Zev

Lol Warren. Will be passing through International in Wellington on Friday, will have a look at the tank in the thread that Caryl posted to see how it's going.

Same place, Warren! http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/1-vt13 ... sc&start=0

Omega Three fatty acids?

And did you take a photo of these 'balls' before you chucked them out with the fish, for us to id?

Still, you could have blamed her! Mind you, it depends on who was around at the time watching what you were doing.

Bugger.. And bugger again.. You sure it wasn't your Mutt that shifted the hose? Ours used to grab the damn thing and wave it about all over the place when you were trying to water something!

Just be careful it doesn't uproot or eat all your plants in the meantime....

For substrate you can use Daltons Aquatic Mix, about $12.00 for a 15litre bag, and put stones over this, but they will have to be fairly small, otherwise the Aquatic mix will cloud your water if it is disturbed, you can probably put some of your larger ones on top. Be careful with the peat, as WCMMs like a ph around 7, and it may become too low if you use this. In saying that, they can be slowly acclimatised to a wide range of Ph levels, also, the peat may discolour your water. The Aquatic mix will give you a fairly good base for the plants, I use about 20mm deep with 20 - 30mm of 5mm stones on top. Depending on how many WCMMs you are going to put in the tank, you could probably get away with one of those double sponge filter thingies - forget the name, there are a couple of different brands out there, they sell for about $14.00 if I remember correctly. I have a HOB on my planted community tank, doesn't seem to upset them too much! Good for water clarity, especially if you have messy fish that disturb the bottom. As far as lights go, flourescent lamps rated at 6500 or 7000 degrees kelvin are great for plants, give enough spectrum for them to grow properly and doesn't make your tank look like a white-out like if you use the 10,000 or 15,000k lamps that you can get at the LFS. If you are going for the cheapie power saving lamps - which is all I have over my WCMM tank in a desk lamp - Mitre 10 Mega have a range of Osram lamps which are rated 'Daylight', 23w allegedly giving out 120w of light for under $6.00. I also see they have a new range of desk lamps from Phillips, which take an 18w energy saving fluro (couldn't see what the colour temperature was, but you can always buy the correct one), which has a wee hood on it, I was tempted to buy one, as they were cheaper than the 9w clip on Jebo ones you can get at the LFS. Coldwater plants - Java Fern, Microsorium pteropus -down to 18 degrees Bacopa - down to 15 deg Hairgrass - Elocharis acicularis - down to 5 degrees Hydrocotyle verticillata - down to 10 degrees Some Hygrophilas down to 15 degrees There are probably more, but I can't remember them at the moment... Beware of the plant refered to as 'Beetroot' I think it is Hemigraphis, looks nice with metalic purple under the leaves, but will perish after a short time as it is not a true aquatic plant, same with the mondo grass. HTH... or have I confused you more?

Could be just a settling in thing, give it a bit of time to sort itself out. Do you dose fertilizer, and what sort of lighting do you have?

How old/young is your tank?

guerrier d'arc-en-ciel This is a good translation site - http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr Does this still class as being on topic? It does have fish in the url! Alan (not you alanmin4304), won't understand though, he's not a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fan! Carla, I have three Otos, I don't know how much impact they have on the hair algae, I still have a small amount of it in my tank amongst the Java moss, but I probably don't have enough of them to clean it up totally. Also, I um, think I over feed my Otos, they prefer to eat shrimp pellets and flake off the bottom of the tank, but I must say, there isn't any algae on the tank walls, where the Otos spend most of their time. Amano uses them in his planted tanks a lot for cleanup, too.

Well done!

Aqua Fever in Hastings have some, they have come down remarkably in price since I bought my first ones, and there seem to be more available than there was a year or so ago. I have bred the odd one or two in my community tank, but not enough to sell. They must be on the wholesalers lists, see if your LFS can get them in for you. I am still hanging out for some Licorice Gourami, Parosphromenus deissneri. Seen them once in the shops, nine months ago, and never seen them since.

Hmmm... mine is still at the green algae stage, and it's six months old! It is subsiding more now, and since I started dosing Alk, Mag and Calcium suppliments a month or so ago, I've finally got some coraline growth happening!

Why wait a year - my BTA is already taking over my tank, we will know where to look if any of the cats dissappear!

Haha... Ahem - I did that too! Welcome to the forums.

The Firefish and psuedochromis probably aren't a good mix. We nicknamed our psuedochromis 'Royal Snottyback', and he is a bully, busted the whiskers off our Skunk Cleaner and chases our Wrasse around endlessly. Firefish are pretty shy, and possibly won't survive the torment.

Yeeowch!

Nice pics, Skippy. I especially like the second one with the dark school of fish.

Dang... Know the feeling. Warm humid weather + a few cats = blimmin itchy ankles!

Found this snail in my tank, it's about 4mm across. Any ideas as to what it is?

Frontline the cat and kittens, use the trigger bottle stuff, not the aerosol. We used to slightly dampen the kittens with a cloth in a basin of shallow warm water, then spray the frontline on a medical type glove and then rub it over the kittens. Then rub them dry with handy kitchen towels. While they're out of the box, give the bedding a spray as well, especially under the rugs/towels, as fleas are photophobes, and will hide from the light. The mother cat is another story, usually ending in claws and teeth!

I think you'd be better off asking Afrikan what cichlids she doesn't have... The list would be shorter!

http://fins.actwin.com/dir/clubs.php?c=13