alanmin4304

They are used a lot in Asia as feeder fish and the odd one slipped through with other imports. They are not as good at eating mossies as their reputation suggests and have been introduced all over the world for that purpose but I think there are now some regrets.

Everyone has there own way of doing things and you should do what works for you. I used to have 8 pairs of angels breeding in bare tanks with only a slate to lay on. As Barrie said they were raised for generations with vitually only tubifex and they would spawn about every 10 days. Brine shrimp/ microworm, then tubifex. Never had white worm then, didn't need to bother. Found the place in Belfast by keeping my ears to the ground. They are around outfalls to the river which the Regional Councils are gradually cleaning up. Have a look around any regular outfall which has high protein. People think they live on filth but they only do well on high protein like blood from a freezing works. You will find a few around outfalls from a cow shed but you need enough for them to get starved of oxygen and seperate from the gunge if you are going to do it commercially, and I think those days are gone as we get more environmentally friendly.

Your killies will love you.

Only if they want a $200,000 fine and 5 years in the pokie

It is a bit hard to tell from the pics but the plant in the ponds looks like Lagarosiphon. Love the comets though.

We used to come back from the river with many buckets of gunge that was about 80% worms. You keep them in the dark and tip the water off the top and they rise to the top starved of oxygen---to be scooped off. We then moved them to trays 1/2 full of 1/2 inch crushed metal with water running through it to clean them out. For those that know the area, they used to come from the South Branch of the Waimakariri river along from the Belfast pub.

It is hard to tell what is wrong with it but it don't look happy.

Generally most countries exporting to NZ give prices in $US . All price lists for fish etc are in US dollars. I have a great respect for them. my best man was Chinese. When you do business with them yes does not mean I will buy your product it means yes I am hearing what you say. When dealing with other cultures we should not expect them to be the same as us. That is why they are called other cultures. We should try to understand more about other cultures not expect them to think like us. Many of their exports are heavily subsidised just like many of ours were until recently. It is made round to go round, it is just their turn at present. I have made hundreds of aquariums over the years and I am amazed at the quality of some of the tanks imported from China. The glass edges are polished and the RTV is perfect. I have never built a tank that good in my life.

I don't think they were banned they just disappeared when the discharge to the river was cleaned up and they ran out of food. The maf put a restriction on moving them to the North Island because they claimed it would spread whirling disease. They thought they came from the CCC sewage oxidation ponds and anyone who new better did not correct them for fear of them disappearing. I use to send them to people in Auckland and Tauranga until they stopped that. There is a large pet shop business here which was largely funded by expoting freeze dried tubifex to the very wealthy people who live in the desert and prove their extreme wealth by having large goldfish ponds in the desert. They was interesting times.

As I recall they were more expensive than steak.

Most of the energy from a bulb is heat. It looks blue because the other colours are blocked out.

Thirty years ago every pet shop in town sold live tubifex and we use to provide it to the shops. One shop used to buy 45 lbs twice a week and virtually every fish keeper used to feed them. People are paranoid about them living on filth but they actually live on high protein and we used to get them from the river adjacent to an outfall from a freezing works and the effluent was red with blood during discharge. I have bred and raised 50,000 fish/year and fed them almost exclusively on tubifex without any disease problems. You leave them in clean water for a few days to flush out before feeding them

I am sure it would grow OK emersed near a window as a pot plant. It was very popular like that in England in Victorian days.

Keep your cuttlefish. Half to your turtle and half to Bud

Not having English as a first language does not make you untrustworthy it just makes you bilingual at the very least.

I think the reason your friend suggested cutting the roots is because they generally die when relocated. I leave them on to anchor the plant while it does that. Both are valid so you pays your money and takes your pick.

I understand that what is proposed is to pot the plant and grow it emersed with the roots in water and give it light from a window. If this is the case it would be the same as having mouses ear as a potplant which is what it realy is.

The 25 watt bulb uses 25 watts and the 15watt uses 15 but most of that energy is wasted and is emitted as heat. I am not sure how much , but only a fraction of the wattage will actually be light. The blue light looks blue because it is treated to block the other colours so it only emits blue light. It will therefore emit an even smaller amount of light than if it were not treated. I use red lights as a source of heat for baby turtles because the red is less disturbing than normal light at night yet still provides as much heat. I buy the bulbs from the $2 shop (two for $2) instead of about $50 from the pet shop and they produce enough heat for what I want.

Only with bacon bones.

I used to use slates cut to about 100 x 100 with ss hooks and then hatch them in little tank 150 x 150. Feed them in there for a week then move them to a larger bare tank to raise them. If you hatch them in a small tank you can keep them surounded with food till they are big enough to go looking for it. They can swarm in a large tank at the opposite end to the food. But everyone has their own way that works for them.

They are wood with a sliding plastic lid and I line the area in contact with the media (exhausted potting mix) with shopping bag plastic just to keep the wood from rotting for a bit longer. They need to be kept cool regardless of what you build them from.

Fish or axy poo

Most plants you buy are grown emersed--that is out of the water in a glasshouse like a potplant or by hydropoics. Submersed plants are grown under water. Some plants are grown emersed then converted to submersed before sale. In a few weeks, as it gets colder it will become more difficult to convert from emersed to submersed and many plants will become harder to procure as they will be growing slower in the cooler weather.

Yes,no but they need to feed on something. They will grow well if they get enough sunlight and food---they are heavy root feeders.

I would say they need moderate light. They need more light when converting from emersed to submersed growth. I have grown them OK in tanks 400 to 500mm deep with 60 or 80 watts of flourescent for 16 to 17 hrs/day.