Rob

As was mentioned by Pies, when his lights were on 24 hours a day the plants started looking bad - probably because plants need a period of darkness. While plants are exposed to light they are photosynthesising (so using light energy to turn CO2 and water into sugars etc and giving off O2). During darkness the plants respire, use O2 and the sugars they've made as an energy source for growth etc (giving off CO2).

Re Pies question about what live food to feed Can't comment on how polluting they are but here are some suggestions. White worms - most fish seem to love them and are good for a treat (sort of like chocolate for us, ie irristable but high in fat) Wingless fruitfly - good for any surface feeders, can be troublesome to culture (not necessarily difficult but old cultures can get smelly) Daphnia - not sure about the nutritional content but sure get the fish swimming to get them - supposedly too many can have a laxative effect.

A few messages back Caryl said about the Aussies taking their Wallabies back. Then today in the Herald I see the article how the Aussie government is actually paying for the Kawau wallabies to go back = of course it's only 2 of the 4 types on Kawau (the tammar - which is extinct in Aussie, and the brushtail - which is endangered), the article doesn't say what portion of the 8500 wallabies on Kawau these two types make up.

Hoplos = Hoplosternum thoracatum (or something like that, though I think the genus may have changed again). You can definitely have more than one female BN in the the male - I had three females spawning at about the same time with the one male - just means that the male has a huge number of eggs to sit on.

Regarding Andrews comment on polystyrene wanting to float. Yip definitley - that's why it's important to have a piece of polystyrene the height of the tank, so that the top bracing stops it from bobbing up and away.

Sicce seem to be pretty reliable - the LFS uses ancient Sice hang on the back filters - their rep was amazed to see so many in use as that particular type hasn't been produced for years. I've only had one problem with my Sicce Genio 3 canister filter - the primer mechanism was vibrating really badly (didn't know it was that at the time - went through the hassle of new impellor, trying to get a new impellor shaft etc - finally pulled the head unit apart, saw a pile of wear debri by the primer - replaced the primer with a rubber bung and everything was back to it's normal quiet self). One comment from the LFS is that Sicce magnetic impellors wear quite badly. The LFS stocks hardly any repalcement impellors on the shelf EXCEPT Sicce which he has quite a range of.

Kerry - since you're going to Hollywoods, have a nosy at there tall Malawi tank. The rock background in there is sculpted polystyrene, which was then painted with pond paint/sealer. The polystyrene can be easily sculpted with a gas torch (just do it somewhere ventilated). Considerations for when putting in the tank - it needs to fit snugly under the bracing at the top of the tank, you may want to consider siliconing a strip of glass at the foot of the polystyrene (yes the weight of gravel would probably keep it in place - but if you've got fish that shift the gravel around they may remove enough that it rises up). As far as colouring it - I used acrylic paint which wasn't the wisest idea, as when I sounded out the knowledgable guy at the LFS he told me it was toxic to fish. Ended up having to polyurethane over it (since polyurethane is safe and you can get water based stuff that wont dissolve the polystyrene). Only thing is that the polyurethane seems to go a bit cloudy once it's submerged - I'm waiting for a nice layer of algae to disguise that a bit.

Posted on behalf of Natasha Grainger, DOC Northern Regional Office: Although giant vallisneria isn't part of the accord, it is still an Unwanted Organism under the Biosecurity Act 1993, which means it is illegal to release, spread, sell or propagate. Northern Regional Office, P.O.Box 112, Hamilton

Well Franks article definitely anwsers the 'ever combined photography and fish keeping question. Great pics Frank - looking forward to future installments.

Frank, re-reading your initial post I see you're a photographer by profession - ever combined work with hobby and taken pics of fish?

About the apple snails - from what I've read they will prey on eggs, but once the eggs have hatched they'll be OK. However I had apple snails in a breeding tank of pygmy corys and still got fry - so they can't have eaten (all of) the eggs. They are a good clean up crew in fry tanks (uneaten food the odd dead fry) and do encourgage infusoria. You still need to do water changes, though probably not as frequently as a tank without any clean up crew (with uneaten food having to be removed by water changes). You need to balance the number of snails with the size of the tank, as you don't want them to out compete the fry for food (does depend on what species of fish you're raising). I'd also be inclined to a number of smaller apple snails rather than a single large one - just for the reason that if the snail dies and goes unnoticed for a while you less likely to have problems with a small amount of rotting snail than a snail the size of a plum rotting away.

Hi there, and welcome to virtual NZ. I notice in your sig: 'quest for the ultimate cichlid'. What's your pick for this to date?

Short term fix is to adjust the pH with baking soda (dissolve it in a cup of water rather than just sprinkling it into the tank). Remember that pH adjustments should be gradual (usually not more than 0.1 per day from memory). Longer term fix is to add some crushed shell (or limestone or some other rock that gradually dissolves, increasing the pH) to the tank (or filter). This will increase the pH (and also the hardness, and also increase the buffering capacity of the tank (the ability to resist changes in the pH). You have to be a bit cautious adding the shell/limestone, as too much and you'll be reposting your message, except the pH will be too high. As to why it's happening - pH of tanks naturally tends to become more acidic with time - for a number of reasons (dissolved carbon dioxide, nitrate content, bacterial processes). The main ways of keeping it under control are remembering to do the regular water changes we're all supposed to do, don't over feed and remove any old decaying plant leaves etc from the tank. Hope this helps Jane.

I can tell you about my limited experience of African Cichlids - I have a pair of electric yellows (the female is currently swimming around with a mouthful of eggs/fry), a pair of blue lump heads (also called blue dolphins) and a pair of blue orchid peacocks. They are all pretty placid, with the lump heads being one of the most peaceful cichlids I've come across - there is a small amount of chasing, but no damage done (not even ragid fins). All three types have been very tolerant of pH fluctuations, they're not in a dedicated african tank - if only I had the room and $$ - this means I try to have the pH about 7.3 - 7.5 to keep everything happy. However on occasion it has dropped below neutral with no obvious signs of stress amoung the africans (I guess because it has been a gradual change). One local couple who have bred a number of african cichlids did so under acidic conditions. A note on peacocks - females of many species are all very similar, it is also likely that the different peacock species could cross-breed. So either get only one type of peacock (hopefully the shop hasn't got more than one type of peacock in the same tank, so you can be sure you're getting the right female) or if you get more than one type of peacock (assuming you're getting males and females) segregate the females from the males and also each other - does mean that you've got to make a conscious effort to bred them rather than "hey my peacocks have bred". Why all this effort? Just because I think allowing fish to mongrelize is not a good idea.

No Midas, I no longer have my pair of blue acaras - they're now in the big fish tank in the sky (well actually the carcasses got chucked into the back of the garden to: a) encourage the plants to grow b) amuse the neighbourhood cats) Not sure why they died - not obvious signs of disease/fighting, both of them went within a day of each other, no other fish were affected. Yet another case of old age (my usual excuse if something dies for an unknown reason). There are still some of their offspring in the local shop though.

In the most recent ANGFA News there was an article titled "To bee, or not to bee". The author had an old unused hive in the back yard that a wild swarm colonised. He decided to charge the bees in rent in the form of food for his fish. A bug zapper was set up close to the hive entrance, the zapped bees were then frozen - once frozen they were put through an old coffee grinder an then fed to fish. From the article it appears that the zapper wasn't on all the time, only when he wanted to harvest the bees. He also feeds whole, dead bees (with stinger still attached) to his larger rainbows.

John - we definitely don't want any of those Aussie fruit flies over here - another reason the NZ border patrols are strict on food items coming into the country. Other countries have drug sniffing or bomb sniffing dogs at the airport - we have fruit sniffing beagles (no joke). Now what else don't we want from Aussie?.... Snakes, spiders, salt marsh mosquitos.....Aussies . Also the novelty value of possums has warn off - could you send someone to collect them. Since you'd be sending someone over anyway could you get them to bring some Empire and Peacock gudgeons with them, a few Ornate rainbows would be apprectiated as well. As for the wingless fruitflies - they're a result of some recessive gene (so you don't want them contaminated with winged variety, as pretty soon they'll all have proper wings) and they're not really wingless, stump winged would be a better description (still have wings they're just munted - so all the flies can do is jump/walk around the place - really should be called 'stump-winged fruitwalks' :lol: ).

The people I know who have used this method of cycling used a fresh mussel which they had cut open. There were religously taking ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings and keeping a control chart to show just when the tank had finished cycling.

If it had only been expressing your personal view of the shop in question then it would have been OK - I think the reason your initial post was removed was the fact that you told us to BOYCOTT the shop in question - I think this was overstepping the mark. I think it's reasonable to tell other people what you thought of the shop (politely - not emplying that you were impolite) ie "I didn't like that fact that they had a large fish crammed into a tank it couldn't turn around in, and the general hygiene of the tanks was poor, I know I wont be buying fish there". Then other people can make up their own minds from there.

I haven't come across microworms in a white worm culture (not saying it's impossible though) - possibly you've got grindal worms, these were initially isolated from white worm cultures. As for microworms/grindal worms and culture medias - I haven't experimented around to see if grindal worms would survive the way I culture microworms or vice-versa - I wouldn't rule it out, I would guess they're pretty adaptable - a case in point is that after 3 or so months of TOTAL neglect I have tried to revive my grindal worm cultures - and much to my surprise there were still some around - pretty persistent buggers - as long is there is some moisture around.

If you really wanted to get a UV steriliser you should be able to get one through your LFS they may not be on the shelves, but they could order you in one - I now I can get them through Fees shop. About the possible $1500 loss for killing 100 male fighters, really it's only going to be $750, as you're not going to be able to sell fighters to a shop for $15 each, when the shops themselves are only selling them for $15 (unless of course you were talking about crowntails - since they retail for about $30+ ). Just adding to Pegasus comment about fish going from a sterile environ to a regular tank environ and then getting sick. It's just like us humans, modern kids get more allergies etc because they've been raised in too clean an environment - luckily for me I was raised on a farm and my mum was a poor housekeeper :lol: .

Interfecus - I've got mine in an icecream container with the cut away lid securing the gauze (it's just some material that I got from a bargain emporium, the materials got a proper name that I can't remember - it's the stuff my grandmar uses for making bath cleaners) - so there is no way the beetles could escape other than eating through the gauze (which they don't seem inclined to do). Also I have never found a beetle hanging onto the gauze, which would have indicated they were trying to escape. Midas - my larger rainbows happily munch whole mealworms, the catfish will hoover up any that may reach the bottom. The cichlids (I don't have any really large ones) will eat the chopped up mealworms OK. Another food you guys may want to try are waxworms - don't get quite as long as mealworms, but more chubby and have a nice soft body. So far my attempts at successfully culturing them have failed - but there are sites on the web that say how they can be cultured - I just need to perfect my technique.

While I can't specifically answer your question Midas, I can relate my experience with mealworms. I bought some larvae from Biosuppliers - fed some out and put the rest into some culturing containers - they duely turned into beetles and it seemed to stop there - it seems that I wasn't being dilligent enough with feeding of them. Once I started feeding them more regularly the cultures have become a mass of tiny larvae that are growing quite well. I'm feeding mine on slices of apple (and also apple cores - as one flatmate doesn't nibble closely into the core like he should do) - this was recomended to me over sliced potatoe etc. The other thing was the first time a tried culturing them the culture went mouldy - lack of ventalation - just an ice cream container with holes poked in the lid. This time I'm not having those problems as I've cut the whole middle of the ice cream container lid away and fixed a gauze to it.

Regarding 'live rock', to the best of my knowledge (based on talking to a guy how used to import marines) we can't get live rack the same way those in America can (ie $/pound) you can still get live rock of a sort here though. All those anenomes, leathers etc for sale attached to a rock are attached to a live rock. My understanding of the quarantine process is that if the rock has an identifiable organism on it, the importer doesn't have to sterilise the rock - going to be alot more expensive than just being a weight of live rock though. Regarding live sand - the only thoughts on how you could get it, is beg and plead with the shop for some sand out of the bottom of the tank they house all the inverts for sale in. This should act to seed your 'dead' sand.

The fish survey is just a survey of what fish people have in their tanks - not what fish people have/are breeding. You can get an idea of what has/is being bred in NZ (atleast be Federation members) by going here.