tHEcONCH

I don't think we need to worry too much - it looks as if there will be plenty more shortly. My Sea Hare-O-Rama obviously has the right blend of mood lighting and gentle water music

Yep, probably munched and or skimmed out. Wierd things really.

Well waddayaknow... the Sea Hare has made Sea Hare-lets again (the squirly mess under the overhang it is sitting on) These things breed like... rabbits :lol:

Inspecting stuff at the Airport apparently - I'm not sure which title she has.

You know you can reply to your own thread, right? You don't have to start a new one for each question?

Different species prefer different anemones, and they also like different anemones at different stages in the life (primarily to do with size, I think)

Different species prefer different anemones, and they also like different anemones at different stages in the life (primarily to do with size, I think)

Like I've said in an earlier post, I think they are trying to do the right thing and I do think that they have an important job to do, but my experiences with them suggest a large gap between their intentions and the quality of their decisions. The girl I know who works for them majored in Music, and had a job picking apples! I'm not suggesting for a minute that anyone should be allowed to import anything anytime, but I do think some of their inspectors wouldn't know a barnacle from a beanbag.

You both work a the same place?

I grew up in a house with fish (one of those cliche 70's tanks with neons, angels, and clown loaches) and was ocassionally allowed to get a 'special' fish of my own (almost always a 'Siamese Fighter'). I lost interest when I went to school (and after my fish died again) and then nearly 30 years later I wandered into a pet shop for a nosey where I spotted a pair of Discus...

I think JBL and Salifert are recognised at being better than most, but they come at a price. For very basic stuff like pH and Nitrite / Nitrate Red Sea and/or Aquarium Pharmaceuticals is probably OK, but I generally prefer the two manufacturers above. JBL also sells refills for their kits, which makes them good value in the long run.

Especially after boiling it - you'll just speed up the decomp doing that (in fact I wouldn't be suprised if it disintegrates at that stage). You could try it and see, but don't be suprised if it goes horribly wrong

Yep, it certainly has become, along with the Conservation Department, a refuge for the ideologically driven but completely ignorent. That isn't to say there aren't any knowledgable people in there, but they are in a minority. Both departments are kind of like giant work schemes for otherwise useless 'people who like animals'.

I don't think it is so much about them making their own rukes as much as it is about having some pretty ordinary staff on the ground trying to interpret and apply them. Unlike a few others, I actually think MAF is trying to do the right thing in a general sense, but they just aren't very good at it. I know a little bit about their recruitment practices and training and I think it would be fair to say that they tend to take pretty much anyone who got a C in high school biology - or knew someone who did. A lot of the inspectors have a pretty thin grasp the areas they are supposed to know about and what they are looking for, and tend to hide behind the rules rather than appear incompetent - and like all government departments, they tend to have some pretty onerous paperwork attached to the simplist of processes. It is just a pity that they don't actually have knowledgable staff who are empowered to make some decisions 'on the ground'. That way the whole process would be a lot faster, fairer, and more transparent. Don't hold your breath though...

I don't think they create much polution at all - they don't seem to rot very quickly, which suggests that they can't release much in the way of organic compounds. That said, I try to reduce they amount that go in the tank by decanting them off the top, but I don't worry too much if a few get in there anyway.

I don't think that is a very good idea - it will almost certainly still leach large amounts of organic compounds as it rots away which will cause all sorts of other problems.

So why hasn't mine been published yet? It only been some months...

Yep - but I've twice tried it and on both occassions had an adverse reaction from my Sun Corals - it removes something else that they need.

The easiest way is to mix it with Agar, but there really isn't much point. Only certain fish will eat it (and not much of it anyway), so most will just end up polluting your tank.

2nded - Cuckoos would be my recommendation.

No - Not unless you are feeding baby catfish, and the powder isn't the best way to deliver it.

Females begin to look 'fatter' from about six inches long. Its just a rough theory, but judging from how my 30 or so fortnightly spawns are growing out, I suspect males are 'blacker' initially too. The 'brown' ones seem to become females.

Whenever really - I'll hold him for you if you like, or else I'm sure John won't mind him cruising around keeping his display tanks clean.

sO, ANYONE WANT TO BUY A sEA hARE?

I'd rather have two shops doing it properly instead of what we've had up till now - and you never know, there might be a new entrant into the market soon.