Stella

Supasi, how did I miss your thread last year??? I did a trip about the same time with PeteS and a few others looking at CPs on Ruapehu! I have a few native CPs. I always like CPs then disvovered there were native ones - great to join the two loves! My native drosera: spatulata, binata, arcturi, pygmaea (I think) and a utriculata, not sure which. Misc non-natives, can't remember all the names: cephalotus, venus fry trap, drosera capensis, drosera binata variant: gigantea(?), several pinguiculas, several nepenthes, several sarracenias, including purpurea and leucophylla. I wish I was more of a CP geek, but there is only so much time in the day

I sooooooooo want to see a dobsonfly adult! Am tempted to try and grow one up just to see it.... I have a copy of that book beside me (borrowed it off Mike Joy, teeheehee!) I haven't started collecting them yet, but I intend to soon.

I have 11 days to go before I am redundant. Am going to find some kind of work (possibly temping) for the next six months then study Ecology at Massey! So if anyone hears of anything.... Will be ex-dental assistant with office and retail experience, and generally pretty versatile and a quick learner. Ira, what is your work?

They sure gave me a fright the first few times mine moulted!! You will find crays are rather quiet for a few days before and after they moult. Then they usually seem go through this massive ego stage, suddenly they are fractionally bigger and they think they are THE MAN! 8) :roll: Fish are more at risk from them at this time. Mine usually ignored the skin then started eating it on the second or third day. It is a good idea to let them do this as they need to resorb the calcium, but if you wish to dry it do, just make sure you find a way of giving him some extra calcium (loads of crushed pond snails?). Crays are very vulnerable during moults. They are soft and squishy (well, comparatively) and subject to cannibalism and predation. It is also possible for a moult to go badly wrong and the cray gets stuck. This is more likely to happen if the cray is missing a leg or ten, but can happen to anyone. If they screw up a bit and get stuck and get tired etc the body can start to harden and a slow and boring death ensues. There is a very interesting doco video here about a snake eating a moulting cray (thanks PeteS)

Despite what people think, there are no instances around the world where a psychic was truly able to solve a crime. There are many standing offers of $1million in various currencies open to anyone who can prove that they have any sort of paranormal power. It must be scientifically proven and the whole process must be acceptable to the psychic or whatever. Funnily enough no one takes up any of the offers, despite the millions of people who claim to have these powers and even charge others for their services. :roll:

What about wild-caught tropical fish? NZ apparently has particularly bright natural light.

ah thank you

I am *SO* glad I wasn't drinking when I read that! Still chuckling.... :lol:

I know I need to start learning my aquatic invertebrates better, and decided the way that would work for me is to start a specimen collection. I even have a whole bunch of tiny vials Thing is I feel bad about killing them. And it would probably be a horrible death in alcohol...... Somehow death by fish doesn't seem so mean. So yeah, Caryl, I'm with you on the "girls love bugs" front!

I wonder what is behind it all? Apparently after WWI there was a HUGE market for mediums and the like. It stands to reason (never thought I would say that phrase in relation to mediums!) but just not something you would think of in relation to the war....

Hi there, David has some good advice for you there. My light tubes are not aquarium ones either. I also tend to use much less light that most would for a tropical tank. Mainly because I think they look better slightly dimmed, just seems a lot more natural than a stark tank. My tanks actually have different light levels according to what sort of environment I am trying to show. It also seems fairer on the fish, and without plants you don't need heaps of light. You can also get testing done at Wet Pets for a dollar or two. (those kits can be expensive). The offer still stand for you (or anyone else for that matter) to visit my tanks sometime.....

Thanks guys I am feeling better now. Was getting quite annoyed and resentful when I initially posted. Not very helpful at all! Now I am back to feeling like it is a big adventure! Still a little scary, but I know something better will come. Certainly more likely for things to happen than staying put as a dental assistant! I am sure the emotions will move around a fair bit over the next 18 months. it will be a huge period of change. Spink, I am sorry to hear you are having a tough time of it Thankfully I don't have a mortgage (but rent is still going to be a huge chunk of my savings eaten up a week). I know what it is like to be endlessly applying and never hearing back let alone getting an interview. I was unemployed for a while a few years back and it just gets soul-destroying. Eventually I sent my cv to a whole lot of dental places and got many interviews. I am going to try temping. It sounds reasonably easy to get work that way. What sort of work are you looking for?

Kindly remind her that this is stealing :roll: I understand that people screw up now and then, sometimes things go mad and we can't keep up and get in a mess. Refusing to learn from it and actively making the problem bigger is just stupid.

apart from the fact that I am strange..... Ok so my mudfish tank has a couple of self-sustaining populations of various inverts that got in there when I was feeding live food last summer. There are tubifex (never in large numbers), copepods and cyclops. What ingrigues me is that there used to be a much higher population of cyclops. Recently that has changes and there are BILLIONS of copepods and the cyclops population has really dropped away. Now I know they do a lot of stuff with invertebrates as ways of monitoring the quality of water in streams, and the geek in me is wondering if the change in population structure is telling me something about something that is changing in there? (yes my water tests are bang on)

I don't know anything about bankruptcy, so I can't help you there. But do you think your friend will actually learn from this and not wind up in the same mess again? Maybe she will need some ongoing help with financial management.

what did that relate to??? :lol: But yeah, native fish hunting rocks!

Why do you want a 'very basic tank'? What does that mean to you? What are you not wanting to do? If we better understand what your requirements are we can better advise you

There is no blame! I can hide things from myself very well! (what bucket of water spilt on the floor? I see no water)

Is it at all possible to expand outwards? Instead of a longer tank, how about a wider one (front to back?). Probably just as difficult, but another way of looking at it. (though Foxglove would be right on that option as well, tanks you can't comfortably reach into are annoying).

I just avoid the whole partner issue. I get to keep all the fish I can justify and afford, I take all the credit and don't have to answer to anyone

is your girlfriend a little oxygen deprived?

Any news on the tank you are setting up at the zoo?

The wood can cause it to drop a little. I wouldn't worry too much unless your fish have very, very specific requirements (sorry I don't know anything about tropicals, me=native fish nut). Generally it is much better for the pH to be stable rather than fluctuating (as can happen if you tamper with it chemically).

Bingo!

I spent a few minutes thoroughly rifling through the gravel looking for a native eed in a tank I was taking apart. I decided it had moved on. Within a minute the little sod was swimming about! Hopefully he will pop his head out tomorrow morning as if nothing had happened. Maybe with a cheeky twinkle in his eye!