alanmin4304

I have H. verticulata but you would be better off with H. leucocephala. Cardamine is generally available in most pet shops.

That is the one I was thinking of. I have seen it at animates and I think waterplantz sells it on the unmentionable site.

I seperate the sexes as well and spawn them at 23-24 deg.

I think what is sold as water rose is a multi colourd plant that is grown emersed and is not realy an aquatic plant, needs lots of light and will probably croak wherever you plant it. I have no idea what it actually is but is not the plant given as a example.

It has a round leaf and grows up towards the light but is Ok floating as well. Have a look in the plant section or plantgeek. It is the plant I use for my Japanese fire bellies to lay eggs on. Will grow OK in a pond in summer. I think people call it silver dollar.

Forgot about them, they would be good or Cardamine lyrata.

The giant vallisneria is illegal throughout the country and I understand the other tall but thinner one (which I think is V. americana) is banned in some locations because the powers can't tell the difference when they are young. Any twisted Vallisneria are allowed.The ideal plant you want may be Echinodrus uraguayensis which grows in my tank to about 650mm and looks like a giant Vallisneria. It would grow well potted in a bare tank where as vallisneria throws out runners. I have bred many fighters successfully and have never used floating plants. I used to do it in a small tank with no filter or airstone to disturb the surface.

Is there any truth in the idea that mealworms are very hard to digest and the animal uses more energy digesting the mealworms that what they actually provide?

I have some yellow ones but they are a bit small yet.

They are smaller but need to be warmer and more noist.

Another case was a very rare strain of Salmonella which developed in a world poultry expert out here to lecture to poultry keepers and it was not in NZ but was common in poultry in Australia (which is where he had just been) Have they banned poultry yet? (Jamie Oliver is working on it.)

Not too long ago every fish keeper fed them live to their fish and you could buy them live from all the local pet shops. Worth more than prime steak in those days. I bred generations of fish that got very little else.

I get mine when on special in the supermarket and put the slices in the freezer with a sheet of plastic between each slice. Best to thaw first I think.

The good Sag from the petshop has probably been grown emersed.

If you are realy up with it you can feed the whiteworms on garlic luncheon and deworm your fish with whiteworms. Tend to not rot as quickly as well. Mine don't get a chance to rot the luncheon is gone in just over a day.

It has been a while but I think S. St paul is in the native lizard population---I think that was the one in the lizards around the walking tracks on the West Coast.

There are many different seroyypes of Salmonella and they can be passed to humans but some are pretty specific to certain hosts. You can be pretty sure that if you get a certain strain you would have contracted it from lizards, turtles, chickens or sparrows etc. That doesn't make it any worse and your advice to wash hands after handling any animal is the way to go. I wish sometimes that the powers that be would tell the truth a bit more often. To ban anything because it can carry Salmonella is a load of the best, but to ban it because it might eat trout or salmon eggs is another thing. I have investigated Salmonella cases that could be pretty well traced back to lizards on the west coast, chickens from Australia, and sparrows amongst other things, all by the identified serotype. The problem is that by the time you get the results of the serotyping the case is well down the track. Some serotypes are more virulent than others and typhoid is a Salmonella (Salmonella typhi). I feed fish to my turtles and the river they come from may well contain Salmonella and campylobacter because there are emergency overflows from the sewer going into it as well as stormwater which no doubt picks up messages left by birds, cats and dogs etc. There are germies out there so get used to it.

I think the nigs are better looking in full colour. Mind you I have some frogs with that gene that look pretty cool.

The spent potting mix has the nutrient used up and little for the worms to feed on so they have to come up for what you feed them. This makes it easy to get them. See the pics under whiteworms further down this section.

You can buy a special adhesive for poly which has a solvent that does not dissolve it.

I used to heat 50-60 tanks at least 600x600mm with a one kw heater that hardly ever came on. If it is well insulated it takes little heat to keap it warm. You lose heat mainly from the air when you enter the room (which is cheap to warm again, and from water changes (which takes a lot more heat (before or after water changing)

I would use the box and line it with plastic over the bottom and 3/4 of the way up the sides then fill with moist spent potting mix. Cut a peice of glass 1/4 size of box, add whiteworms, feed with luncheon, keep cool and away you go. I have three that size plus one the same as Barrie's and it gives you the chance to build one up while feeding from another.

Chickens can carry salmonella. So can turtles, lizards, humans, cats, dogs, rats, mice, sparrows and just about any animal. I was told by a senior member of Maf that the importation of turtles was banned because they can carry salmonella (yea right)

They also need good light.

If it is one eye or two eyes it is bacterial. One eye might be the result of an injury but the popeye is caused by a bacterial infection producing gas behind the eye and pushing it out. The way to treat bacteria is with a bacteriacide (antibiotic)