acara

As already mentioned,the insulation is very important,and must be properly sealed and draught proof.Having said that,the humidity can cause problems,and the easiest way around this is to install a small extractor fan,and have it on a timer,say to come on for 15mins every 2hrs,a bit of trial and error will get good results.You also need to take into account it could get too hot in summer,leaving the door open may be the simplest solution there. For filtration,I use a large pond type air pump(eg Blagdon Koi Air)and a lot of sponge filters. Depending on how high your shed roof is,you could install an attic water tank up high,and the have a hose run down to gravity feed your top ups when doing water changes.Just saves the back! Over here we insulate with a product called Kingspan,theres other brands as well,eg Xtratherm.Dearer than poly,but a hell of a lot more efficient,and thinner.

I simply leave a few buckets in the back garden from late winter onwards.They either fill with rain,or I use water from changes.Keep the level a couple of inches down.Throw in a few leaves.Thats all,just wait for the mossies to arrive,also plenty of bloodworms.To harvest,if I need lots I use a small net,if only a couple,a pippette. Earthworms are extremely popular,and send the tank inhabitants into a frenzy if they get a whiff of it.I find the earthworm flake and pellets very good for colouring up fish,before shows,or for breeding. Also culture whiteworms,fed with date expired flake food.And grindal worms,fed on Ready Brek.I'm about to have a crack at fairy shrimp,if it works,I'll get a more permanent set-up going for them. Fish go mad for the live stuff,unfortunately my Betta channoides wont touch anything unless it wriggles,having some job trying to wean them on to dry foods.

I left NZ in '97,and was always amazed at how expensive things were in the UK,then when I moved to Ireland in 2000 I found things even more expensive here(and banking and the likes so stone age,more so than the UK),but at least Irish wages are better.I returned to NZ in '02,and found that the cost of living had gone up considerably,but the incomes weren't a hell of a lot more.Same thing on next trip home in '05.Last year I was back and was horrifeied at the cost of things.I'm so use to hearing about how Ireland is so expensive,but found many things(a silly example being a bottle of soft drink for example)to be more expensive in a NZ supermarket,than in a dairy in Dublin city centre.Has the average income gone up much in the last 10 years or so? My parents and others were over for my wedding 3 months ago,and spent most of their time in the shops stocking up on clothes,they just couldnt get over how much cheaper such things are here.That surprised my friends and I,as we all head up North over the border to get UK prices.Or fly over to the UK,and of course buy online from the EU or the States.VAT(GST)here is 21%.Income tax is about the same. We're thinking of returning home,wife is Irish,but I am worried about the cost of living in comparison to income.

The best method I've used is just a wee bit of white filter wool cut from a larger piece.

Was playing a bit of Guns and Roses(1st time in a long time!),in the run up to the concert here last week.Saw them in Auckland in '93(?)and thought that was a bad concert,but last weeks was brutal.Axl stormed off after 22mins,had warned the crowd to stop bottling him,but him being 1.5hrs late had upset them somewhat. Back to listening to Men-an-Tol by The Levellers.

It wouldn't really be right for me to comment,as I havn't seen it,but my wife(Irish)really wants to watch it.She'll have to do it elsewhere,as it's barred from my house :lol:

I also can't reccomend Toshiba enough.I have just bought(about a month ago)the Satellite A660-14c.I'm not much clued up when it comes to pc's,but the basic specs are as follows, RAM 4GB Processor: Intel Core i3 500GB HDD Blu-Ray RE-WRITER 16" widescreen Windows 7 Hone Premium. Cant remember graphics,as I dont play games,but think its about 512mb,and is more than good enough for playing discs and videos,etc. I paid €899 here in Dublin,so it should come in under $2k. It really is the doggies doo-dackies.

Nice little fellas,and great photography. I recently got rid of the last of my shellies to make room for several species of mouthbrooding betta,but I miss the little characters.

Great idea,but like all technology,if it goes wrong,it will cause a big problem,eg if a car catches fire,how is it accessed?

Afraid not,I have only had them 2-3mths,and havnt had a crack at breeding them yet.I doubt fry would survive in current set-up,theres shrimp,stiphodon gobies,and Betta falx in there(till the betta get their own tank)

I met Anton Lamboj on the weekend,and was delighted to get aprox 15 Betta edithae 'Kalimantan' and aprox 24 Betta falx,all are F1,off him.He is going to email me the gps data for where he collected the parents. Anything other than splendens is not readily available here,amd when I got the albimarginata,they were 30euro each,so was well chuffed to get these latest aditions for 1 euro each!! I do hope they would become available in NZ,they are real characters,and remind me of puffers,the way the move in their search for food.

Stunning tank,congratulations. I also have a nearly 20 of these rasboras,great little characters.

Sounds cheap in comparison to estimate I got 4 days ago,here in Dublin estimate was 800euro for rt,then 850euro for crown.

Thanks Stella. I'm waiting patiently for your book!I will look up the one you mentioned,and if I can find it online,will get my parents to bring it over next month. My interest stems from me being a Kiwi,left for a year 13yrs ago!Now I have a pre-recession mortgage and getting married in 6weeks When I was home for 2wks last year,I dug out a book from,I think from the Wildlife Service in the early '50s,on native freshwater fauna.I hope I bought it back with me,can't recall now.

I read a newspaper article when it was on in the cinema claiming that there were a lot of people around the World apparantly committing,or at least talking about committing suicide.It seems they found the idea of living on that planet(I havn't seen the movie,although have the dvd)to be so appealing,that when they realised Earth will never be that good,they decide it was better to end it here,and seek a similar place. Just read over that,dosnt make sense,but you get the messge :roll:

Well the mag was out today,quite dissapointed in article,a lot about how NZ was part of Gondwanaland,and how the division happened,and not much about fish.

I havn't spawned mine,but my mate around the corner has had them reglarly spawning,but is ahving real trouble raising the fry past a certain stage.This seems to be a common problem.He's managed a few to adult size,but not many.

Earthworms are great,just make sure you leave them to purge out the muck.I put a kitchen towel dampened with tank water in a plastic container,tight fitting lid with holes punched in it,overnight in a cool place. All fish in the tank go into hyper mode when earthworm is dropped in.I also use earthworm flake and pellets. Aneasy way of catching them is to put down some newspaper on the lawn or cobbles,and soak it(don't forget to way it down!!)

I gave away the multies to use the tank for a group of Corydoras oiapoquensis,but have set up several more,and getting a couple of different shellies.I only had the multies and 1 L137 in the tank,a Rekord 60 Juwel.I am getting more Sulawesi snails to go in with the new tanks.I was going to try throwing in a few cherry shrimp,but the fish would make short work of them,may try in them in the fry tank.

Wow,shame you can't get 'em.I've had multifasciatus,great characters,only about an inch long,but boy can they rearrange their tanks,moving shells many times their own size around.There's a vid on youtube somewhere of one attacking a croc! I also have Lamprologus caudopunctatus coming when tank ready. I will get some photos when they're settled in,hopefully on weekend.Just went out and checked them for 1st time,they're eating tonight,and seem grand,but ma 'munched' a fry that swam by,then spat it out dead,waste.

Did mine the other day with sugar soap.Also cleaned some extremely stained and limescaled tanks a few weeks back with lemon juice,worked an absolute treat,better than any chemical I've tried.Laundry powder is good too,especially for cleaning a manky bath.

I just picked up a pair of these tonight,with about 3 dozen fry of different sizes. Has anybody have any experience with them?

Nice one. What I would do,and this aint a criticism,is stick a background on.It will hide all the cables and everything behind the tank,and make the fish feel a bit safer and more settled.I use dark card taped on the back,and it really brings out the colours in the fish and plants.

I have L137 "Rusty plec" in my shelldweller tank.Probably the best algae eater I've ever seen.

Sorry! They're not readily available here either,he got them on a trip we did to the UK two and a half years ago,turned out to be quite prolific,he has dozens of fry,of all sizes.He'd just lost four of his zebra plecs,2 were females with eggs,a bummer as he's had them for a while,and they're not the quickest to mature.Lets hope the remaining 10 can get down to business.