Interfecus

I just got mine this morning . I absolutely loved reading through all of the articles and the pictures were stunning. What is that stamp and phone card thing on page 11?

She is definitely female, but apparently cambodian females have a tendency to be violent.

Matthew, you should add 3. That the female doesn't kill the male to your list. I have a female with a terrible temper which has already killed one male and almost finished off another.

Why is the subscription cost more than the cost to join most affiliated clubs?

Yes Alan, positively phototropic would be the term for attraction to light. That makes a lot more sense .

I've never heard of photosynthetic planaria. In fact, I'm sure that the planaria aren't photosynthetic at all since no animals are. Unless this is some odd type that I've never heard of with a symbiotic relationship with some photosynthesiser, I doubt they have anything to do with light at all. They are, however, scavengers and may be a pest in other ways since they are capable of killing other small animals. Good luck with the treatment.

The males do eat them after they leave the nest. He seems to lose all of his protective instincts and simply views them as a snack.

Welcome, hope you'll find some interesting stuff here. We also meet in the chat room around 9pm each day so you could come in before you go to work .

If you don't want the babies then you can just leave them together and let nature take its course.

It sounds great then . If I can, I'll definitely be there. I think I have some airpoints left that I could use to fly there and back.

Why put on a weekend just for those who didn't attend conference? I've never been to even a regular club meeting yet (although I intend to start this year) and I'm not going to the conference because I can't afford it (being a teenager) but I believe that more people would make for a better event, wouldn't it? If this is a matter of you feeling let down or insulted, whether real or perceived, I would still hope that you keep the interests of everybody in mind and try to make any event that you organise as enjoyable as possible for everybody. PS. Looking back, I think I may have misinterpreted what you said. If you did mean to allow everybody to attend, then please forget this.

For a science fair, 5 of each would be OK but if you want to do statistical analysis then it is practically impossible to get any results off a trial of less than 30. The advantage of doing a large experiment with statistical analysis for the science fair is that nobody expects it. Conducting an experiment like that would show significantly more planning and foresight than is expected and would guarantee a high placing.

You can buy those black plastic bags to put plants in quite cheaply. It might cost you $20 - $30 for the containers but parents are usually willing to pay for things like this . You'll need pots that have never been used before if you want accurate results anyway. I'd aim to run the experiment over at least two months, three would be better. Work out a regular plan of watering, place the bags in a pattern that will eliminate bias from levels of sunlight and within a few months the plants will have grown quite a lot. At the end of the experiment you should probably measure dry weight rather than height because it gives a more acceptable result. Ask your school whether they have a drying oven if you plan to do this.

Chris, is there a particular reason why you chose to use carnivorous plants for the experiment? It'd impress the judges more if you used easier plants but on a scale that allowed you to claim that your results were statistically significant. If you did 30 with a full dose, 30 with a half dose and 30 with no rootblast then you could set it up as a full scientific experiment. At your level in college that would pretty much guarantee a high placing in the science fair if written up properly. I would suggest trying the blue lupin, Lupinus angustifolius, since the seeds can be bought in 1kg packs for about $3 per pack and have a very high germination rate. Planting 100 - 120 seeds would supply the 90 plants that you would need easily. Remember that you must have at least 30 in each trial before you can claim scientifically acceptable results. I can give you further advice if you want .

I recently attempted to make a medium for microworms that would be solid and easier to harvest from. I decided to do this purely on a whim and because I could see that it might allow the containers to be easily cleaned. I dissolved quite a bit of agar in a small pot of boiling water to make the base for a gel medium. I used agar because it forms a very thick gel when used in larger than normal quantites, can be cheaply bought at many asian groceries and it remains solid at room temperature. please note that gelatine dissolves at room temperature and so cannot be used for this. After it had dissolved, I added a teaspoon of sugar and poured in quite a bit of rolled oats. I then stirred it for a while until the rolled oats broke down to form a medium thickness porridge. I poured this into three containers and allowed it to cool. When it was only lukewarm and had already begun to set, I added some yeast mixed into a tiny bit of warm water into each container. I then added some microworms by running my finger over the top of an established culture and rubbing the worms off onto the new medium surface. Although them didn't look very promising at first, these new cultures have bloomed to support huge numbers of microworms, at least as many as a regular culture, and have several benefits. Their first benefit is that the cultures seem so far to dry out less easily than regular ones. One culture is less than a centimetre thick but shows no sign of drying. They are also incredibly easy to harvest as you can gently run a finger over the surface, picking up worms but leaving the medium behind. Their third benefit is that the containers should be re-usable. The solid medium sitting in the container can simply be tipped out in one go and shouldn't leave bits sticking to the sides. A rinse will remove liquid and worms from the sides and bottom then the container is ready to be used again. I haven't yet determined the life span of these cultures but I will post information here once my new cultures have run out.

Does "I'm about to send off my NZKA registration and I'm also intending to join the UHAS on their first meeting in Feb" work or would I have to pay to get one for the aquarium that my mum is setting up in her office? If they'll still be there in a month then I'll be a member then .

Caryl, is there a list of retailers that accept the discount cards?

If you want to make the bottom look like sand then you could mix some sand with a clear-drying glue and paint the bottom (on the outside) of the tank with it. You could also paint the bottom with silicone then cover it with sand. You could then leave it for the glue to cure, add some water, and then siphon the excess sand off. This should leave a thin layer of sand stuck to the bottom. It would look better than painting the outside with sandy glue but you'd very slowly lose the sand and you would have to empty the tank every few years to repaint it. If you don't have an overflow built into the tank then it is possible to build one that hangs on the side. A deep box hangs on the outside of the tank with a siphon linking it with the tank. The siphon should go to near the bottom of the tank wth a sponge on the end and the other end of the siphon should come out at the bottom of the overflow box. Another tube goes from the side of the box at the desired maximum tank level that leads down to the sump. Water flows through the siphon to the box then out of the tube in the overfow box back to the sump. The only way for the siphon to break is if the water level in the tank goes below either end of the tube, which is why both ends must be low both in the tank and the overflow box.

Chris - you can just get bottles of ammonia from the supermarket. Some people still use it in cleaning stuff. Are you using it to do a fishless cycle or something?

Do you have plants in there? Your options are to - Increase the number of plants in the tank to competitively exclude the algae - Add a commercial algae preventative. - Reduce your lighting levels. This may harm beneficial plants in the aquarium too.

I've cancelled the spawning as the bubblenest was completely destroyed and the male had large chunks of his fins torn off. I spoke to somebody who breeds fighters who advised me to do this as cambodian females tend to be very aggressive. I'm going to try to set up a permanent diet of live food to recondition them as quickly as possible and I'll use a mirror to train the male to be more aggressive. I figure stopping the spawn is better than risking the male fighter dying.

The male has begun to make his bubblenest. I've added some more plants to provide plenty of hiding spaces and I'll release the female soon. The power filter will run a spraybar with very little current so I'm hoping it'll be fine for them. I'll cover it with some thin cloth to stop the fry from getting trapped inside the filter when I add it to the tank.

I just checked to measure the jar and the female seems to have built a tiny bubblenest. Is it possible to transfer this to start the male off? Somebody please hurry up and design a bottle that squirts out bubble nests like those compressed cream bottles. It'd be useful for young males like this who don't know their own instincts yet.

The male still hasn't made a bubblenest this morning - what should I do? Do I release the female anyway? Should I conceal the female to get him to leave her alone for long enough to build a nest? I could easily slip a loop of black plastic over the jar to hide her. Would you suggest feeding or can't you feed in the spawning tank even before spawning?

I've got one who seems to be fine just eating algae off the sides of my aquarium and the occasional bit of my plants. As long as you keep live plants they shouldn't starve.