Copper

Found his owner, he's back to where he belongs

This afternoon I found a half grown eastern water dragon hanging off my trailer. I've grab the lizard and it's now in my bathroom with newspaper. Is there anyone I can get hold of in Hamilton about this critter? I can't take care of it long term, but is there anything I can put in there that will help it settle down a bit?

I've got a pair of blue rams in with a pair of Golden Bristlenoses in a 90L. They get along fine, except the male blue ram has figured out if he hangs outside the male bristlenoses cave long enough, he'll get a free feed of baby bristlenose.

Best off ringing the 0800 number or your local donor centre (Wellington for you?). You'll be able to get a better answer. There is more to the Blood Service then just the nurses who take off the blood . Also, nothing wrong with only donating plasma. There's plenty of people out there that need that (and the products made from it).

Probably before the blood service was a national organization. The DHBs used to run the blood service bit of the hospital too (so no charge?), but since 2000, the blood service has become a separate government organization from the DHBs, so they charge the DHBs for the products used. You have to keep in mind though, the blood service isn't allowed to make a profit (or a loss) from all this. So it's a very fine line that they walk.

Probably not any time soon. There isn't any tests that they can do to check for mad cow disease in the blood. The chances of anybody actually having it are really low, but I think in the past there has been one or two cases of people coming down with mad cow disease from a blood transfusion (overseas) so it is possible. Also, the New Zealand Blood Service tends to be really paranoid about these sorts of things (another example would be people with chronic fatigue syndrome)

Yes and no. Some New Zealand plasma is sent to the company CSL in Australia, where they turn it into lots of different blood products and send it back to New Zealand. I don't think anything is sold as such, but there would be manufacturing/transport/etc costs associated with the process. I think one of the reasons that intravenous gamma globulin is so expensive is due to the amount of work that goes into making it.

Umm... no. Maybe overseas (Europe mainly?) but onselling blood doesn't happen here in New Zealand.

The actual blood taking part can't take any longer than 15 mins. Before hand, you have to fill out a bunch of questions, and then you go over them with one of them. Afterwards, they want you to sit around a bit, eat/drink something, to make sure you're okay and aren't going to faint.

+1 All the questions they ask are for very good reasons. Can't donate if you've had a body piercings within 6 months. They also do a little fingerprick test to make sure your blood levels are okay before donating. Don't want to take blood off someone who's a little low on blood themselves. By the way, anybody who donates is totally awesome, besides saving lives (it sounds a little cheesy, but totally true), I have a fulltime job thanks to you guys :love:

Cool . Those five I got off you are looking like all males, but can't complain as they're getting gorgeous finnage.

I've got 10 or so of the mossie rasbora in a 74L, and it looks pretty empty. I'm still tossing up whether to double the number. I've got them in with Kuhli loaches and Sundadanio axelrodi (only 3 left now &c:ry ). I use to have them in with a dario dario and it was fine. The rasbora tend to hang around the top (they quite like floating plants) and the dario dario would hang near the bottom. As for food, my ones will eat anything from flake to daphnia. It's pretty funny watching them take on fully grown daphnia. Don't be put off by the colours of the fish in the shop. Give them a month or so of good food and they'll colour up nicely.

I thought I didn't have room for a 4ft tank, but it's amazing what a bit of rearranging can do.

PM'd

I'm after 15 tablets (50mg). I did get offered a bottle of 250 tablets at one of the vets.