Warren

Yikes, I bought a couple of these shells from a home design store recently!! Just as well all the guts were removed eh.

Oops, miised your location... Maybe the worm is not found in NZ. If you are collecting the plant from the wild it's likely to have come in with it. If it's a worm unique to Australia and not found in NZ, maybe nobody here will be able to help.

Don't know what the worm is but the plant looks a bit like hornwart to me. If it is you need to remove it as it's nationally banned and illegal to have. The best way to dump it is to dry it and burn it. Do not put it in the trash or toss it into the nearest waterway... You can be fined up to $250,000 or get 7 years in prison for having this plant...

Sounds like the male killed her to me. Dwarf cichlids are generally quite aggressive, especially at breeding time. The male may have been all go and if the female didn't want to play, dead female. Fish can get away with it...

Lovely Korea, only 3 hours behind so sleep for me soon. Hope Kalk doesn't cause a problem!!! Good luck...

Jeez Chim, you're up late. You may think I'm up late too but not so. Early where I am at the mo...

You want a lotus? I have many. PM your address and I'll send you some...

My only concern is the possible number of fish you have listed and the size of the tank. You list 8 different discus... If you put one of each + the other fish, this size tank will be very crowded. Discus really need 50 litres each minimum to thrive with 100L a better value. I only have 12 in my 1200L tank and it is more than enough. In 280 litres, if you get 1 or 2 pairs there will be havock when they try to breed.

I've been looking for it for 10 years, - no luck. It is very difficult to grow and likes cooler conditions (20-22'C) so not suitable for most tropical setups. Every shop who's ever promised to get it for me has let me down... May not be the shop's problem, could be the importers will not bring it in due to cost and risk of quarantine death...

Most CO2 in your tank will be a combination of bacterial action, decaying waste and fish and plant respiration. This is only because we have at least 1000x the fish concentration per litre in a tank. In nature, the bulk comes from decay, bacterial action and plant respiration as there are nowhere near enough fish per litre to create the CO2 required.

Except that O2 in saturation is only 9-10ppm where CO2 can be over 100ppm - very bad for fish. Your staement is only true if airation is used as the CO2 content in the air is very low in relation to the O2 level. When adding CO2 it's possible to raise the level to the point where the fishes gills stop working as the CO2 in their blood can no longer diffuse out. The fish suffocate not from a lack of oxygen but from not being able to expel the CO2.

Freshwater or Marine? If it's freshwater, rocks suitable for the aquarium will not react with acetic cure silicones so you can use it. If it's for marine then ?? As a last resort, you could use a clear concrete primer on the rock then standard acetic cure silicone will stick...

Yes, Frans is the man!!

As long as the tank doesn't leak it will be ok. There's risk that a leak could put the fire out!! 8)

Sorry, couldn't resist... 8)

I make that about 6.75 cubic feet or 50.5 US Gallons or 201.97 quarts or 0.25 cubic yards or 403.95 pints or 11664 cubic inches... (which in metric happens to be around 190 Litres so probably about 150L less gravel etc.)

Remember that most plants look different grown out of water than under water. Unless you have a picture of the plant grown out of water it will be difficult to identify unless it looks the same in or out of water... It does look a bit like cordifolius.

Hi Ben, Did you get the Aponogeton's is sent you a while back?

Duh, I hate when that happens!

I'm using 2 x 250W on my 2.4m tank and that's plenty. Yours is only 0.9m so one would be more than enough. You'll have to dump your hood though as they need to be about 0.5m above the water surface or you'll burn the plants and fish. With Africans, MH will also cause mega algae...

Well said Mitch. Carol was one who put everything into whatever she did. Even though she was very unwell, she travelled many hours to take the minutes of our recent exec meeting. Without complaint though in pain, she took the minutes as usual. At the time nobody knew just how ill she was, including her. We were lucky to have her. Though I did not know her very well, she was one of those people you respect without knowing why. I'm very glad I got to see her yesterday. My thoughts go to her family and friends. I'm glad she has peace now... We will miss her.

The bottom one looks like Echinodorus tenelus. If the photo is of a Takashi Amano tank then it will be tenelus...

Sounds like it could be a really good way of euthanising a fish. Can you post a link to the info?

Worth a crack, Nigel!! It's amazing how good a tank can look when photographed correctly. While these tank look pretty good, when you see them without the fancy photographic lighting and the blacking out of all sides except the front, they are nowhere near as good. While my tank isn't quite in this league, when photographed properly it looks a lot better than normal. Because the camera doesn't show the depth the same as looking at the tank with eyes, a lot gets hidden... As entry looks like it's free, there's nothing to lose by entering. I'm going to think about it. With a little more effort and changing a few plants... Hmm

I beleive these are also called a Peace Lily. If it's what I suspect it is then it's not actually a true aquatic plant. It will not do well when submerged and will slowly degrade and die over a period of 3-4 months (or less if contitions are not optimal). I could be wrong of course but my experience with this plant has never been good and I have no trouble growing plants... I know of many other people with similar experiences. I have heard of people putting them into tanks for a month then taking it back out for 2-3 months and cycling the plant in this manner. This gives it time to recover from being submerged. My understanding is it's a bog plant that normally only spends a short time under water during flooding...