alanmin4304

Marble queen is basically a varigated cordifolius. I don't grow them because when mature they want to send out an "arial" leaf and all you see in your tank is stalks. You can keep them small by periodically trimming the roots, or the same thing may happen by restricting the roots in a pot. They are a good plant for people with large open tanks. There are some huge ones at Redwood Aquatics.

I used to grow horizontalis 30 years ago and know of one person whith it who will not sell me any until he grows it up. They will only have a couple of plantlets at a time and mine didn't grow more than 300mm high. My martii has a runner at present, but I am waiting till they get a bit better established.

I think peat moss is dried sphagnum moss used to hold water and is what a lot of peat comes from eventually. It is a bit like saying wood and coal are the same thing (they were once)

cordifolius used to be called radicans and is quite different to horizontalis which is a relatively small plant which does not go "rank" like cordifolius or marble queen

These people were from the biosecurity section of MAF. They are interested in new organisms. What used to be called noxious weeds are generally the domain of the Regional Council (who have also been in touch through my selling plants on Trademe.)

I have red special, ozelot and martii also and are aware of horizontalis cordifolius (used to be radicans) and osiris rose. I would like to get hold of horizontalis if anyone has some spare. It is a slow propagater and is therefore not grown commercially much, but a lovely plant

They told me they got the info from Trademe, and I had an Email from the Regional Council a lot earlier and they told me they got the info from Trademe also. I don't have a problem with them. As responsible hobbyists we should not have these plants which can be a danger to the environment-- there are plenty of good plants available.

The plant they were looking for in my case was Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata ("cuba") because they were aware I had bought it on Trademe. They were very profesional and they do have wide reaching powers and the fines are very heavy. I think they would be interested in plants which were regarded as a new species. The Regional Council is normally interested in what used to be called noxious weeds, but they may well deal with that if they find it. It depends what the plants are. I understand that you can have certain plants but not propagate or sell them, and others are a total no no.

They have the power to enter and inspect your property at any reasonable time if they have reason to suspect there is a problem. More powers than the police (other than for drugs) They inspected tanks in the house and garage and a glasshouse and made a list and took pictures of every plant I had. They had already visited the person I bought it from, and another person selling plant in Christchurch had a visit as well. They said they would let me know if there is a problem and I have not heard back. No point in argueing, make them a coffee and let them do their thing. I don't want noxious plants, I was selling most of them to the pet shops before they were made noxious weeds.

I had a visit as a result of buying plants off trademe. The plant did not survive and they went away happy.

Iron is in solution in the ferrous state usually because the water is acid with CO2. Often if you aerate it, the CO2 is driven off and the iron goes to the ferric state which is almost insoluble and will settle out. Try this and see what happens

Because they are smooth and impervious, they will not have a great surface area to culture bugs compared to other more porous materials.

The trick is to recognise plants which have been grown emersed (as sold in many pet shops), plants grown submersed as often pictured in books etc and the plants sold in many shops which are realy pot plants and are not realy aquatics at all. Also many plants are sold with common names only and sometimes have more than one.

Mites are good fish food.

He has crossed the straights to the lower part of the world and now has to deal with chlorinated water supplies

One of the main signs with TB is the fish wasting away even when eating well. Sounds more like something else.

When choosing fish to breed I always keep away from the very biggest of the bunch in the belief that if you do that all the time you will selectively breed the most aggressive fish (not something you want with cichlids). I go for the next lot down. You often find that the ones with the best genes will be a bit runty eg double veil tail or double black gene. These can be good to cross with a hardier individual.

I think the advice to get about six and grow them up is best because that way they pair better. If you buy a pair from a breeder you will not get their best pair usually. You may get a good pair from someone on here. My advice would be to make sure you pick good genes and finnage and that way you will have a realy good variation in offspring and they will be easier to sell. The genes are in pairs so you can get some good combinations from one pair if you choose well.

In my observation and experience most tanks are built with the sides and ends sitting on the base. The main reason is that the glass does not have to be cut as accurately. With larger tanks I usually glue the front and back to the edge of the base and the ends sitting on top, the theory being that the bond has less strength in shear. I also scratch the face edges to be glued with sand paper to give a better bond but only on very large tanks. E.g. I made a tank once out of three doors in toughened glass from a commercial building and built it that way but also added 50mm straps to increase the bond area.

When I was breeding angels I kept each pair in a 12 gallon bare tank. I had a 100mm x 100mm slate with s/s hooks right at the top of the tank and when the eggs were laid I hatched them in 150 x 150mm tanks with an airstone and then transfered them to larger bare tanks when free swimming. They do well on live food like bbs and microworm but need bare tanks or the food gets lost in the media. Lots of water changes with the parents and fry.

Trademe 57840004---- E.tenellus or microsword?

Noted

They want to make baby convicts and they dont want other fish sneeking up on their eggs or fry. They are being convicts (1st cousins to rabbits?) You should now invest in another 27 tanks.

I find they do best in a wooden box lined with plastic where the media is, to protect the wood, but it still lets it breath. I have one wooden box with an icecream container in (without lid) which does ok. I found with just icecream contaners the worms went all over the -place instead of staying under the glass, and they end up too wet.

It feeds the bacteria and causes a bloom, just watch for the water going cloudy. Water change is all you can do.