alanmin4304

If they have any real yolk sack I leave them where they hatched as they are still feeding on it. Only move them when it is used up as if it is damaged they will die. They have it showing for a while before it seals over and that is not a problem.

If you are worried about parasites you could pay heaps for a few pieces from the pet shop ( I probably came from the same river.) I don't know the situation now but years ago I used to sell 300 bunches/week to the shops in town and they would have mainly ended up with goldfish. MOST CREEBIES WOULD BE GOOD TUCKER.

What are the red plants you are growing? Many red plants are not aquatic plants and will struggle to stay alive no matter what you do or how much you spend. Years ago I used growlux and soft white tubes together (still use that combo on some tanks). Now it is fashionable to use daylight ( 6500K). Growlux (blue spectrum) tends to make plants squat and compact while red spectrum makes them tall and scrawny. This is more obvious when plants are grown emersed. Some people say growlux encourages algae. They are also about 4 x the price of other tubes.

Use Elodea canadensis (oxygen weed) from a local waterway it is cheap, good for them to eat and easy to replace. I feed masses to my turtles (keeps a couple of weeks in the fridge).

As a safety precaution you can put a "water trap" bottle in the line between the generator and tank (a bottle with the hose going in and out at the top). I did this when making wine inside where a spill could cause damage.

Some of the killie keepers add salt to the water when keeping the nothobranchius sp. because of their propencity to get velvet. I don't have any at present but never used salt when I did have them (and successfully bred hundreds.) Someone in the know can explain no doubt.

Not many roots means not much nutrient. Wait and all may come right.

Put the air bubbles close to but not on the eggs now.

Your plant is also planted too deep and should only have the roots covered and the crown clear of the media.

Echinodorus sp. (sword plants) go through a rest period when transplanted. They don't like being moved and generally all the existing roots will die and a new lot grow so at that stage they are probably being deprived of nutrient. Your fert. balls are enough for them and they will probably come right once they get established again. What is the K rating on the bulb and how high is the tank?

If you set up your whiteworm culture the right way you can take pure worms off easily.

The quality will deteriorate with time.

Mate's strain

When my Samoan rellies turned up and got introduced to NZ yams they were a bit speachless.

Mouses ear is not a true aquatic,grows very slowly and requires good light. It is a heavy feeder when grown emersed and has a very heavy root system. I think when submersed it is probably struggling to stay alive. A nice we plant when it does.

The shelf life will depend on the temperature. Generally material stored at -18deg will last twice as long as that kept at -10. Fish will generally last 3 months at -10deg and I assume they would be similar or keep even longer. As stated, you don't know how long it has been in the shop or at what temperature.

Always remove any dead plants and thin back when there is not enough room left for fish.

It is Cardamine lyrata (moneywort) and will grow to the surface and do best when floating at the top. Don't trim it.

For a while. They are a water lilley and the natural state is floating leaves so they do best that way. They also need very heavy feeding through the roots to develop "bananas"

As Warren says they can be prolific. They have two forms and the submersed form is rather attractive. The emersed or floating stage is what is starting on yours. I don't grow them as they tend to block the light from other plants. If you just let the plant develop a few floating leaves it may start producing new plants from that node while the leaves are still attatched and will therefore grow them faster. If you get too many floaters you can cut some and float them and they will usually produce young plants from the cut end, node or both. When a young plant forms and you replant it it will be in the smaller submersed form and you can keep nipping off any floaters it produces.

If you allow the emersed (floating) leaf to develop after a while you will see a point 100 - 150mm back from the leaf where a new plant may grow. If you snip the floating leaves off (leaving enough to still support the mother plant) some will develop plants at the end of the stalk. Best to allow floating leaves to develop and see if they produce plantlets by themselves.

If you put it as evenly as you can across the floor joists (across the nails) it should be OK. The floor is only designed to take a tank 200mm high but any tank I have seen is bigger than that. I have a stand of the same design with two 400mm high tanks on it across the jiosts on an old wooden t & g floor and it is OK. I placed the whole thing on a peice of 18mm customwood to try and distribute the load a bit better. Basically the flooring may not handle it but the sub floor probably will if you can get the load down evenly on to that.

Just plant the plants as they need to feed on something.

I have never owned a test kit and have been successfully keeping and breeding fish for a long time. I have an accurate thermometer. More fish die from attempting to alter pH than from the gradual changes that may take place. Fish are pretty tolerent of gradual changes of all sorts and only realy need special treatment if you are trying to breed some of the more particular species.

What a handsome dude.