Adrienne

Where did you get the wood from?

I am sorry that you are not happy that I took into consideration your comments about not having time to take it through your committee, and made a lawyers appointment for early evening, at which time the answer was given. I can assure you that I take my position as Secretary very seriously, and I do my absolute best to try and get communications out to club members via the correct avenues. In reply to the earlier query re replies from the club - no responses have been received from your club since approximately March last year, despite numerous emails being sent to your officers, some requiring voting on other matters prior to this one, apart from a membership list and capitations payment.

A lawyer has been consulted re the resolution/remit, her parting words were 'Go and enjoy your AGM in Dunedin in April'. There is no problem with the wording as the directive from myself as Secretary to the Club Officials made it clear that it was a resolution and the wording you are referring to is of no significance. Adrienne

What do you expect the FNZAS to do about clubs that do not respond to emails sent from the executive? The minutes from your February meeting will show if it was discussed, if not please take it up with your own club office holders.

Boesemani should be fine in that tank - rainbows are on the go constantly. However you will need to make sure that there is a clear gap the length of the tank for them to swim up and down. They really do need the space.

Please take this to your club meeting for discussion. If there is an agreement from the majority of your club members that there is a 'problem' then the process is for the Club Secretary to compose a letter to the Federation, signed by the Club President. The Executive will then discuss it at their next meeting, seek advice if necessary and respond to the club accordingly. Thanks.

I have emailed a copy of the information sent to clubs, to you, as requested.

All presidents and secretaries were sent the resolution with the proposed change, a reminder to document the vote, how to respond and the due date way back in December and then were reminded about it prior to the due date via email. A remit does not have to go to the AGM to be considered - however any remit that is to be considered at the AGM was required to be sent to the Executive by the 14th March. The majority of our clubs responded by the due date and the resolution has been passed. The AGM date is 12 April 2014. Adrienne Dodge FNZAS Secretary

no point if theres not enough light to aid the intake of the carbon.

From what I have read, using the CO2 booster is very similar to dosing excel as it has the same active ingredient. The only time I have had issues with my ground dwellers dying was when my tank got too hot and I was dosing excel. They started coming up to the top a lot to breathe due to a lack of oxygen in the water and if you watched carefully the tips of their 'noses' popped out of the water. However blue rams are pretty fussy about pristine conditions and if they are okay I really don't know whats going on. Can you post some pics of the black shiny algae? Do you have the blue green 'algae' cyanobacteria in your tank? If you do go to pressurised CO2 you may find you need to run an airline of some sort during the hours the CO2 is turned off and also be aware that you can get pH swings with CO2. It always pays to have a thermometer as a back up in case of heater malfunction. The glass stick on ones are good - the strips which go on the outside of the tank often pick up the room temperature instead of the tank temp.

I can't answer about the build up but if you are dosing excel to get rid of BBA you can get away with less than a daily dose after a few weeks so I suspect there is a build up. I don't know but personally I wouldn't dose it if you were only doing water changes once a term. Having plants in the tank will result in a build up of mulch like detritis if you do not gravel vacuum as well as the leaves decay.

It seems to be most of the ground dwellers so may not be the algae, just lack of oxygen or too hot a tank. Unless there is something in the substrate that they ingest. In saying that most oto I have seen tend to be on rocks or glass and off the substrate itself. Not double dosing flourish excel daily or anything like that?

Its all relative, depending on the size of your tank. Hmm please pm me where you get your excel from at that sort of price I would be most grateful

LA That was going to be my first question Not the temperature your heater is set at but the temperature on your thermometer (one that is inside the tank - not a strip). I would be thinking too hot and lack of oxygen in the water.

TBH I think it depends on the batch that has come in as to how strong they are, ie time spent in travel, whats happened in quarantine, type of food they have been fed. Some types of dwarf gourami are more susceptible than others to water conditions and diseases.

grab a seat had cheap flights today Cam - if only I had waited lol

Perfect - the 12th is while you are there

Grab a seat have $49 flights Auckland - Christchurch for conference. You can pick up a Jucy rental for $21 a day and drive on down to Dunedin where the first five or thereabout gets free accommodation. Come on people, you know you want to go. They also have cheap flights from other areas for this weekend. We need more people to attend, we can't hold the AGM at the moment!!

Not tried it and I can see the logic behind it but I hope that it does work otherwise the shells will bump the pH right up and the blood and bone will cause a really bad algae bloom. I would think the blood and bone would not be particularly good for your fish to ingest despite what it says. It's not recommended to allow pets ie dogs to get hold of it to eat. I wonder how long it would last for. If you give it a go please keep a log on here for us I would be really interested in your findings. While flourish excel is easy to use, it is expensive and some fish are sensitive to it (actually some fish are just as sensitive to pressurised CO2).

no, unfortunately not

White vinegar works best.

$59 each for Pandas at the Pet Stop up here.

If you are going to go down the pressurised CO2 path I would recommend you spend a few more $ and buy 'proper' aquarium plants. A lot of stem plants are grown emmersed and struggle to convert to submersed, if at all. Of course you will need decent lights and fertilisers- its really if you are going to CO2 then you need to do it 100%.

oh it will, it will!!

If you put hybrids into the search function on the top right of this page you can pull up heaps of discussion on them and read to your hearts content