Zev

lol, Caryl I'm afraid I can be of no assistance there, our toilet floor is often littered with empty loo paper rolls, and the new roll is just sitting on top of the holder! I will ask Kerry to see if he has any hints on this matter, but being a male, perhaps he doesn't?

I could do the 'nayh, nayh, na-nayh-nayh' thing, Wok. But yes, we are rather lucky, the Oceanarium makes a stunning backdrop for meetings. In saying that, we are going to have a new room built upstairs where we will have our meetings, should be much warmer in the winter, downstairs can get rather chilly sometimes.

This month the HBAS is bringing in a selection of interesting or unusual fish, these will be the subject of a 'Guess the Fish' competition, followed by some husbandry information, and then the fish will be auctioned off. 7.30 pm at The National Aquarium of New Zealand Marine Parade NAPIER

Sparkling Gourami internals 101. Male Female, note the elongated internal organs that taper off to a point, whereas the male internals round off just behind the pectoral fins.

Why do Maroons always look gooby lipped when you photograph them?

Beware the tank invading Anemone! I have a BTA, which takes up about half of our 105l tank, mainly because it has set it self up RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE and stings anything around it. Whilst it started off as a cute little Bubble Tip, it has evolved into a long tentacle'd monster, and I can't put anything near it, plus my maroon clown has chucked anything that I put near it down the back of the tank. This includes Mushys stuck down with toothpicks and superglue. Clams need good light at 10,000k colour temperature to do well.

I hope that thing with the wavy arms above the star in the second pic is not what I think it is?

Here's something to drool over. http://www.melevsreef.com/pico.html Part way down Melev says that he unplugged the heater and relies on the heat generated by the pump. But didn't say if he plugged it back in during the winter, or not.

Mine's bigger than yours! It's actually even bigger now, these pics are a few months old.

I think the problem with ours was the water quality, it would show some extension for a few days, then nothing for a while. Since we have put a Deltec skimmer on our system, it very rarely has a sulky day. They are known to shed an outer layer off the top to keep themselves clean. I will see if I can find a pic.

That would be after it has stopped sulking! Ours took ages before the polyps came out.

Oh, is that why he had to have a lie-down during the auction?

owch!

Didn't Rob from the National Aquarium have the reptiles well trained for photos on the night?

Arrgh... Loopy it says I have to log in!

Didn't you set them up with the DVD player to watch in the car?? Thought you knew better, Wok!

Ahhhh... this is what happens when you make a man wear a tie and give him a torch in a dark and dingy hallway!

Well I hope it was the double chocolate one with the chunks of chocolate in it, then at least you will have them to eat if the ice cream melts!

Glad you enjoyed yourself Loopy - even If I did catch you trying to post your Chocolate ice cream home outside Rush Munros!

Haaaha ha ha... that's what you think! Sorry to inform you that they are not in service yet, unless you fancy a bit of Evil Kinevil stuff, and the intersection has become a bit of a bottleneck with speed restrictions down to 30k. and the traffic lights are setup to fustrate and confuse the hardiest traveller!

It may depend on whether he stops at Delight Plus on the way through - it's a restaurant, by the way!

Hmmm... Interesting little beasties, aren't they? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimo

I have one of these on my 105l tank, works a treat.

The dark colouration, anything from black, grey to dark metalic blue, usually appears when the males are ready to spawn. When they get like this, they are very territorial, and will chase and beat up any Gourami-looking thing they see, including the female. With our pair, the female had to sneak up under him and rub his sides in order to try and curry his favour and not get beaten up to spawn.

We have our Sparkling Gourami in a two foot community tank with a range of Tetras, a lone Dwarf Gourami, a Chocolate Gourami, three Corys, and couple of Hillstream Loaches. It has a PH of around 6, temp around 25 deg. It is a heavily planted tank, in fact, rather over planted, and has a large wad of Java Moss that covers about two thirds of the water surface. We maintain a popluation of somewhere around eight Sparking Gourami in this tank of varying ages. We usually have one adult die every six months or so, but they breed slowly to replace the losses. We also have three in another tank, the oldest of which thinks he's a Blue Ram, and would rather spend his time hanging around with the Rams, than the other Gourami!