Tracey

Thanks guys :thup: I can assure you, there will be no poking with either stick or fingers. I love bugs, 6 or 8 legged, even the large Vagrant Spiders we used to get at our old place, but seeing these ones gave me a taste of what an arachniphobe must feel. So they will stay in the woodshed and I will stay on the paths and we'll all get along just fine

Found this big boy and a few of his mates lurking around the woodshed tonight. He was a good 12cm from tip of front leg to tip of back leg in the position he's in in this picture. http://www.flickr.com/photos/50176066@N05/6123277200/in/photostream

I know you said you were limited when it came to hefty exercise, but are you able to do things like yoga? I found a great yoga for weightloss DVD a few years back on Mighty Ape, and while I'm not as good at getting it out and getting into it as I should be, when I do it has great results. Never thought you could sweat so much and get your heart rate up so high just sitting and bending and stretching

Many thanks guys and girls....seems as if I have been jumping at shadows Don't have many fish in pairs, so too much breeding won't be an issue, although if it jumpstarted by Clown Plecos back into breeding, that might be a bad thing :slfg: I don't have African's, so softer water shoudln't be a problem. Many thanks again for all the advice

Afternoon all I am hoping that those here who live in a rural/semi-rural location will be able to educate me on how they cope with keeping fish when on tank water. My partner and I are considering moving to a semi-rural location and all the properties that we have looked at are on septic tanks and tank water. I have heard a number of horror stories over the years, but I am wondering if they may be more "urban legends" that based in fact. Either that, or happened 20 or more years ago when things like decholinators were less available. Any insights or advice y'all can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Big Pangasiad by the looks of it..... probably an Iridescent Shark.

I've had mine for 8 years now and he's still going strong

My largest CL has had the same thing on his eyes since we got him 7 years ago. It doesn't appear to affect him at all.

You could also try the Cats Protection League in Wellington. I know that Susan at their kitten foster home is always swamped with kittens year round. They don't list any prices on their website, so not sure if they're much cheaper than the SPCA.

Would have said L001 rather than Gold or Redspot. Not quite as massive, but still quite a big pleco once fully grown.

Not sure how big your tank is, but my pair bred in a 600l tank with a number of other fish in with them at the time. Admittedly, I never got past wrigglers with them, as I wasn't interested in trying to find homes for dozens of baby Oscars, but the aggression they showed towards the other fish was limited to keeping them away from their spawning rock. They took over maybe a quarter of the tank and pretty much kept to that part of it while they had eggs in the tank. That's just my experience, but I found my Oscars to be far less aggressive when spawning than Cons or my Sev pairs.

If you're after a good starter scope that gives you a good field of view, good magnification but won't break the bank until you're sure you really want to, I'd recommend these guys http://www.astronomy.co.nz/pub/TelescopesTemp.asp My mother brought one of their 8" Newtonian Dobsonians and it is a great scope, bulky but relaly good optics. If you decide later that you want something a little more portable, you should try your local astronomical society or one of the other regional ones. That's how I got my Celestron C8 pretty cheap.

There was no story, my mother happened to be at her vet one night when the kittens came in and everyone had to drop everything to try and stop them from dying on the spot. The kids didn't manage to cut the bone, but the paws had to be amputated by the vet due to the amount of damage done to the surrounding flesh.

This is done by the same sort of ppl who let their 3 year old kids play with the new 6 week old kittens and a pair of scissors. Both kittens survived, thanks to a pretty amazing vet, but are missing one back paw each Nothing the vets could do either, as you can't charge 3 years old with animal cruelty

That looks like the same impellor that the old 304's used as well, the curved one. I can check and see if I have any still in working order at home if you'd like, I have two 304's hanging around somewhere.