Zev

Reminds me of the time my sister-in-law was looking out the window to their back yard, she saw her husband jumping around and thought that he was praciticing his Tae Kwon Do, which annoyed her, because she had asked him to turn the compost bin over. Anyway he comes rushing inside and slams the door shut, muttering and swearing - he was turning over the compost and had disturbed a wasp nest the jumping around was him trying to swat the things off himself!

Quite often see this one in the marginal/pond plant area of Palmers. Does fine in the aquarium. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/plant_survey/aq ... 94d498e67e Be aware that even some plants sold in the LFs are marginals, and will only survive for a few months in the aquarium. Quite a lot are grown out of the water (emersed) and will take a while to change to their submersed form, if your lighing is insufficent, they will struggle to do this.

This is the setup Pies has for sale http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/1-vt15 ... sc&start=0 HTH

Have a great day Wasp. The fish pressie looks great, just as well it wasn't wrapped! *This image has been Photoshopped, no actual fish were harmed in the production of this image. The colour of the wrapping paper and ribbon along with the background colour are indicative only of the true colour of this marine tank. Contents may settle after shipping.

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html 90l = 23US gallons The above site recomends 55gallons for three GSP or Figure 8 Puffers. 55gal = 208litres You must remember that these fish can be very aggressive, they will take a bite out of anything that swims by, and may need to be converted to full marine as they mature. They are also terrirorial, which accounts for the large space required for them, rather than fish load, so a shallower but longer tank may be a better option, allowing them to establish a territory for themselves.

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/bracki ... tml#163721

Apparently the fish shop in Coburg is pretty good. We never got to see it, despite it being a short distance from were we were staying. I Think it is in Bell St. We managed to see the one by Vic Market, it's downstairs from the pet shop, and awfully hot and crammed. They have a large selection of reptiles there, which may account for the heat - but then again, it could be bad ventilation. Should of taken a photo of the prices on the freezer, as they had rats for sale, that ranged from 'pinkys' to full grown! Go and annoy the lionfish, my husband almost managed to get it to do a 360 in the tank by moving his finger in a circle on the front glass, it just hovers around and follows your finger with it's eyes, and when it gets out of range, it starts rotating! The only downside was the manager packing a tanty behind the counter and throwing things because he thought the counter was a pigsty, not a good look in front of customers.

This may be of some interest to you, evil. http://www.melevsreef.com/how_to_build.html

Maybe they need a bit of ballast?

Hmmm looks like the mother duck may have dropsy?

The heat usually comes from the ballast, if that is what you are worried about. Does the fitting have sides, so that the tubes are not sitting directly on the glass, that would be my only worry. Or are you going to mount it in the top of the hood? The plastic on the front of my Masterpet fitting is only about 10mm from the tubes. What colour temp are the tubes, for plants you should have about 6400k (kelvins, or colour temperature) minimum. The non aquarium equivilent is colour 86 (cool daylight) or 96, from an electrical wholesalers. The standard 'cool white' are only about 2700k.

What sort of light is it? Fluroescent or MH? If it is Fluro, is it a complete unit with a plastic cover over the lamps, do you know the brand? If it is a bare fitting with exposed tubes, I would not sit it directly over the tank, the condensation will knacker the components of the fitting over time I have a couple of complete units with covers which I just sit directly on the glass lid, it gets warm, but not too hot. Most of the heat dissipates through the top of the fitting, which is aluminium.

I notice on the link that Wasp posted for compatibility, that they suggest adding trace elements/iodine - is this just a sales pitch, or is it necessary for the longterm health of the mushys and zoos? If necessary, what would be the best supliment for a small tank like evils?

lol

So, how many eggs did you end up with, Billaney?

Arrrgh... brings back bad memories of unsoaked pipis, makes my spine crawl... yetch

It depends on what sort of effect from the light you are looking for, I have a 70w MH over a 400mm cube tank, which has a lower ph and slightly brownish water, the MH gives a nice crisp light which plays across the substrate, plants and driftwood, giving highlights and shadows as it refracts off the suface of the water. (We just have a sponge filter with a tube that releases bubbles along the surface of the water). A single 70w might not give you the coverage across a 900mm tank that some fluoros would, and two would probably be rather expensive. Plus you may need to mount them higher above the tank to get the spread. There are a couple of threads about MH http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/1-vt12 ... sc&start=0 http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/great- ... tml#158811

Great pics Billaney. Glad to see their little car trip hasn't dampened her mood!

You and your octopus! You will not be pleased to know that the one at the National Aquarium is no longer there.

Hawke's Bay sauces: http://www.chilli.co.nz/sauces.html The third from the bottom is rather potent! http://www.aromatics.co.nz/index1.html There are quite a few others, but their names elude me at the moment

Hawke's Bay is nice too, good weather (looks out of window at icky drizzling rain!) most of the time. There's also this to win from Napier: http://www.napierlife.com/comp_conditions.htm They used to have a competition for a family to come over and relocate for six months, find you a job and give you a house to live in, but they haven't done it this year.

ditto!

Here are our latest Gourami acquisitons.. Two Chocolate Gourami, first two pics of what we think are the male, the third the female. Based on the line of yellow around the male's lower fins, and the fact that he will chase the other one off at every opportunity, he behaves just like our Dwarf gourami boy does.

While I'm on the spell check thing, "its" not "it's" as in an abbreviated version of 'it is'?

Whaaa... our broadband is maxed out and we are relegated to snail speed. The first page took a while to load, but the gallery loaded up pretty quickly. Nice pics. Should it be 'inhabitants' as opposed to 'inhabitance"? - I could be wrong though.