Stella

That used to be recommended but is now recognised as cruel. They do not peacefully go to sleep, apparently it is rather painful. Blunt force trauma is SO quick. The easiest non-icky way I found is to put it in one of those flimsy produce bags and whack it into the concrete, then dispose of the fish, bag and all* (ie you don't even have to look at it). Never pleasant to do, but I feel happier now knowing it is so very quick for the fish. (* am trying to be more environmentally friendly now and not using the bag, but it is a good way to learn to deal with it) Loving the 'big kid undies' thing, and am a strong supporter of telling kids the TRUTH.

THat looks great! Matte is what you want, gloss would detract. The point is that the black background optically 'fades away' and is not noticed. Reflections draw attention. Are you able to hide that heater at all? It detracts from the overall masterpiece (bearing in mind I know nothing about heater use and placement...)

40% is probably a bit high for this situation. You basically did what your petshop person warned you not to: too sudden a change will affect the fish - even going from a bad situation to a 'better' one. 10% every day for a while makes sense to me. Gradually even things out then get them healthy again, without shocking the fish too badly. If your tank is healthy you can do big, regular waterchanges quite safely, as the change for the fish isn't so great. If the tank is unhealthy, little regular ones are better than bigger irregular ones. Others may recommend something different?

Sealing wood for aquaria doesn't work. It may work for a while, but eventually a little bit of water will get under and lift the varnish. And for the stuff to dry it has to be done on dry wood, which doesn't sink... Cows affected by the stuff in macrocarpa are presumably eating the *leaves* and not the wood/roots. Cows and sheep are much closer related than cows and fish. I would say it would probably be fine. Really, putting ANY wood in your tank is an unknown factor, but unlikely to have much actual risk. I think the only thing to be sure of is that the wood is fully dried out. Fresh wood can leach all sorts of resins and other things. Old wood is the way to go.

1: water quality? Most likely. 2: Maybe: they were in the bags swimming about in their own waste for quite a while. Floating the bag then warms it all up nicely, increasing the ammonia toxicity. A better option is to settle the bag into a large bowl (to keep it upright) and use a bit of airline to slowly siphon tank water into the bag, thus diluting the bag water, keeping them warm and getting them very slowly introduced to tank water. After 20-30 minutes net them out and put them in the tank. Of course you KNOW you should quarantine EVERYTHING before it goes in your tank! Massive disease risk even if the pet shop fish 'look' healthy.

I am writing a book on keeping native fish in aquaria, also looking to self-publish. How far along are you?

my tanks have it on purpose: Provides surface cover for shy fish green in a plant-less tank sucks out nitrates surface interest but that is me...

I wasn't suggesting you were buying flies.... I have a bunch of cps inside and I NEVER feed them, they get little gnats and things that I don't even notice. They really don't NEED to eat invertebrates. They also don't need specifically flies, others are acceptable. By a warm enclosed environment I mean a small terrerium with a closed lid or similar. But a vft can live in one ofr those for a very long time (if all other needs are met) without insect food. It is just the chances of killing a vft due to lack to food is very low, compared to the chances of other things killing it. Most people assume their vft has died when it goes dormant for winter - all the leaves can die off and nothing live is visible. Apparently a 'killed' one turns to a mushy pulp. How much water was it in?

yep, got a small collection of natives and exotics. Also PeteS and AJBroome here know more than me (all of us from Palmy) Look into the NZ Carnivorous Plant Society, there is a website with various info. You might have trouble with growing some outside, as they need it warm and humid. They will also die back to almost nothing over winter and come back in spring. If you have bought them from a shop etc they were probably raised in a glasshouse and won't take to kindly to being put outside without being hardened off a bit. I can't recommend the book "the Savage Garden" more interesting and engaging. Phoenix, running out of flies would not have killed your flytrap. You really should never have to feed your cps unless they are in a small enclosed environment with no bugs. And they don't need to eat regularly. Chances are it did not get enough water or went into winter dormancy and you thought it had died...

still, it never came back because you have the SAE to eat it before you see it. There is still the high nutrient load to feed it. It is a solution to the symptom, not the problem. Just because you can't see the problem doesn't mean it isn't there. I guess I am just used to not having ways to hide the problems (there are no native algae eaters) so I have to deal with the problem (me not doing enough waterchanges).

Unfortunately every tank works differently. What is needed to maintain good water quality depends on frequency and %volume of waterchanges; type, number and size of fish; amount and type of food; and those are just the main ones. Algae is usually an indication of high nutrients. Use it as an indicator that there is an imbalance.

Algae problems are usually a symptom of high nutrient levels. There is solving the symptom (scrubbing/algae eaters/flourish excel) and solving the problem (improving the water quality) Often you need to do both to get it under control, then the water quality thing will keep it from coming back.

Take care with collecting aquatic plants from the wild, not not because of introducing critters (very few will actually cause harm, most are fish food or inconsequential. The majority of aquaria have invertebrates the owner was not aware were in there) Most of the aquatic plants you see in streams are exotics and can be very invasive and damaging to our natural ecosystems - clogging streams and changing the habitat for the plants and fish etc that are supposed to be there. Many are now considered noxious and people are banned from owning them (nice big fines). Most of them are escapees from home aquaria. Try to learn what you have got, and even if they are not banned, make sure you dispose of an plant trimmings etc in a way that will not enter a stream - the compost heap is great. Remember, if you are tipping aquarium water down a sink or outside drain and it has got plant pieces in it (even tiny), the plant could invade your local streams. FNZAS has got some interesting articles linked under 'plants' on the homepage about what is and is not allowed, identifying them and also some stuff on NIWA looking into the use of native aquatic plants in tropical aquaria to help stop the spread of exotics. (This is directed generally, not just a Sam )

Very interesting topic, though it seems to have turned into a major pointed tangent. Seriously, Phill, read your posts before you hit 'send'. I really can't understand half of what you write due to spelling mistakes, incomplete sentences and missing words. It is interesting stuff, but I can't make sense of it. Back to the ORIGINAL TOPIC: 1: We accept that hybrids sold as a species they are not is a problem. 1A: So what actual SOLUTIONS are there to this? Are there any? 2: By 'true-to-type' are you really meaning SPECIES or PHENOTYPE (a particular expression of the genes) You could line-breed people to have particular phenotypes and breed true-to-type (one group with brown hair and brown eyes, another with blonde hair and blue eyes etc) but it doesn't make them a species. There may be some natural variations in genotype/phenotype that you are breeding out by selecting certain traits as being wild type, which results in the line not actually being wild type (which has variation), but a strain with the same genotype. Then again, because the breeding populations are so small, this kind of allele frequency shift would happen anyway... I guess that is another difficulty with using captive (for many generations) breeding populations to supplement a threatened wild population.

Yep, black. You don't notice it like you do a lighter colour, and it really makes the fish stand out. House paint leaves a much smoother finish than poster paint. Don't clean the algae off the back ever, then it winds up blending in beautifully.

Oh no! How awful! I live in fear of that day. Hopefully not too much other stuff was ruined in the process.

Wow Whetu, that is awful!! Always risky with other people. I know Telecom has the toll bar thing where each flattie has their own PIN which makes it easier to divide up the bill, but that doesn't cover you if they skip out on a bill, does it?

Solution: a feeding cone and time (the fish learn where the food is) So the worms were structurally sound then?

Yeah, for me living without flatmates means living beyond my means (using my savings, not credit!) and hoping like hell I get summer employment, but there is no way I would live with others again. Yeah it gets lonely, but I can deal with lonely a lot better than stressful and feeling uncomfortable in my own home when things get annoying. smcoleman - what is a glo-bug?? (I am assuming NOT the cute glow-in-the-dark things we had as kids )

Oh definitely! Though if you have not flatted before then you won't fully comprehend the hell of living with others, and therefore won't appreciate just how worth it living alone/just with a partner is. I maintain that what you save in $$ flatting with other people, you more than spend in hassle.

oh, and my sympathies, that would be so frustrating!!

Is the child not trainable? Re lying convincingly, as a small child I found it bizarre that if you 'did the right thing' and was honest, you got told off. But if you lied well you avoided punishment. All that teaches is for your kids to lie to you, thus I got really good at lying as a kid. Not sure what the way around it is.

Any gut feeling you get about the landlord's inclination to fix stuff (or not) WILL BE ACCURATE. I recommend rental agencies, then you have a manager who is a neutral 'go between'. I have no idea who my landlord is, I just let the manager know stuff needs fixing and they get onto the landlord. Though sadly my current landlord is really slack when it comes to fixing stuff, doesn't want to spend any money. I am thankful for having the property manager to poke them on my behalf 8) Find out how long the landlord has owned the property. Any new work will then stand out as being something they did to improve the place. And elderly neighbours ROCK - (to generalise) quiet, friendly, home a lot which helps with security, and they tend not to have late night parties.

May as well give it a go! Earthworms freeze fine. Not sure how related they are but I am guessing they should be ok. Just a nice big chunk of muscle. (ok, actually quite wee, but when you look at the muscle to misc ratio....)