Zev

Some interesting info here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/fishe ... /index.htm

We bought our daughter a MP3 player - I think it was a Genius (like the mouse brand). It takes a AAA battery and is a PITA! We are constantly buying new batteries for it because she looses the rechargables (didn't come with any rechargable batteries either). Also, beware of the format that they will play, a guy at work thought he got a good deal on a player, but found that it only played MPEG4s, which he did not have the software to create and upload to the player. Our other daughter has a Sony, which has a usb in one end like a flash drive, which you plug into the computer to charge and upload songs, but the songs have to be in some wierd Sony format and needs the software that comes with the player. It also has a radio as well, but I suspect it was rather expensive - my husband bought it for her, and didn't tell me how much it cost him... I have an iPhone, which has the iPod Touch functionality, but I don't like listening to music too long with those ear thingys, they get a bit annoying and I don't know how some kids can handle having them in their ears all day- but there again, maybe I'm just too old for that sort of carry-on?

Could be one of Wok's Mealworm beetles?

Primary school is years one to six Intermediate is year seven and eight Secondary is year nine to 13 Caper, be careful when killing the fly, it may damage your computer screen, depending on what extermination method you are going to use!

Stunning pics, names would be good, thanks.

lol, Caryl!

Oh yeah, I remember when I first started with fish... Doing the weekly water tests - more than weekly when we first set them up, just in case... having a mild panic attack if you didn't have time to do the tests... checking the temperature all the time... Fastidiously cleaning the tank and filters, weekly water changes, knowing exactly how many of what fish were in your tanks.... Now... the test kits have hardly been out of the box, only break them out when something goes wrong... don't even bother testing a new tank to see if it is cycling, just chuck some old filter media or seasoned sponge filter in along with the fish... Only do water changes when you think the fish start to act wierdly... couldn't find the thermometer to check the tank temperatures if you wanted to... Only clean the filter when you notice the flow from the filter is getting a bit slow... Only notice a fish is missing when one of the kids asks where it is... Ps Reef, this is for our freshwater tanks - we are a bit more attentive to our saltwater tank, which is probably why the freshwater ones get a bit neglected!

Sounds rather contradictory, but... Live rock is dead coral skeletons which has been colonised with micro organisms and nitrifying bacteria that filter some of the unwanted stuff out of the water.

Honey Dwarf? Trichogaster (Colisa) chuna http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile2.html

Got ours today as well.. Just wait until Kevin sees his photo in there, it doesn't look too good for Alan getting 'frisked' like that!!

Watch the Chocolates, they are usually wild caught and can be very fussy eaters. They are pretty timid, get bossed around and don't ship very well. I had two, the female initally only ate live food plus some frozen, but now rather enjoys Sera flake and decap brine shrimp. The male obviously didn't realise that apart from bossing the female around so much that she hid all the time, that he also had to eat. Consequently he got thinner and thinner and then perished. Sparkling, or Trichopsis pumila are a bit more hardy, mine breed all of the time, but only a couple survive. They seem to only last a couple of years, but I have managed to keep a constant population with the rather slow breedings. They are quite fun to watch, the males flare and click at eachother frequently.

You're asking us after you bought the fitting?? Fittings are six of one, half a dozen of the other - the most important thing is what sort of tubes you put in it. I have tried the ones from the Electrical wholesalers that are what they call 'colour 86', there is a higher one at 94, but they give quite a white/blue light at 8600 and 9400k (degrees kelvin) respectively. Plants allegedly require light somwhere in the 6500k range. I have found that tubes in the 7000k range seem to be more suited to my plants, as when I put two 8600k tubes on a 2ft tank, I found some of my red leaved plants were struggling, and started to shed their leaves, so now I have one 8600k and one 7100k from the LFS.

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/aquarium_world/ If you are a junior, it may be cheaper to join a club! You may also get discounts from the LFS if you do.

Free if you belong to an FNZAS Affiliated club, otherwise you have to subscribe to it.

What are your tank dimensions?

Holy poop, looks like we will be investing in a RODI unit when we shift to our other property, then. Water tests from our well give us Total Dissolved Solids mg/l 466 Looks like we could be in for a heck of a lot of filter cartridge replacements! Are you using ASW or NSW to do your water changes? If you are using NSW, I would think that you would be replenishing the minerals that the fish may require.

I think Caper is refering to what I would call a fat gut! But as DJ says, it is his belly pouch all puffed up.

Heh heh... where's Wok? - I bet he has his copy already!!

lol... at the name of the last ones!

One of our LFS has them for around the $120 ish mark - they have two at the moment, they are really small, about 100mm - 4 inches long. Very nice, but will grow too big for us!

A lot of Killie keepers put a drop of Meth blue in the water with their eggs when they are hatching them, this is to help stop them fungusing - (is that a real word?) I hate trying to sex fish, the more I look, the more confused I get!

Here is some detailed info - unfortunately only one pic of a male. http://www.nativefish.org/articles/Jord ... oridae.php It says: 'The eyespot on the side of the male is still present, exactly at the right angled corner of the blue star field. It is not so hard-edged and well defined as in the female.' HTH

Great pics Evil. Don't forget to get the 'money shot' printed out on photographic paper and enter it in the FNZAS photograph competition next year. (You will crop it first, though, won't you?)

No problems, Bill. I left some Flake food in the mail box this morning. It might be a good idea to hide it after they have been fed - you know that fish will always act as if they are starving when people look at the tank, even if they have just been fed - just in case someone walking past decides they look hungry!

This site here explains about the gonopodium problem - look under the Spawing header. http://www.goliadfarms.com/pages/produc ... retail.htm