David R

I hear NGT's are the new zebra pleco's, put my name down for one.

Borneo tiger is a bit of a nonsense name. Have a read of the Datnioides Species profile here, there's a couple of good pics to help identify them. More than likely they are D. microlepis or Indonesian Tiger, but lately D. polota or American Tigers seem to be more commonly available. I've only ever seen one true widebar/siamese tiger/D. pulcher here, although many IT's can have similar looking striped but the two bars on the base of the tail give it away.

As Smidey said, stuck on backgrounds always end up with water marks between the glass and paper/plastic/card and look like rubbish, not to mention the unevenness, falling off, fading etc. Several thick coats of satin black spray paint (just the cheap stuff from repco) works fine, just make sure you clean the glass with meths and a razor blade before hand to make sure its spotless.

Mine is remarkably graceful at picking up pieces of shrimp off the bottom, its the dats that gulp it down and get a bit of the substrate with it. I'm not too worried about the aro eating the subsrate as its all small enough to pass, I learned the hard way about putting in bite sized rocks, I got the first one back but never found the second one!!

Builders sand (#1) from placemakers/bunnings is also good and cheap.

Silica sand is very fine and gets stirred up by larger fish, and can get into filters and damage the impeller. I wouldn't recommend it for a big tank with big fish, but Henward seems to be doing alright with it. Best bet is to give it a go and see what works, if you've got a siphon of a large enough diameter to suck out the gravel/substrate then its not that hard to change it. Bare bottom is certainly easier to clean, but every time I take the substrate out I soon get tired of it and put some back in. Tiles are another option, as easy to clean as bare bottom but looks much better. Check it out here.

I mean they can't legally be imported as they aren't a named species. If they're on the list they can be imported from anywhere, including Australia. The problem is the importers tend to stick to their preferred suppliers (same reason we don't get top quality cichlids from Jeff Rapps in the US), so if you wanted to bring fish in from oz you'd need to convince them they could get a large enough quantity at a low enough price to make it financially viable.

If people are willing to put their money where their mouths are, so many "really keen" for Altolamprologous until they are actually available for $100 each... PM me a copy of the list if you can, will be interesting to see whats on it. Smidey the problem with the 'Sp. Black' etc is that they're a Sp. not a named species...

Try the Datnoid forum at monsterfishkeepers.com, been discussed many times there and everyone has a different theory...

A big dat won't eat a small one, I've seen 16"+ ones kept with ~4" ones that would have been an easy mouthful.

Either Hauraki, The Rock or Solid Gold. I prefer the rock in the morning as I'm sick of the morning pirates recycling jokes that weren't funny 8 years ago, but I feel hauraki have a much better mix of old and new stuff and they don't play nickelback every 5 minutes. Hauraki are playing stairway to heaven right now, I can't even remember the last time I heard it on the rock, let alone at peak time... And solid gold is awesome for a change, they play some pretty cool 60's and 70's stuff!

Haha you better not, I'm honestly not a bad influence.... :lol:

I think Hollywood have some more dels Duncan, you know two isn't enough! How much has Kat spent on jewellery.... :lol:

Not really sure what the point of this thread is, why not make a post in a thread where Henward can actually reply to it, like this one about his filtration, you might help encourage him to take some more photos. I just realised 5 or Henwards bichirs used to be mine, I should have kept them...

I've found pouring boiling water over certain algae makes it easier to scrub and slower to come back.

Bugger, was hoping for some around the 2-3cm mark to grow out with my festae. Never mind. Haven't forgotten about the barrel either, I think I'll have to make a trip over as I almost never head out that side of town...

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... 1243068930 pic is too big to post here...

If this is in regards to the list I asked David Carter for, I haven't actually seen a copy of it yet! Someone else has taken over from where I left off by asking for a copy under the OIA, which I hadn't thought of doing, as the email I got from him said they were compiling a list but weren't going to release it for ages until it was complete. If someone could send me a copy that'd be great.. :lol:

Ditch the kribs and get the salvinis. You won't regret it.

Henward has a beautiful one which is now around 12", but is no longer here to share his wisdom regarding them. There is a profile on the species here: http://www.fishkeepers.co.nz/forums/vie ... f=31&t=431

and isn't it great that we pay them so much to do that.... I'd try contact Rodney Hide about it as he's pretty much been given the job of "minister of bureaucratic reduction". It seems to me that DOC, MAF and ERMA are all trying to do only slightly different jobs with big areas of overlap, and neither knows what the other is doing. I'm sure they could operate far more efficiently as a single entity, at the very least it would reduce the number of CEOs, PAs and other paper shufflers needed by 2/3.....

I emailed David Carter (Minister of Agriculture, Biosecurity and Forrestry) about this some time last year and [eventually] got a typically bureaucratic response, and in PDF format too so its not easy to copy-paste text (same deal when they were replying to me regarding the Leopard Tortioses, do MP's still use typewriters or something?!). Basically said they're working on compiling a list but could not or would not disclose anything useful until it was complete, probably not before the end of 2010. PM me with an email address if you want a copy of the PDF.

Rather than replacing it, adding another sheet underneath the tank will be much stronger and easier (and heavier) than removing and replacing the cracked base.

Exactly, when the roof space is at its hottest you won't want hot air circulated through your house, and vice versa, so you lose all the advantages of having clean air circulated. Heatpump FTW. As for maintenance, is it actually an HRV brand? I'd just check their website.

As much as I despise PETA I guess they do some good work once in a while...