Joze

just put 100 litres of gravel in the tank tonight, one bonus is that the stones came from the same river as our water supply so the parameters are pretty close, I didnt bother boiling them as I would have been there till doomsday. I have been meaning to landscape that tank for sometime and decied that it looked crappy full of fish in a bare tank. Fish seem to like it and the oscars have landscaped the base to their liking. The GG is sulking as she does when anything is out of the ordinary, thats one fish who hates a change in routine. I have some large flat stones to go in and need to resoak a couple of logs to go in to finish off. There is nothing underneath to filter but I figured the hose on full blast in the stones while doing a waterchange should work just as well. I might risk putting the heater back in the tank but will rig a cover of sorts to protect it and disguise it. The next step after that would be rigging the light batons up.

lol MV Oh well Ira, we can always offer you some more :lol: The ones that are here are in with the oscars, no losses.

any beach in NZ, the sand here is famous for being high in silicates.

mine are dropping left right and center too, even with the prolific plants they are seeking them out to eat.Starting to think about pulling them out and putting them in another tank with a small internal filter and some UGF crating

the guy who owns the Mana Chandlery used to manage wetpets and he is into his fish in a big way, he could probably advise you on what is best, another thing about bilge pumps is that you need to watch they dont overload the wiring, they are a common cause of boat fires.

yup, I have been thinking about experimenting a bit. I have decided to feed mine solely on cat biscuits, I would like to see if there is a real difference compared to flake and more traditional foods. Got them in with a droopy severum at the moment, he is a pussy at the best of times and has been suffering from swim bladder problems for the past week, they are loving it plants, air curtain yup very happy danios. Moved the pearl gouramis out of that tank and put them in the big one with the oscars, suprisingly they are all still there and there hasnt been any problems, I alo moved a pair of severum and a single male over, suddenly the resident victim is getting attention of a different type, she has been in the oscar tank recuperating from the last time she was beaten up and the single male is herding her around the tank.

I am in Mystic, will still be carless then most likely *grumble* am very happy to carpool.

Win how old are those danios????? randy little buggers are at it. -Jo

ok some of you know I am into fishing in a huge way, flyfishing is partly entomology, partly stupid enough to stand in a frozen stream with receding organs. here is a basic Stoneflies (Plecoptera) have 2 tails (cerca), they are omnivores. Mayflies (Ephemeroptera) have 3 cerca and some subspecies have gills in their abdominal segment, they usualy live on algae and debris. They adapt very quickly to changes in environment. Caddis (Trichoptera) dont have cerca, they are also famous for collecting debris and carryng their home on their back, some subspecies gather, some spin cocoons and so on. Dragonflies (Odonata) naiads are carnivorous.Gomphidae will burrow into the mud or silt bottom so that only the eyes and rear are above the surface. Nasty little buggers too.

Got an idea where you are moving to?

you wont get a permit to kep them breed them or catch them full stop. Even the F&G guys who keep large fish arent allowed to harvest them as fish food.

oh crap, I have that weekend booked for fishing and staying on Kapiti Island

if you have the dexterity you could use cable ties. Be careful if you are using high pressure as hoses are Kpa rated and the wrong one can cause havoc.

I remember reading an article about this, one of the points that was stressed was reducing the amount of oxygen in the bag to counteract the pressure in the plane.

in suprisingly good condition and now has attitude, she is not willing to get beaten up on anymore by the others.

I can see where you are headed, I think Ira and I had a discussion about this one day. But in a slightly different way. The gist of it is to keep the substate moving so nothing settles. The one I am working on is along the lines of positive pressure underneath the plate essentially creating the same effect but effectively floating the substrate and plate by water pressure

fish do survive live broken heaters, I have a female gold severum on her own as she had been beaten up yet again. Kids mentioned she was a floater so when I had some time a couple of hours later I went to get her out and got zapped. I stuck her back in the main tank and after warming up she is pretty well right. I think it gave her ecg treatment as she is giving as good as she gets now.

oh only 8ft by 2x 3

so do I, I need more filters am in the middle of working out exactly how I am going to make a reverse ugf on sand bed for my big tank. Clearlite?, pvc pipe? that sprinkler hose stuff? Think I might propose this as a club project as its a monster tank.

I really like this idea, http://www.calypso.org.uk/Fishorphans/index.html it would be quite possible to do something like this here too

all the fluval manuals are available online at http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/manual.cfm

always have room for more trops

Jo I keep meaning to ask are there any fish you want to spell over winter, my pool is chocker with mozzies. way too much for my fish to go through.

any half decent plumbing supply should have them, called a 3 way ball valve. Its a good idea to get one for high pressure as you never know when you may recycle it. They do ok with low pressure so thats not a problem.

just checked with Ira, ummm Caryl I havent received mine yet.