Adrienne

Don't go to the Easter Show. Its not a real show, not a patch on the Canterbury A&P Show. Expensive to get in, rides cost heaps as does the food and no animals as such on display. Go up Mt Eden or One Tree Hill. Cornwall Park is lovely, Kelly Tarltons, the Zoo, the beaches, Devonport, Takapuna. Cheltenham beach has tunnels you can explore from the war. North of Auckland is Leigh with Goat Island Marine reserve. Snorkle with the fish.

My understanding is also that length is the most important with africans. However I would be worried about the capability of the stand to hold a tank of that size.

This should help - go to the search button on the top right hand side of this page and type in the word Riparium - it should come up with 4 or 5 pages of posts, some of which will be useful to you.

I am not aware of sharks or clown loaches having ever been bred in NZ. There are, however, a number of plec breeders in the fishroom.

Welcome to the fishroom Bell

Thanks mcrudd - we've certainly got the insect repellent. I did notice its still hitting 32 degrees some days although is a lot cooler in the evenings.

Now only 8 full days left in NZ. Our list of 'must do before we leave' things is, fortunately, growing smaller. We have sourced all the bits and pieces to take as gifts. I've done a test pack to see how much I can get in my bag and have discovered its way roomier than I thought. On internal flights in Africa our luggage limit is 15kg but I can get the weight down to that once I offload a lot of things in Kenya. Vodafone told us that global roaming is available everywhere except Tanzania and is free as long as we have enough on prepay. Years ago there was a downpayment which was extra to the prepay fee so thats all good. Am about to source suitable travel adaptors to take with us. I've located a good site and it appears two different ones may well cover us for the entire time. On the downside my letter giving me permission to obtain a visa in Rwanda is still missing in action. My husbands arrived two weeks ago. We have had to reapply again today. Lets hope it doesn't take too long! I'm very excited now but at the same time surprisedly nervous. Hate to think what I will be like by the time next Sunday rolls around!

To reduce it and keep it under control yes you do need to dose daily or every second day. Personally I would recommend every day for the first couple of weeks and then every second day. If you go away it will not regrow significantly so it is worth starting the regime now. I use a syringe and squirt it directly onto the worst growth. In 2-3 days it turns a deep red and dies. You can use a syringe on the smaller tanks. It also pays to pick off as much of the stuff as you can and also remove any you see floating around the tank as that is how it spreads so much.

http://www.marineandreef.com/Hydor_InLine_Aquarium_Heaters_In_Line_Aquarium_s/257.htm I think HFF have something like this - check their site - Rena brand.

I may be wrong here but I think Joe breeds or used to breed flag cichlids.

Yes I have. I didn't think there was anyone around that had them and this person seem to have heaps of eggs for sale plus a single adult male.

Your plecs are pretty big aren't they Henward?

Has anyone kept these before?

Isn't that what the Off Topic section is for? :lol:

I am not sure how. Much they take but there is also a time limit on how long they will do it for. My son donates often as do the other bronze members they always race to see who is the fastest

They love you if you have had immunisations as well like hep a and b, typhoi, yellow fever. I should go but I don't handle my blood being taken

The family had a lamb which was stolen one night last November. We will see what we can do with the funds we are taking there. It needs to be something that will provide the most sustainable value. I am not stupid enough to think us goingthere is going to be of massive benefit unless we can provide something that will be long lasting.

\\ Its alright GrahamC - this is in the offtopic section anyway.

Breast fed for sure. Given the average yearly income is $730 and the cost of formula is 84% of that, I doubt many can afford to give formula to their children.

I suspect apart from being prem that this (see below) is part of the problem Infants who are breastfed only may develop vitamin D deficiency. Human breast milk does not supply the proper amount of vitamin D. This can be a particular problem for darker-skinned children. Not getting enough calcium and phosphorous in your diet can also lead to rickets. Rickets caused by a lack of these minerals in diet is rare in developed countries, because calcium and phosphorous are found in milk and green vegetables.

In my 450 litre discus tank I kept 1 king tiger, 1 tiger and 4 choc zebs together along with 8 clown loaches and a dozen or so sterbai with no apparent issues. The tank was 150cm long by 45cm wide. I had diftwood scattered throughout the length of the tank and up to about 15-20cm in height in places. There were no obvious issues however I hardly ever saw the plecs out. Maybe the clowns were too much for them. At the time I had all these together the plecs were only up to about 15 months in age.

We will certainly be taking more than the one thing. Our only restriction is that we have a 15kg pp baggage allowance on the internal flight from Nairobi to the nearest town to his settlement. However, we can always pick up some basic supplies there if they have them. We have been told is that when we go over there we are not to give our sponsored child more than $5. Apparently if you do so it can upset the family as if you give them $10 or more that is likely to be the equivalent to the years income earned by the parents. The boys here at Dilworth, where my husband works have been fundraising for over a year so we will be taking what is considered to be a lot with us. So apart from our child, we will give a little money to the family and the rest will go to the village fund. Our bags are filling up already as we are also taking over vitamins and a laptop for the gentleman who runs three big orphanages over there. His son who was born nearly 3 months premature (now 5 months old) has rickets and requires vitamins which cost too much for them to buy. I will be off to the chemist tomorrow to see what they suggest as the best and most viable option (something that will provide the most long term benefits). We are also hoping to locate our previous sponsored child who left the settlement when he turned 18, he is now about 25. Whether this is possible, we are not sure but we are definitely going to try.

Heres a link for those of you keen on planted tanks, not sure if it has been given before http://www.youtube.com/user/DefiniteAquascapeTV

I sent you a pm Liam, basically if you are still using it or want to keep hold of it (your parents don't mind an extra tank being there) then you can return it in July, otherwise next weekend would be good.

The final countdown is on. Two weeks tomorrow we head off overseas. :happy2: We've finished our vaccinations, have had tetanus boosters, HepA & B, Yellow fever, Typhoid, Cholera, and Influenza. We have 10 weeks of malaria tablets per person to take and have an extensive travel first aid kit which includes needles, syringes and tablets for every type of gastro issue plus insect repellent and hand sanitiser. First stopover is Kuala Lumpur for 15 hours, then on to Zimbabwe via Bangkok, Nairobi, Johannesberg airports. After Zimbabwe comes Kenya where we will travel to the northeast shores of Lake Victoria and then head west towards the border to visit our sponsored child. On return, via the Rift Valley and Lake Nukuru, to Nairobi nearly a week later we will be assisting in some ophanages. Then on to Zanzibar, Tanzania and Rwanda. At this stage only my husbands visa permission to go into Rwanda has been granted - not sure why there is a delay on mine. After 5 weeks in Africa we head to London, then France to collect our Eurolease car (was going to purchase a BMW motorcycle but due to my hip replacement it is no longer an option). We will trip through France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy using the back roads before heading to Spain. We depart Barcelona at the end of June. We are so looking forward to this trip. On the downside, or is it the upside, I have had to resign from my job as they would not grant my leave however this will be a trip of a life time. For those of you who think you may know what it is like in Africa - we received a letter from our sponsored child and his family saying how happy they were that we were coming and that we would like to bring him a gift. He asked for one of the following items - a blanket, a pair of sheets, a soccer ball or an english dictionary. If we wanted to bring the family a gift instead of him he asked if we could bring either rice, sugar, wheat flour, bathing soap or tea leaves! It just shows how thankful we should be that we live here in NZ. I will keep you updated and post pictures etc on here when there is internet available.