Skoll

The joy of the lightly stocked tank rapidly becoming more heavily stocked. I tend to think they're a great wee fish, got three tanks full of them... started from 5 about 6 years go. Need to offload a few to a pet shop or something, too litle room. Gavin

I used to... I also had alot of serious cyanobacteria problems. I'd be interested to see what how the water tests out for phosphates etc. Gavin

While not _entirely_ on topic... ...just bought a new toy. An 8 odd megapixel digital camera with underwater case. A Fujifilm and they're going for a wee bit over $200 at most places. So, will have a bit of a play when I get around to it after Xmas. Will allow photo's while kayaking and snorkling, or in streams. And I'll have a wee bit of a play taking photo's from inside various of my fishtanks... no glare that way, which has always iritated me as I've never found a happy medium between flash with glare and no flash with blur. Gavin.... :)

I'm off to the Christchurch Maiden concert myself. Last album was The Offspring: Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace Gavin.... :)

Hmmmmm, the fun and games of wisdom teeth... I had all four of mine out at the beginning of last year. General, and blessed surgical insurance. Oral surgeons are covered by that while dentists aren't (at least in my policy). Cost more to see the dentist to get referred than all the rest combined. Unfortuntately they didn't want to come out... four teeth ended up as 12-16 pieces of teeth as they had to cut them apart to get them out. Meant I was under for longer and was pretty woozy for the rest of the day. My wife on the other hand had hers out, came out no problems at all and she sat up while they were wheeling her out of the operating room. I was most jealous! In Wellington, Gerard Thyne was the oral Surgeon who did both of ours. Gavin.... :)

1: Arguably the smallest tank you could buy that is suitable for fish. Obviously it's better to have a little more size for them to breed and feel more comfortable. 20L at a pinch, but three would survive fairly well in smaller. 2: 15c would be fine. I've never bothered with a heater, they just sit in whichever room they happen to be in. Drops down below 10c in winter up into mid twenties in summer. I've not found they survive a Wellington winter outside, whether that's temperature related I'm not sure though. 3: They probably do, but not to any great extent.As long as they've got space and are well fed I have a contstant turnover of new fish. I find they tend to breed more seasonally as I don't heat the tanks in any way. They don't seem to be as prolific as some others, but I've always got more than I have room for regardless. 4: Constantly... more when it's warmer. As mine live in a large group I've never kept an eye on when a particular female drops. 5: Smallish broods compared to some other livebearers possibly 5 a time. I'm sure more if someone was taking extra care and time to get the most possible with proper individual care and feeding etc. 6: I think so. I gave 5 (three females and two males) to my girlfriend almost six years ago, and they bred in the little tank a gave her. Had some sitting in next to my desk in an office, they bred. I've given an awful lot away and they're all descendents of thosee five fish. They're tough as nails and last for a few years as well. 7: I feed mine morning and evening when it's warm and just mornings when it's cold (during winter more or less). I only clean the front glass and they spend the rest of the day picking algae off everything. Usually feed Nutrafin max livebearer food, which is just a flake with small bits of freeze dried tubifex worm in it. Occasionally throw in some frozen foods from when I'm feeding the other fish or rinse out the cloth of BBS after feeding other fish fry. 8: Very easily. As with most livebearers, the male is much smaller and slender with an enlarged gonopodium (modified anal fin used to transfer sperm to the female). Females are larger, have rounder bellies and are usually being chased by horny males. Hope this was useful Gavin.... :)

I'm a fan of Indian Fern... whatever its proper name may be. Grows from broken off leaves, can be planted or floating and appears to be able to survive almost anything! Gavin.... :)

My oscar's favourite game is to attempt to bite my hand when I was doing water changes.. he's really good at it too, always make his move when I was looking down to make sure the water was going into the bucket rather than the floor. He got me really good once and caused a fairly impresive cut across the the knuckle. Gavin.... :)

I agree totally with the lidded plastic buckets! When I moved I had to transport two oscars and two plecs... as well as a bunch of angelfish and assorted small fish, but they were no real issue in comparison. Large fish are perfectly capable of spreading water over an entire large room in the three seconds it takes to put the lid on the damned container! Just make sure that the containers are given a good wash and scrub in running water beforehand to clean off any solvents or chemicals. What I also found useful is I transferred water from the tanks into the 20 litre water containers I use for settling water and transported it over. That way the fish will have at least a reasonable quantity of water to live in until it can be topped up to full. Gavin.... :)

I found some foam filter media that would fit over the intake pipes of my external filters. Just check the hole in the middle of the foam is about the right diameter to fit over the pipe and strainer (it's foam so can be forced quite happily). I then blocked the end with some filter wool. Works quite well and adds a bit more surface area for bacteria to colonise, the fry tend to pick over it as well. May reduce filter flow a little, but not necessarily a bad thing with fry. When it gets dirty you can just whip it off and give it a rinse. This has worked fine for me with Angelfish and Krib fry on Eheim and Fluval externals. Possibly won't work as well with really tiny fry. Gavin.... :)

Lefty - 4 Righty - 7 I "write" left handed... but being a hockey player all bat and racquet sports are right handed. Fencing with both or either... Left handers motto - "Left is Right!" Gavin.... :)

Kentucky Duck! Gavin.... :)

Song - Gone Away by The Offspring Movie - The Crow Gavin.... :)

Just had the most fantastic morning. Saw a very fast moving disturbance from home around 9 this morning so got the kayak on the car and drove down to Petone beach and headed off into the harbour. 15 minutes later we'd come accross a huge pod of dolphins. A very large amount of them... well over 100, but no idea how to count them when you're at water level and they travel far faster than you do. Over about an hour and a half they came and went past us three time and I've got them on video and everything. Undoubtedly one of the coolest experiences I've had in a while. Anyone else seen them around today? Gavin.... :)

I've got my two... silver fern on american football helmetover my heart and my star signs on my shoulder (scorpio and dragon). No pics as I've never bothered to figure out photobucket etc. I'm more keen to avoid piercings completely for me as they're almost certainly get torn out playing sport. Being evil I've always wanted to set up a huge electromagnet along a busy city street and see whio gets "attracted". Gavin.... :)

I've got some young kribs to give away as long as you're happy to pick them up from Maungaraki. Probably smaller than those you've described, but have recently lost juvenile colouration and are looking quite good. Gavin.... :)

I alternated big cichlid pellets with chopped up marinara mix from the supermarket when growing my oscar up. The marinara mix was basically shrimp, squid, mussels etc. Seems to have taken a liking to my fingers as well of late... draws a fair bit of blood when I'm too slow. Gavin.... :)

They didn't quite manage a full winter on the south side of my house, of course that gets hit with a full Wellington southerly. They'll happily survive indoor temperatures below 10C. little wee tank in a spare room so fluctuated with the weatehr in a fiarly significant way. Interestingly enough females tended to survive the cold better... Gavin.... :)

Already got my tickets for the Welly concert! Gavin.... :)

On a more fish related earhtquake note... Being a born an d bred Wellingtonian I tend not to even notice earthquakes (including the recent one). The last one I did notice I got in trouble with my wife about... We were sitting in the lounge and the house started shaking a bit, so naturally I got up and made sure that my biggest fish tank was didn't shake off of its stand. I then got an earfull for taking care of the fish before my wife... Who of course was fine and sitting on the sofa. Can't win really! Gavin.... :)

I used sponge filter. Looked through what was available and there was once which was moderately coarse for a internal filter, so it had a hole all the way through it . Slipped it over the relatively long standard intake cover and blocked the hole at the end with a filter wool plug. Works fine for the various external filters I've got, undetectable difference in flow, but then reducing flow may not be a bad thing with fry. Gavin.... :)

My Oscar stalks the vacuum... He's managed to bite me a couple of times, drew blood once. Also tends to do a spectacular "fast turn" at the surface and spread water ofer me and a good 3-4 metres of floor. Gavin.... :)

Leopard Fish are far and away the most prolific, hardy fish I've ever kept... bar none! I originally bought five for my girlfiriend which sat in a little 30cm tank... they bred... I've been giving them away... have two smallish tanks at home with them and one on my desk at work. I keep them unheated, so they stop breeding or growing much over winter (a good thing) and can survive almost anything. The office has gotten over 26 degrees and they a couple almost managed to survive an entire winter on a southerly facing deck in Wellington, but not much can survive that. bulletproof wee things! Gavin.... :)

Just been thinking about the description of what your pond is. Do you mean that you've dug out a part of what is effectively a stream passing through your property? If that's the case then introducing any fish could be "bad" or possibly illegal, as it would effectively be introducing the fish directly into the wild. Could be wrong on this or misinterpreted your description of course. Gavin.... :)

Interestingly enough I popped down to the local stream here in Lower Hutt, and lo and behold scooped up four shrimps in the first likely 1 metre stretch of shore I looked at. So plenty of these around. They seem happy enough in an unheated tank inside with a few leopard fish. Anyone have any idea what sort of temperatures they will be comfortable in? Obviously they couldn't be kept too cold indoors in NZ, but I'm keen on avoiding cooking them if I can help it. They pick away quite happily on algae wafers and missed bits of flake. Gavin.... :)