Southerrrngirrl

No! See I tried soccer balls in the past and Bob would always get his teeth in the bits where the stitching is, then it was all over for the soccer ball. Apart from the first one I bought (which I now can't remember where I got it from!!) they only last minutes before they are punctured. I never thought about the thinner end of the rugby ball... oh well I'm hoping that the material will be too tough for them to puncture... lol yeah right! We'll see eh.

That flygility thing sounds great too! Our old dog Bob, he's probably about 8-9 years old, we've had him since he was 2-3 years and we never had anything to do with his training. I know he never went to puppy training, and think he just got taught the basic "sit" and "come" commands. But Jayde we had from a puppy so took her to puppy training and I'm pretty sure Bob learnt the "down" command from just watching me practicing with Jayde. I certainly never taught him it and had never tried it on him in the years we had him, until recently I did try and he did it first time perfectly. Thanks for all the suggestions, next time I'm at the petstore I'll have a look for these solid core balls. I was in The Warehouse during my lunch hour and got some tennis balls there that felt quite hard, I compared them to the other cheaper ones they had and there was a significant difference, so those will keep us going for a bit hopefully. I also got a rugby ball to try out. I think the unpredictable bounce of a rugby ball might be something new and fun for the dogs to try. They appear to get a bit bored chasing balls over and over again.

lol Sounds good. We have a hard time wearing our two out.

Ah ha. Just as I suspected. Sports shop brand ones, while far more expensive, are longer lasting. Yeah I've seen the ones at the petshop here but thought they'd just be overpriced cheapies, like the ones I currently get. Thats good to know Mel, Jayde is a Bull Mastiff/Black Lab x! Is that the Kongs ones you are talking about or something different? I was thinking a solid core would be the way to go. More difficult for silly puppy to chew!

Completely off topic here, but I was wondering are there any tennis balls designed for dogs? At the moment we are going through heaps of tennis balls a month playing fetch with our Jayde. We have one of those plastic ball thrower thingys, and she LOVES playing fetch and we love playing it with her but she has this habit of chewing the ball as she's retrieving it, which results in punctured tennis balls. Telling her not to chew it doesn't seem to work. :roll: Any ideas?

Zebra Loach had to be euthanised on Saturday morning. I found him hanging out on top of the suction cup for the heater and thought he was just hanging out. His eye looked kinda funny, but I didn't think too much of it. I poked him out to get a better look and he swam under the driftwood so couldn't get a better look at him. Went away and came back later and found him lying on his side with his underside visible against the glass. One of his gills looked a bit red and swollen, he was breathing rapidly and there was white stuff around his gills. I tested the water for ammonia and nitrates but nil ammonia and acceptable nitrates. He was fine the night before I went to bed. He had filled out all nice & fat and swimming about happily. I thought I had saved his life... I guess not.

Did he survive the night??

Oh man. I was reading that (at work!) and felt the tears welling up and sorry I couldn't read anymore! RIP Cash. That was beautifully written Twinkles. Sorry for your loss but perhaps a chance to take care of another retired old fella?

Well Zebra Loach is definitely getting fatter. Maybe I wasn't just feeding enough. The "white bits" are still there but nowhere near as noticeable as they were. I've completed the treatment with the droncit and will probably keep feeding him regularly for another week or two and see how that goes.

Well I didn't actually know that trout weren't native. But even so, I meant natural as opposed to in someone's tank.

Awwww I'm gonna have to try both. *drools*

I second that. I have Dwarf Chains (only 2 at the moment) and 3 Zebras. I originally got 2 small zebra loaches a couple of years ago to control the snail explosion I had and they cleaned them up so quickly. I find them a bit nippy between themselves, I think its just playing though. Not so much towards other species of fish.

I've always wondered this too, but I've always had my heaters vertical.. because thats how the instructions that came with the heater says to install them! From memory, I recall the instructions my heater came with was absolutely do not position on an angle. Yet I see so many photos with heaters on their sides or angles. So perhaps it depends on which brand of heater you have?

I love New Zealands fish and waterways. Anytime we go to a river or lake I'm always on the lookout for eels or trout or crayfish, even little bullies. Theres just something cool about seeing a fish in its natural habitat.

Welcome Yes, I would agree that is a lot of fish for such a tank. I don't even have that many in my AR850! I used to have an AR620 and only had 2 bristlenoses and 7 Tiger Barbs in it most recently. Before that I had 4 Blue Rams, 4 Dwarf Gouramis & a group of small tetras.

I realise that but its about ruling out as many options as possible. You've ruled out ammonia, and nitrite but not nitrate so you can you be sure he didn't die as a result of high nitrate levels? Unless high nitrates are always accompanied by the presence of ammonia or nitrite (which I am unsure whether it does or not) then you can't be sure. I think its always a good idea to test for ammonia, nitrite AND nitrate at a minimum. If they are all fine, then you can explore other less obvious options.

What about the nitrate??

Curled up doesn't sound good at all. Have you tested the water? What are the parameters?

If you did want a more colourful tank you could go with the 10 tetra recommendation but have 5 Neon Tetras and 5 Glowlight Tetras. Glowlights have the orange stripe but are of a very similar shape and size to the Neon. I've had Neons and Glowlights in the same tank and they did look very cool and colourful together and they even seemed to school together at times. Unfortunately, Neons don't seem to be as hardy as other types of tetras, and I have since lost my group of 10 that I had with my Glowlights. I also had Black Neon Tetras. I have about 9 Glowlights and only 3-4 Black Neons as they are just leftovers of a larger group I purchased a few years ago but they all school together and get along just fine.

Wow.. glad that story had a happy ending

lulz cos TMZ are a reliable source.

:lol: I'm thinking he's referring to the fact that there are no shops, malls or anything at the depth the angler fish lives.. thats my guess anyway.

ROFL thats hilarious! Where can I get my hands on a copy? heheheh

I assume the pools are not chlorinated or treated with any chemicals???

Yeah under anasthetic is what I was thinking. Good luck with that!