alanmin4304

Many bettas that are imported are not in very good condition because: They have been kept in poor water, fed heaps to grow quickly, and have infrequent water changes. This can cause permanent damage to liver and kidneys. They are also "mature" so they look good and may be getting on a bit when you buy them.

It is a marginal---likes wet roots but not continuous submersian

I had them in a previous life and the shops didn't want to buy them because in their display tanks with strong light they wanted to hide in a corner and fade the colour right out. Do you find that or are these a little more sociable?

I have lost your message when are you coming?--- I will put the jug on

With wine you can get nutrient salts from the brewers supplies that help the yeast to work better (or some people with Scottish ancestry like me add a little vegemite)

When it has finished working, if it tastes sweet you used too much sugar

Jude, almost got E.latifolius,but did get Echinodorus rubin and uruquayensis Anubias nana, Barclaya longifolia, (dont tell brent but I managed to turn 2 into 7), tiger lotus, and some other bits from elswhere.

Thanks for that, completely escaped me, must be something in the water up there.

I am not sure how it converts but when making wine the most sugar used would be about 3lbs to the gallon and the yeast you are using is probably not as good as wine yeast. One of the "make your own hangover" members might be able to help.

Thanks for that Wok. I hope you are not going to send them wrapped in the jersey I left in your car ( further confimation of brain trauma as a baby)

Thanks for that (it confirms I was dropped on my head as a baby)

I don't think you would need them at this time of year. The main thing is to get the fish used to their new environment (including temperature) very slowly

I have just built a four foot/six section tank with a lid that iss killiproof. It is my first time heating with a pad under the tank and if the water levels are the same, the middle four tanks are the same and the end ones about a degree less, so it is working out well so far. Now have gardneri yellow and albino and australe choc and gold and all looking good. Now after bitaneatum and that could be me for a while. These chocs are about ten times better than what was around 25 - 30 years ago, so I am keen to get them breeding very soon.

Got back last night from the land of traffic jams and had a great time. My thanks to Wok who took me all over, and to Wayne, Ronnie and all the rest. Obtained some of Woks very nice looking choc australe and will see if I can get them onto the wild thing shortly

Got back to the real world last night but had a real ball in traffic jam heaven. My thanks to Wok who had threatened to take me to all the best places in Auckland and certainly did and to Wayne at Pupuke who came up with some plants we don't see in the real world (and more to come)

If you want to do a cross with a fish that is a bit weaker like a double black or a double veil tail it usually works best if that is the male.

Your sexing technique is correct and if your male has eggs PM me as I want to be rich and famous.

Increasing the pipe size will decrease the friction loss but the incease in flow would not be noticed on a short length of pipe and would probably be compensated by the decrease in flow caused by he increased turbulence.

I found that to get maximum growth with heavy feeders you need to have food available whenever they want to eat it and this makes for lots of waste and therefore lots of water changes. Filtration only gets rid of the lumps and makes the tank look clean. Water changes remove the soluble waste and solids converted to soluble waste in the filter. The waste you can see is probably doing the least damage. Lots of good quality food and water changes.

Most things with fish are a compromise. Nitrates inhibit the growth of discus and lack of nitrate inhibits Java fern it seems. Plants need phosphate also (to build protein) so the water changes will be stripping everything including micronutrients.

Thanks, I will see you Saturday. Am a bit out of town at the moment but will be in the big smoke tomorrow and will check those places out. Will pm you with details before Saturday.

I have made it from the real world over the Bombays to Jaffatown and are very keen to get hold of some aquatic plants to take back to civilization. Could any of the locals advise the best place in Auckland to get hold of Echinodorus ozolot, horizontalis or leopard. Am also keen to get a good selection of tropical aquarium plants grown emersed. Would apreciate any local advise as I have not been here since Adam was looking for apple trees.

Don't forget that it is a fern and is not feeding from the roots. only from the nutrient in the water. The harder the water the more light is required I find. If you are doing frequent water changes you may be stripping the nutrient.

Black angels sell well usually. All black fish are weak so you are best to try to go for black angels with a single black gene rather than double. You will also get a better looking fish if you can get the veiltail gene in there as well. Black and gold is a good looking combination. Black is dominant over both gold and silver so I would try to get a veiltail gold or silver and you will end up with some of each and veiltail as well. If you go black to black you will get at least 25% double black gene which is very weak. With angels my aim was to try and get a variety of different fish from one spawning (easier to sell) but avoid the messy combinations like partial marbles, partly striped or blushers with other bits and bobs. They do best if you allow them to find their own pairs but you usually need to do the pairing to get the genes you want. You should know what sex they are by now if they are pairing. Good luck.

Have a look at the stem on an undergravel filter or a box fiter. Each has a tube with air bubbles rising up it. It is the water that is rising between the bubbles that makes it work not the bubbles themselves. You need a tube to carry a rising column of water not air bubbles to make it work. The air bubbles are a way of removing some of the water from the bottom of the filter so the tank water flows through the filter to replace it (and is filtered as it does)