlers are ausie tree frogs so need more "trees" than lakes and prefer lower temperatures than the other available Litoria (not generally found in the north of the North Island).

Who is in the final?

They already have it.

If they have not been in the country previously they would be new organisms and the hassle of getting approval to import them would be something else. It would not be the first person to sell stuff on Trademe that got them into trouble with Maf.

Echinodorus horizontalis stays at a medium height and Echinodorus parviflorus tropica stays pretty small.

I bought a plant off Trademe which I had not seen before and had a visit from Maf biosecurity nearly a year later. The plant had died by then but the person selling them was subsequently charged on 32 counts and received a substantial penalty. The plant, along with quite a few other plants and things had been brought in illegally. I count myself lucky that it had died.

if the Indian Almond Leaves were treated when imported chances are they would be iradiated or fumigated with methyl bromide along with 1% chloropicrin for the safety of the operater (as methyl bromide is odourless and chloropicrin is tear gass) Since all these things are used to treat foods for human consumption I don't think there would be much chance of a toxic residue. Is it possible that there is something in the leaves which the clowns are sensitive to?

I run two compost heaps. If you use lawn clippings you need to add saw dust to get the carbon/ nitrogen ratio right. Add a little lime as it raises the pH and discourages flies. As the sawdust rots it uses up nitrogen so add a little to compensate (urea or ammoniun sulphate etc). When one heap is full move it into the other compartment and this helps aerate the heap and stops the anaerobic decomposition which produces the bad smells. You want to keep it moist but not wet. It will only produce good heat when it reaches a critical bulk size. A compost heap is not a pile of anaerobic rotting vegetation.

My offer is a small free sample to keep you going till you get sorted. PM me if interested.

The toxic nature of nitrate to humans is not the nitrate but the fact that enzymes and bacteria in the mouths of some people can cause the nitrate to become nitrite and this can react with the red blood cells to cause a similar problem to carbon monoxide poisoning where the blood cannot carry oxygen. But you need a whole predisposition to it. This may be a similar problem to fish but I don't know.

Now it will take some time for the daphnia to multiply to the point where you can start feeding it out. My offer of some freeze dried nuplii still stands.

I understand that fish will tolerate high levels of nitrate.Most so called health foods like silver beet and spinach are high in nitrate.

My understanding is that they require at least half their diet to be indigestable cellulose such as as course grass hay which they ferment to produce nutrients such as certain vitamins. Most commercial rabbit pellets are very rich and designed for rapid growrth of commercial rabits.

They use heat for a number of reasons. Moisture evapourates more at higher temperatures. Heat can denature proteins and cause advantagious changes to the chemical nature of the product. Heat or rapid heating and cooling can be used to pasteurize or sterilize the product.

Nitrate is not a problem. If you got the clowns what would you treat them for and how would you treat them?

I don't clean them--best to treat them as gently as possible I think. Some people say to put them up a certain way but I always incubate them in the same position as layed. Birds eggs need to be turned but reptiles are a no no. That is why I don't like candling reptile eggs in case they get a fright and move. They always seem to hatch laying on their back.

I found pandas easier than sterbais but other people might find them the same or other way around. Pandas were going well for me until The shakes put a stop to things. I have bred bronze, albino (which are usually from bronze), peppers,and pandas and found them reasonably easy. Not so much ease with sterbais but I know other people who find them easy. I used to spawn them in a bare tank before adding other fry and they act as very good cleaners of excess food.

I can give you a little bit of freeze dried brine shrimp nuplii to keep them going until you get yourself sorted. PM me if they are any good to you.If you don't feed them well they will feed on each other.

They may lay in the warm end or the cooler end of the enclosure. Mine generally lay in the warmer end but also in the cooler end sometimes. Where they come from is desert or semidesert and therefore is hot during the day and a lot colder at night. They will be OK. I understand that the sex is determined in the first 12 days. Having said that, all my males were incubated to get females. The only thing you don't want is super females so keep the incubation temperature below 90 deg F.

That would great until they decide to pair off and spawn, then all hell could let loose and you would be reduced to one pair. I used to keep one breeding pair in a 50 litre tank and had 8 tanks.

The easiest way is to keep them in a bare tank with a plastic plant and when they lay the eggs on the plant you take them out and hatch them in another tank.Another is to put the breeders in a bare tank and when they lay their eggs on the glass take the breeders out and put them in the next tank.

5mm is safe as because it is only 250mm high. The taller the tank, the more pressure there is on the joint at the bottom and the longer the tank the more flex there will be at the top. This sized tank would normally be built from 4 or 5 mm glass with no bracing and would be perfectly OK.I had three tanks of a similar size from 4mm that worked very well until shakey town started.

Yes as it is only 250 mm high.

Brine shrimp nuplii are the best food value.

A problem is that the thicker glass like 10 or 12 mm is only used for big panels so it is possible to get larger pieces as offcuts. The thinner glass can be used for right down to very small sizes like louvres in a toilet window so they charge retail for everything. People who make tanks get a better deal because they take everything. It may be cheaper and better to pay a tank maker to make it.