Adrienne

The last country in Africa that we visited was Rwanda. We were pleasantly surprised, not knowing what to expect after the Genocide and rebuild of the country. Clean, good infrastructure. One day a month the entire population turns out to clean up the countryside, city and help build classrooms etc in the schools. Photos follow - I have labelled some of them Kigali (left), the hotel featured in 'Hotel Rwanda' right motorcycle taxis (right) traditional beehives (right) women at work - loading trucks (left), picking tea (right) refugee camp for refugees from the Congo (left) Genocide memorial flame looking from Rwanda to the Congo the Sabinyo troop of gorillas with the Silverback

well done

imo nobody reads rants anyway. Make it short and sweet!

The new 2012 -2013 membership cards have been posted, in the majority of cases to the club secretaries. They should be available to members at their clubs August meeting. As the last years cards are still valid until the end of August all members should be able to collect them in time as not to lose out on any benefits. Cheers and happy fishkeeping!! Adrienne FNZAS Treasurer

Good luck Wok. Hope they hatch and survive. Need to catch up with you about conference at some stage too. This time I will not forget! :oops:

have you got any suggestions that might help optical blue. I can grow all the listed plants except java fern in my tank. It either dies off or becomes totally covered in bba. I put it down to the fact that my tank has very high lighting which suits the other plants and also the temp I run the tank is just over the max of the preferred range for it. I think its a lot easier to have plants in the tank which prefer the same sort of conditions.

Flourish comprehensive or one of the other flourish products might help. Flourish excel in too large a doses will eventually wipe out twisted val - it does not like it at all. What sort of speed of growth are you wanting and what are you getting at the moment. Its not just fertilisers that help the plants grow, lighting also plays a big part in it. You have a mix of root feeders and plants that feed through the water column in your list and also they do not all like the same sort of lighting conditions. Plants like the 'twisted' val could be one of two types, one easy to grow, one not so easy. Tank temp also plays a part and I find that even though my plants are in a heated tank in the winter growth is generally slow. You may have already looked at the link below but if not it might assist you http://www.fnzas.org.nz/?page_id=25

If you join the killie club you will easily be able to find out what is where in the country. Click on the FNZAS Home link above for details.

Have you considered that your bristlenose may be the cause of the other fish hiding? No fish is going to come out if they are going to be chased or beaten up.

Wish I hadnt chucked the big polyboxes I was offering for free away at the weekend when no one wanted them. Still have smaller ones though.

Ngorongoro Crater - at 10,000 ft high on the rim it made walking up the slight slope from our room to get breakfast very hard work. Even on the crater floor its 7,500ft.

is your hot water cylinder working properly?

Depending on his age his tail should grow back. I have noticed that fighter's tails, once they get older, sometimes grow back only partly or not at all. Hopefully your boys tail will make a full recovery.

eggs sent out from where?

Next stop Serengetti - vast expanse, there was no way I could photograph it

No its not allowed on tm. If you buy on tm then he is legally required to complete the trade otherwise deserves all the feedback he gets. All I can say is one of the fish that he has sold previously is not what it was sold as. I personally will not buy unless I can see the exact fish I will be getting. I have noted there are several sellers around at the moment, both here and in Christchurch who are not photographing the actual fish that is for sale.

I've also been wondering. Not much help if not enough information is given and I would love pictures). I was wondering if maybe it was Aqua Village? which just disappeared from the shop where it was in Onehunga.

I am very interested in the outcome of your efforts (must try with Sophias Gold Mountain Minnow, once we move house)

Yes right by Victoria markets, reptiles and fish were downstairs, the rest of the pets upstairs.

I have smaller polyboxes (chucked the big ones I had on the T&E yesterday as no one wanted them) and heatpacks which you can have as long as you dont want too many. I am in Epsom, very very close to the Southern Motorway, making it easy to collect, so if you are interested let me know. I am very certain that if you let the fish shops know that you are travelling they will bag them so they can last the distance. My main suggestion would be that you go look and decide what you want, then go back and purchase them. The fish will go 24 - 30 hours in the bags but less is better.

Your water tests are fine although to me the nitrate seems quite low but maybe others will think its normal. It is still possible there is a mini spike overnight after water changes. There is one other thing to consider - some of the fish that you have in your tank are not the most friendly gentle fish, particularly when there are fish with flowing tails like your fighter - namely your chinese algae eater and black widow tetra. Have you watched the interaction between the fish?

Off to Zanzibar, Tanzania (also known as the Spice Island) lovely beach resort, somewhat marred by the hawkers if you set foot on the beach. Lovely Stone Town. Dozens of lizards in the hotel grounds. This was our break before heading for two weeks of safari through the Serengetti and Ngagorongoro Crater. incredibly effective taxi service

Next on my to do list!! Fabulous pictures

Hi again, your fish turning white makes me think ammonia spike. Can be caused by lots of things and sometimes caused by water changes. When you rinse your filter wool out you should rinse it in tank water only as the wool is where the best bacteria live. Rinsing under tap water can cause the tank to cycle again. Carbon is not required unless you are trying to get rid of medications. Turn the filter back on straight after your water change. Water change once a week is better than fortnightly. See what the pet shop says about ammonia etc. Keep us posted

I was in Melbourne just over a week ago and wandered past a pet shop on the way to the markets. There were at least 100 male fighters for sale in wee glass containers. Price was the equivalent of just over NZ $50 per fish. Of the lot only these 5 were worth taking a photo of - halfmoons - the real deal plakats The male half moons had very straight D shaped tails compared to what we are seeing around in NZ at the moment as a result of them being crossed with other tail types.