Navarre

Hi There I have been breeding these little blighters for about a year now. When they Jewels are new parents they move their young uns around quite a bit. Especially good at this when fry are small or with freshly laid eggs. One pair even lay eggs on the top of a rock them move them several times and in stages untill all eggs are under a rock at the other end of the tank. This can take several days. Good luck with your babies Navarre

IMHO and from experience...read I learnt this the hard way... I think that 2 heaters is best when dealling with tanks 150-200 l plus. stops cool spots in tank creates thermal cycling of water and if one heater craps out then serious but not life threatening in an Alien vs Pred kinda way. HTH Navarre

The other thing is that every 2-3 weeks and depending on the size of your containers run a litre or 2 of water over the "compost" bit of the farm. That helps break down casts etc and water runs out helping remove smell. That is what teh bottom bin is for ...apart from keeping Worm home up off gound and air movement etc...to collect run off which is GREAT plant food. Mine are all outside and the rain has been enuff this winter. All are started on worms from garden rather than brought worms and surplus goes to help feed natives at a local wildlife reserve. Takes longer to set up with locals than brought worms but well worth the effort, Navarre

Hi There, If you use clean potting mix with no wetting agent in a container with pleanty of holes top and bottom stacked ontop of another container preferably with dark walls then seed with a couple of hundred grams of worms give a couple of days then feed any household waste that is "green" or "brown". Fill top container only about 1/3rd full to start with and feed every 2-3 days and only a little to start. have plenty of holes in the lid and that allows air to circulate. you can use wet newprint or straw but takes longer to work. make sure potting mix is wet but not dripping. should have no smell. when dirt is at top of container then can harvest or harvest every 2-3 weeks after "farm" has been cycling 6-8 weeks. need to keep dirt damp. hth Navarre

Hi There, I have some that you can make me an offer for. Navarre

You could try the Hauraki Black Gold Peat. I think that has no nasties added. You could also try placing a clay layer or a gravel layer that is quite think on top. This would replicate the stream bed, give them something to burrow into and still let you gravel vax the tank. Also maybe some big knarley Rata/Beech roots along an edge might give them shelter etc so they dont feel so "on display". HTH Navarre

Hi HaNs, I have never set up a marine tank so havent done this for myself but on a thread some where I saw a chap who used plastic pipe and plastic mesh from a fluoro light to bulid little shelves which he stacked his rock on and around. This ment he could hide circulating and tidal pumps behind the rock to give it good water flow and also meant there was less weight in the tank with a good amount of rock. Also less water diplaced for the "look" on a heap of rock. I guess it depends on Fish or Coral tank. HTH Navarre

Thats a good idea Alan. I put my spray bay on the bottom of the tank then drilled an antispyhon hole at top. I then bulit my rockwork up around the spray bar so that water flow was diffused thru tank. (sorry no pics). This meant I had water movemnet at bottom of tank and debries were carried to weirs and prefiltered before going to sump. Also ment that warm water from sump was at bottom of tank and moved up to top of tank creating thermal lift to help crap go to top as well. My 6 ft tank has 2 overflows plumbed to one sump and this is much less noisy than my tanks with one overflow. HTH Navarre

Not sure if this will help or not but..... I was told ..and it seems to work for me ...that you should set your heaters at different temps anyway( i think to prolong life and reduces risk of failure) and that when you run a pump in a sump (kinda like a cat in a hat on a mat) that the pumps can push the heat in the sump up quite a lot. So is short you need to fiddle with the settings to adjust for this and ambiant (sp?)temp. Oh and remeber to lay your heaters on an angle to maximise surface area and also stop cold/heat effecting the function hth Navarre

Hi there, I thought there were some at Orgainisms a wee while ago? Navarre

Hi there, If anyone EVER has any fry could you prity please put me at the top of the list (or near there anyway) Many thanks and other greasey sucky sucky salutations Navarre

doesnt the herpt society have a husbandry section on their web site? and you could try the DoC site as well as they have a few suggestions in their Tuatara and Native Repitle pages. HTH Navarre

Hi There, i brought me solanoid from ASCO in christchurch a few years ago. Was quite cheap and they fitted it to my tank. I have a 600 mm hi tank which has lasted absolutely ages. You need to be resonably sure that you dont need to run a secondry valve to reduce high pressure CO2 to low pressuere tho as this can help prolong life of cylinder etc. anyway solanoid is well worth the money as it does help prevent you giving your fish teh bends if you overdo the CO2. HTH Navarre

Hi all, Caryl I would be happy for you to call in but I will be away this weekend at rugby on Sat and a 50th weding anaversary on Sunday (..go figure he coulda been out of prison by now) but i will try to call and see you next time I am up your way and you are more than welcome next time you are down but please give me some warning so I can make sure tanks are clean...lol Navarre

Nice job guys. Remember that if you use solvent or heat to "smooth" the surface then you can change the outside shape of the poly. This means it might not fit if you pre cut to exact size so be careful there. If you "paint" the poly you can sprinkle with diffent colour and textured sand in differing amounts to give the background shape and shade etc. Also I have never sealed the back of mine as poly can be poreus(sp?) depending on bead size and this can provide over time a considerable filtration advantage. Also some people use several layers of sand/cement to fix the front surface so grazing fish can not dislodge any poly. And it can be adviseable to soak the finished item with several water changes to remove any loose finish and also decrease chemiacl leachates. HTH Navarre

Hi Guys, Look I must apologise and get down off my hi horse. The fish I have I am sure are interupus. I hope I didnt upset anyone and I am happy to post pics if I can get one/ post it etc. I m not that flash with all this techno mumbojumbo. I am happy to show anyone in CHCH the fish I have and we can go from there. My point is tho that gawd knows what fish are really out there with shops changing the names to get them in and importers sending fish in by species rather than varients All in all a healthy discusion. Thanks Navarre

LOL Milet you are not going to beleave this but ..... I have some bricks you can have I will dig them out for you They are white tho not red but they do have holes in them which is why I use them...instant caves. Easy to move to clean around etc etc. They do get a little slimy tho so you have to be careful moving then when wet. HTH Navarre

Hi There, I have thought about this all day. And I have to say I was a bit put off by the way some people reponded to the information I put up in this topic. I dont want to offend anyone and I am certainly not the most experienced keeper here, but I do have to say that I am a little disapointed at some of the replies. My females have clear bodies and "bar" up when breeding, they have clear yellow fins with a black and white edging. The Males are nothing like the Ps. I have kept in head shape, and have interupted blue and blackish banding not clear stripes like what has been suggested. The original fish were sold as M Interuptis and I saw the parents of these fish. Off which I brought fry. They have continued to reproduce true to type for some time now. Even with Mendal on your side that does not happen with hybrids. As for them not coming into NZ well neither have Paradise fish nor electric yellows but they are still here despite not being on the list...as are many of the Melanachromis family. And several other africans, parrots and reptiles which many of us know about. I can almost certainly tell MarkLB where his fish came from if he brought them in the last 6 mths and I am happy to show him the ones in my tank that share a common genetic background. I guess what all this comes down to especially with the lists being tightened all the time is that we have to trust what people tell us even if we have to research it a little ourselves, because we can not always trust what fish are labeled as in shops. as is discussed regularly on this list. In reference to my eariler post LFS in the CHCH area are still selling both these "types" as Johanni. Once again I dont mean to be rude about anyones opinion And I am sorry about the length of this post but I was/am only trying to help. Navarre

Hi there, I have some sand you can have cheep if you are interested I have about 20 kgs maybe a littel more. Is dry and in 2 plastic bags. I have it left over from my Discus tank build. I also may have some large fish for you...2 male C Afra. about 12-15 cm. Give me a PM if you are interested. Navarre

Hi there, these fish (the first Picture) are often sold as M. Johanni in many of our local shops but are in fact M. Interuptus (sp?) I have breed these for some years and have researched them quite a bit. You dont have a hibrid by the looks of it, it is very close to my fish. They are easy to breed resonably placid and make a good display as do most of these sub species. The female is anything from a pale "pink" thru to a butter yellow but has vertical banding not horizontal as in Johanni. Males can colour up from about 2 1/2 inches and will spar with each other even in a community tank. If you want to know more send please let me know HTH Navarre

Hi There, I will also be travelling thru about the end of July and have some spare if you want. PM me if you are interested and I can tell you amounts and make me an offer I cant refuse....lol. Navarre

Actually Jim r thats not quite right. You can use photo electric cells to generate power and charge deepcycle batteries which then run thru an inverter and give you electricity. You can also do this with a windmill or a pelton wheel. Of course you can also use different solar panels to heat hot water and use that to run a radiator of some sort to heat the room. These panels can be easily home made and are quite efficent. Problems in a fish room is how do you modify heat ie you might need a chiller unit during the day as the panels can heat water close to boiling and also how do you stop heat transfer and therefore loss at night. Heating the floor might help with this but is an expensive concrete slab for a fish room. HTH Navarre

Hi There, I run an FX5 on one of my 6x2x2 tanks and it is in the lounge. I also run a sump in the lounge and both are quiet tho the FX5 is quietest of both. You still need to buy media for FX5 on top of sale price but ease of use outways this imo. You wil still need to Vax gravel as Fish poo goes down and into gravel then is broken down into particles that are in water. Over time you will remove all the poo but not before water quality is effected/affected and fish suffer ( and it looks crappy, pardon the pun) if you dont Vax. HTH Navarre

Milet, You can have em....if I can get to this Sundays meeting I will bring some with me. EvilKenevil Thank you. I want to do this prior to planting so limits snails in new tank. many thanks Navarre

Yes that was my answer as well but "thems that must be obeyed...or else" doesnt like clown loaches. So back to Step One Navarre