Warren

I set up a culture using dirt, food scraps and newspapers in a large wooden box. I got the worms off the lawn. Wait until a cool evening (not cold) when there is a light dew on the grass. About 1 hour after it goes dark worms pop about 1/2 to 3/4 out of the ground and sit on the grass. Using a torch to see, you can walk along the grass and pick them up. You have to be quick though. They can sense either the light or the heat from the light and quickly zoom back into the ground. I collected about 500 worms in one night. I went over the back fence into the school. The rugby field had a plentiful supply.

Have Finished Cutting all the steel. The frame is now welded about 90%. Next I need to drill the pressure releif holes for when the frame is hot-dip galvanised. Will post some photo's soon, - will have to pinch the camera from work. I have decided to make this an article. You will be able to find it in the Article Section on the FNZAS Homepage. Keep eyes open for it. Will add another post to this thread once it is started.

I beleive Jansens are bringing in a small shipment of Gold Arowana's from Asia. If you've got a spare $4000-5000 put your name on the list for one. The Asian Arowanas are usually quite expensive. The South American ones are much cheaper (usually $80-150 for juveniles up to 200mm long).

One has to ask if this is a good thing. If you have made the decission that there should be a new shape of Convict Cichlid (Parrot Convict for example), maybe keeping this deformed fish is a good idea. If however there is no plan to ever create a "new look convict" the fish should have been culled out long ago. If it ever breeds it is likely to transfer the balloon characteristic into its offspring (at least some of them). Eventually it will weaken the breed unless specifically refined into something new and kept totally separate from normal Convicts. I recently got some Blue Acara's at our club auction. I was stupid and did not check them before buying them. There were 4 and they only cost $1.50 total. Well what garbage they were. They were all stunted and deformed. Of course they promptly bred a bunch of equally bad offspring. The whole lot ended up in my oscar tank - bye bye Acaras. Now there is no risk of that trait spreading to other Acaras. I hope others follow suit.

Please send in ASAP. There are currently only 18 official registrations. Get off your butts and send them in now (please). There are a lot more people who have said they are coming. I hope they don't expect to just turn up without registering officially!

I got mine when it was about 200mm long (about 4 years old). Its now 280mm and 5-6 years old. In 2 years I've not been able to convince it to try anything else. It had been fed very well on only live food before I got it. Because it was so well fed, it will no longer accept anything but live food. If trained from young to accept normal foods they do adapt well. They have to or they get very hungry. Mine seems to be well beyond training. Two weeks without any food and it still won't touch anything it thinks is dead. The beef heart strips do work, but only once (as Bruce says) and you have to wiggle it to make it look alive. You've also got to watch your fingers!

You put a bunch of them together and when they pair off, one of them is probably a male and the other is probably a female! Really, I don't know. Maybe someone else can help?

They are fairly slow growers. It will take 3-4 years to reach 280mm size. Maybe faster depending on how much it is fed and what it is fed. I have seen ones much bigger than mine that are the same age. Mine came from the same place that had the larger ones. It was in the same tank as the bigger ones and was probably just slower to the food or it got bullied a bit.

It is a young adult - exactly 280mm (11 inches) long. It still has a lot of growing to do. What are you feeding yours? I feed live goldfish (feeder goldfish), carp, worms and live shrimp. It will sometimes take beefheart strips if I wiggle them. It is very stuborn about taking dead food. It is not even interested in dead fish! Its not through trying. I have treid several time not feeding it for up to 2 weeks but it still won't accept dead food. Maybe I need to wait longer still! Juvenile Borneo's seem to like reject baby guppies and live shrimp too.

Brown algae is usually caused by not enough light, or lighting for the incorrect time. If you increase the lighting however you may risk green algae. Sometimes you just can't win. Brown algae usually sticks around for a while then magically goes away. If you are lucky it is not shortly followed by green algae. Stick with it and see if it does go in a couple of weeks. If not, try increasing the lighing a bit and make sure it is on for 10-14 hours a day. If you have plants, 12-13 hours is the requirement that works well for most situations.

Malachite Green Oxalate is good for treating external protozoans like Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Ich). Care must be taken when using it as it is very toxic to most fish. Do not use it above the specified maximum dose. It is a strong carcinogen so therefore should be used for the minimum time possible while still making sure a cure is effected. You should not get it on your skin. I keep the following Medications: Malachite green oxalate: Ich Methylene blue: Anti Fungus Metronidazole: Flagellates Furan2 (Aquafuran / Nifurpirinol): Bacterial Infection Oxytetracycline hydrochloride: Bacterial Infection Neomycin sulphate: Bacterial Infection Flike Tabs: Fluke Infections Salt (Sodium chloride): Minor Infections Pottasium permangenate: Sterilising Tanks I keep all these and try to keep their expiry dates current. Most are in the fridge or freezer to extend their life. I have seldom had to use them, but when you do need them they have to be on hand. With little support of most medications you are lucky if you can get them within 24 hours. By then it is usuallt too late. The earlier you can treat a fish with the correct medication the better chance it has. Anyone in Hawkes Bay who ever needs medications quick can call me if they like. Most of the time they just sit in the fridge until they go off. It would be good to have them used!

I collect all my wood from the rivermouth at local beaches. I only go for the dark hardwood that does not rot. After the boot of the car is full I head home. All the wood then gets dumped into a couple of 1000L drums at the back of the house. They have the waste water from my RO unit going through them. Most of the logs sit there for 6-12 months. During this time the wood has sunk and has also stopped leaching. All the bark and rubbish attached has rotted off too. When I want to use a log in a new tank I do the following. 1. Take it to the local sandblasters who give it a light blasting. This removes all the leftover bark and rubbish and really brings out the woodgrain. 2. It then goes back into the outside tank to sink it again (can take up to 2 weeks if it spent too long drying out at the sandblasters). 3. Remove it from the tank and pour a weak bleach solution over the prepared log and leave for about 5 minutes. I then hose it off thoroughly. The log is now ready. This works really well on big logs (over 2000mm long). I've got a couple of these soaking in preparation for my new big tank.

I use Earth Worms to promote activity in the large cichlid tank. If you throw in a handful of fairly large ones you should see the scrap that errupts! Also feed them to the Borneo Tiger (Datniodes quadrifasciatus) - the bigger the better as far as he's concerned. They have to wiggle before he will munch them however as he will not eat dead food. I tried for 2 weeks once to get him to eat standard frozen foods, but no-way. He'd rather starve. When I finally did put in a live worm, I nearly lost my fingers!

Hi Eden, Its not cyanobacteria is it? If it is it has 2 possible causes. If there is absolutely not nitrate content in the water, but a small excess of carbonate and phosphate, cyanobacteria can lock the nitrogen disolved in the water to complete its food requirements. If there is just an excess of phosphate this can also cause cyanobacteria or green algae. Excess nitrate can also cause green algae. Cyanobacteria certainly coats things and has bubbles on its surface if you have intense lighting. You should check the new food you are using. Find out what its phosphate content is and compare it against the daily requirement for your inverts. If there is an excess it will do 2 things. One, create algae. Two, precipitate dissolved Calcium out of the water. Niether are good.

Hi Deleatidium, Caryl is right, I did help relocate the aquarium setup. The largest tank we moved was about 3000L. It wasn't too hard however as there were lots of people and the tank was only about 600kg. I will dig out the article she mentioned and send it to Cees. The largest setup tank I've moved was my 8 foot 1200L. It took quite a while and 6 people. It weighs 310kg empty so is quite a handful even for 6 people. It came in through my front door on its side (the tank is 690mm overall tall and the door frame 710mm wide - tight fit!). The gravel was the worst part, - scooping out 500kg of it by hand was lots of fun. At the time the tank was setup as a general community type. Mostly rocks and driftwood and a few plants that grew rather poorly. As it was a relatively simple setup it only took the time to take the bits out and put them back in. It still took a whole day however. Now it is set up as a planted tank. It still would not take long to empty, but to reassemble would take some time. Also a move would have to be very well coordinated to minimise the time the plants were uprooted. I cannot see why it would not be possible to move a tank this size with all its water saved (I have some 1000L drums to shift it in) in less than a day. It would take a few good friends and some hard work but should be no problem. This way the plants and fish could be returned immediately as if they had never been moved. I have done this using the 700L tank a few years ago for our local pet-expo. Four of us attacked the tank at about 3:00pm on a friday and by 8:00pm it was all setup, filled with the original gravel, water, plants and fish. The trick is to keep your filter running the whole time and only switch it off for the absolute minimum time. I moved the trickle filter (in both cases) to the kitchen sink. I filled the sink with aquarium water and started it cycling. This way fresh oxygenated water is kept passing through the filter keeping the bacteria alive. It only takes about 45 minutes for the bacteria in a fliter to start dying off big-time. Once the 8 foot tank was set up in its new location the filter was then moved (at high speed - watching out for police radars). Once reconnected it was run for a couple of hours. After a couple of quick water tests confirmed all was ok, in went all the fish (transported seperately and stored in 4 foot tanks for the day). Success, no dead fish, completed in about 9 hours. It can be done, but its a big effort. You need lots of friends. Afterwards you usually have to find some new friends!!

Hi, just in case my username is not clear, I am Warren, I am an electronics engineer. My main interests are Fishkeeping, HiFi, Electronics, Mountain Biking, Road Cycling, Rock Climbing, Caving and I used to be into Motor Racing. The Motor Racing got too expensive and one of them had to go; Motor Racing ... Keeping Fish, the fish won. I don't know which one was more expensive however!!?? I have been keeping fish for about 10 years. I started with a 900mm goldfish tank with 4 fish. Over the years things have grown a bit. I now have 27 tanks. There are 3 in the lounge: 1200L Planted Discus Tank (2400x800x650) - plants(lots), discus(15), neons(~150), rummy nose(~25), rams(6), SAE's(~20), Aquiden Cerviceps(6) (Dwarf Flag Cichlid). It used to have a Pink Tailed Chalceus but it bashed itself to death one night when I turned on the light (stupid fish). 700L Cichlid Tank (1850x620x690) - has Oscars(3), Chocolate Cichlids(2), Leporinis(1), Cigar Shark(1), Jaguars(2). 560L Round Tank (Diameter 900x1000 Tall) - has Mistus Catfish(1) and Borneo Tiger(1) (Datnioides quadrifasciatus). Outside in the shed is the remainder of the tanks. They range from 30L to 250L. Most are on a central filter (keeps mainenance low - only 45mins a week to keep all tanks clean). There are 3 quarantine tanks and 2 breeding tanks not on the main filter. Soon I will be adding another 10-15 tanks to the shed (extending the fishroom). Also the 700L and 560L tank will be moved from the lounge to the shed. This is to make way for the new lounge display tank. It has been mentioned in other posts previoulsy. I've just spent the last 3 days finishing the welding in the frame. Man its big (about 3000L). I will be starting a new thread sometime in the near future with photo's etc showing the progress. Included will be some design calcs for those who are interested.

Hi Deleatidium, I cannot see why either. Your water looks good. If the fish did not die immediately (1-2 hours) then its probably not the water. What were they eating? I recently got some neons from a breeder in Auckland. I only lost 2 on the 5 hour trip home. Since then I don't seem to have lost any, allthough its a little hard to tell. I got 150 neons and they are in a 1200L tank. Its a little hard to count them all before they move! (They look great as a school - should have got 300 would have looked better). Neons do tent to be a bit temperamental when they are moved. They don't usually travel well. They need to be put into a really big bag with only a small amount of water (relative to the size of the bag). If the trip is longish (greater than 2 hours) you should use Oxygen to fill the bag. The bag should be laid down on its side in a chilly bin to maximise the water surface area. Once moved however they are usually ok. Maybe the shipment contained weak fish that would have died no matter who's tank they were put into. Have you checked the LFS to see if they were having trouble (if they will admit it).

Hi KMattingly, You're welcome. I've really enjoyed this site. It has an excellent group of people with a huge wealth of knowledge. Good to have you on board! The site is having a bit of a change soon. All the other sections of the website will be available in the new format soon. The articles (Topics Section) written by our members are great, check them out. PS: Where are you from?

I see Cees published a post today saying we had 1000+ posts. Thats awesome. Who was the lucky 1000th, - do they get a chocolate fish?

You are possibly right. I do have a fairly good workshop available to me. Most of the bits are off the shelf. There is however a possibilty you may not have considered, - why do it yourself if someone you know can do it for you. Most of us know someone with enough skills to do the job. The tools I used to make my last needle valve were: Drill Press, Soldering Iron, Solder, 1mm Drill Bit, 3mm Drill Bit, 11/32 UNF Tap and a Machine Vice. Next issue... The 555 Timer. As some of you may know, I am an electronics engineer. I thought I should point out an issue or two regarding this item. While the DSE timer kit is a great product it will not work for long off a 9V Battery. The current draw from a 555 chip is mA. It will only last 1-2 days on a 9V battery. Even if you change the chip to a low-power cmos 7555 version it still will not last long. If you add the coil current from a relay or solenoid the battery will go flat even quicker. 9V batteries do not have a large amount of energy stored in them. If you want to use this kit (as it is a good idea) you will need to power it from a 9V plugpack. A battery may be diode fed into the circuit to supply power during mains failure, but its state of charge will need to be checked regularly.

BOC sells the regulators at the price I mentioned. I make my needle valve. First go to a car wreckers and get the threaded needle part off an old carburetor. Next get a brass rod 40mm long and 10mm diameter and drill a 1.0mm diameter hole right down its middle. Next, drill a 3mm diameter hole in about 5mm at one end. Next, drill a hole about half way through from the other end the correct size to tap a thread for the needle. Tap this section to fit the needle. You will now have a rod with a diameter 3mm hole reducing to 1mm diameter then increasing to a threaded section for the needle. Next, drill a 3mm hole from the side of the rod into the threaded section almost where the thread meetes the 1mm section. Get some 3mm diameter copper of brass hollow rod and cut 2 pieces 20mm long. Fit 1 into each of the 3mm holes and solder in place. Get an O-ring from somewhere like SKF bearings that fits tightly over the needle and inside the threaded hole. This seals the thread so gas does not leak out. Put a little bit of vaseline in the threads to further help the seal. Fit the needle to the finished housing and you have a completed needle valve, - total cost about 5 bucks and 30 minutes work. If you are going to buy a needle valve, make sure the needle is very small in diameter and quite long (Dia 1.5mm, 15mm long is good). This gives you maximum adjustment for minimum gas flow change. Don't skimp on anything when it comes to CO2. If you make a mistake, or the needle valve has a mind of its own (watch out for temperature changes - they can change the gas flow), it could wipe out all your fish! I wire to the lighting timer to turn the gas off at night. I do not aerate at all. I could probably still leave the CO2 going, but its just a precationary measure that I turn it off.

Yip they school alright. I don't know if its natural, but with 2 dozen in my 8 foot tank they seem to like to zoom as a group from one end of the tank to the other. Initially it scared the discus a bit but they got used to them .

Is it nitrite (NO2-) or nitrate (NO3-)? If it is nitrite anything over 0.5ppm is dangerous. If its nitrate, less the 50ppm is desirable. Anything over 50ppm causes stress on the fishes internal organs. Long term it will cause premature death in most fish. This is a question that pops up from time to time in most forums. Everyone says just do water changes until it comes right. I suggest you look for the cause of the problem. How long has it been a problem? How old is the tank? How old and accurate is your test kit? What ppm is the nitrite and nitrate? What ppm is the nitrite and nitrate in your tap water? What happens if you filter tap water in a separate tank? I had a major problem a long time ago with a high nitrate level. I found that no amount of water changes would lower the ppm. The problem was actually in the tap water. It measured 0ppm on NH4, NO2 and NO3, but the NO3 level stayed high in the tank. I had about 140ppm NO3. If I did a 90% water change it dropped to approx 15ppm. The next day it was back at 140ppm (or max on the test kit). I set up a seperate tank with a cycled filter and no fish. Guess what, the nitrate level started to rise. One day after a water change the nitrate level was higher than before the water change. The problem turned out to be dissolved organics in the water. These would break down to NH4 to NO2 to NO3, hence the constantly increasing NO3 level. The initial solution was to do water changes with rain water, but later changed to Reverse Osmosis. It may not be the water however. If you have an undergravel filter it may just be too dirty. Gravel cleaning is fine, but eventually muck builds up under the filter that causes high nitrate readings. It is quite common to have to strip a tank down that uses UGF to clean out the muck about every 1.5-2 years.

Yip, Rob was right, it was only a matter of time... Well, here goes. I did a lot of research into CO2 and what was cheapest both short and long-term. At the risk of blowing off my own foot, here goes: The best solution I found (while still not all that cheap) is; Rent a 6.8kg Food Grade CO2 cylinder from BOC gasses - approx $108/year. Buy a gas regulator for CO2 (stainless steel guts) - $140.00. Get a gas solenoid (230VAC) from a pneumatic supply shop - $60.00 Connect the gas solenoid to the output of the gas regulator and wire it to your lighting timer. You are ready. You'll need to make up a needle valve and bubble counter. You can feed the gas into your canister filter return - what no canister or trickle filter !!!!!!!!!!!! and !!!!!!!!? Its still not cheap, but is a lot cheaper than alternatives. You can muck around with soda stream, but the fittings are dodgy and unreliable. Using proper industrial gear means no hastles. Also soda stream and other alternative cylinders need to be checked regularly and cost extra to have filled. The BOC cylinder while it costs a little to rent each year never needs to be tested (as they do it within the rental cost) and there is no premium on refills ($22.00 per refill for 6.8kg bottle). My 6.8kg bottle lasts about 2 years on a heavily planted 1200L tank. It costs 10x more to rent the cylinder than it does for gas! I hope this helps.

Even though we are drifting off topic a bit, I remember the same thing happening with kiwifruit about 12 years ago in Tauranga!!