David R

I can, the uarus, severum and larger heckeliis will be fine, but the balzanis and sajicas are too small. I guess in that respect option B is the best bet.

:lol: I could keep most of the cichlids in my 4' and carry out option B in the 5', but that wouldn't have the desired effect on the power bill or water rates! Planted tanks have never really excited me that much, with maybe the exception of an Amano-style carpet of something with a few rocks poking up and a huge school of cardinals, which in this case would be a waste because the tank is going in the garage. Plus with the power the lights would use I could probably keep the 4' and not have to make the decision I'm trying to make now!!

I've decided to bite the bullet and set up my 630L 5' tank, problem is that I can't decide what to put in it!! I'm trying to reduce the number of tanks I have, eventually down to just one tank, which of course means making some sacrifices... Option A: Mixed cichlid community. I'd sell my dats and big ornate then put my 3 uaru, 1 redhead sev, 5 heckelii, 5 balzani and 3 male sajicas in there, along with my clown loaches (and probably a heap of smaller loaches!). Decorated with large pieces of wood, rocks, and probably grey or white sand. Pro's: Cichlids are cool, colourful, lots of activity. More clown loaches!! Con's: Selling the big ornate. Option B: A somewhat more minimalist look, sell most of the cichlids and keep my big ornate, the largest loaches (I have about 6 that are too big to be close-to snack size for the ornate, who I'm expecting will have a growth spurt once in the bigger tank), 3 uaru and probably the bigger heckelii's. I may even reduce the number of cichlids and look at splashing out on an asian aro if some more get imported and I'm feeling rich... Pro's: Keep the big ornate! Maybe an aro. Con's: Less clown loaches. Have to get rid of the smaller cichlids. MTS is harder to quit than smoking!!

Go ahead and get them by all means, big clown loaches are always in demand, I can't see any LFS anywhere turning you away and saying "nah sorry, there's just not the market and we're over stocked with big clown loaches"....

One of them was a real runt and wasn't getting much food with the other 5 being so aggressive at feeding time. I put it in my sisters planted tank with a few female fighters and I havent seen it since! The other 5 are doing well, I'm not even going to try to photograph them as every time I go near the tank they start swimming against the glass begging for food. They're worse than oscars!!!

Ah, just another reason I love my sump...

A bit smaller than convicts, around 10-12cm AFAIK. Females smaller.

Starve it for a week and try again. How big/old is it? What kind of arowana? Cichlasoma arowanii? :lol:

Cool pics of the sajicas! It looks like I've got three boys and two girls, they're growing like mad and always hungry, I'll probably separate them soon as I don't want them breeding until they're bigger. What does the BG in BGJD stand for??

How big is the pipe in the foreground? I've got a couple of big-ish loaches, but none like that!!

Maybe I should give ours a warming party when I wake him from brumation!

Good clean water at around 27C+, slightly acidic, feed them up on shrimp pellets, chopped shrimp [raw] and other meaty foods and they should fatten up fast. They like a reasonably strong current in the tank too. www.loaches.com should have some helpful info on them.

But can the park bench support (or even fit) a south auckland family?? :lol:

Whats the difference between a pizza and a south auckland father? The pizza can feed four kids.

+1 Canister filter will offer the least surface disturbance and will be the best for a planted tank, and Eheim make the best canisters.

The law regarding smoking in the workplace was that there had to be a separate facility for smokers where non-smokers wouldn't come into contact with the second hand smoke. That worked fine, my old workplace used to have a horrible little room for the smokers just off the cafeteria. The smokers could sit in there smoking and asphyxiating each other with second hand smoke without bothering the non-smokers. For some reason the government didn't like that and changed it, so now the smokers have to walk upstairs to the caf, make their coffee, walk downstairs, out the front door, and about 50 metres around the side of the building to an outdoor area where they are allowed to smoke. Its nearly impossible on a 15 minute break. And all for what? :-?

Assumption is the mother of all ---- ups. For the record, I smoked experimentally a little bit in high school, usually only when drinking and while trying to learn how to blow smoke rings or backwards waterfalls. I think its a filthy habit and I'm not sure why people get a kick out of it. However, I'm all for freedom of choice and personal responsibility. If people want to smoke thats fine by me, as long as their doing so doesn't affect my personal freedoms. I would much rather we had a society where people were free to chose what they put into their bodies and were held accountable for the results than a nanny-state telling me what I can and can't do with my own body. A health system where the cost of smoking-related illnesses were transferred back onto the smokers (thru user-pays and/or higher health insurance premiums) seems much fairer than the current system. Same goes for fat people who are too lazy to exercise and watch what they eat. If you're looking to ban harmful substances you'd be better off to start with alcohol, or maybe just go for the trifecta of tobacco, alcohol and caffeine... :roll:

Believe it or not, many people actually ENJOY smoking and have no intention of ever giving up despite knowing all the risks and associated problems. I enjoy mountain biking, despite the risks involved. You could argue that there are no positive aspects of it as there are much safer ways to get exercise and so it should be banned. Same goes for rugby. You're fighting a losing battle conch; if there's one thing a nanny-state government loves more than regulations its money. If they banned smoking they would lose millions of dollars of revenue (even after all the propaganda and associated health costs), plus they wouldn't get to invent new regulations like having ugly pictures on the box. It will never happen, ever.

How about alcohol, chocolate, mcdonalds? :roll: Hey, lets make it compulsery to all wear heart rate monitors linked to a national monitoring system so if we don't do the required amount of exercise per week we get fined/punished. While we're at it we'll abolish supermarkets and instead a taxpayer funded dietitian will come up with an appropriate meal plan based on your age and weight and you will have a food parcel delivered to your house every week containing a selection of grains, fruit, vegetables and lean meat.

LOL! There's an 'Inappropriate Joke' thread on NZHondas at the moment, these are tame in comparison... :lol:

You'd think that with the number of vocal whingers and campaigners of the anti-smoking laws that a non-smoking bar (back in the days before the ban) would have been really popular and they would have been popping up all over the place...

So we end up with tobacco exceeding cannabis in being a money-earner for the gangs?

You could put the crying kinds in the fridge?

Placemakers etc might have cover sheets of poly for cheap/free. Although I'l going to the ones in the Panmure area to get them all so you'd better hurry!!

:roll: you're confusing personal responsibility with what is socially acceptable. To use your example; pooing in the corner isn't socially acceptable anywhere [in NZ], at home or at work. This would equate to someone in a customer service roll smoking on the job and blowing smoke in the customers face. There doesn't need to be laws prohibiting pooing in the corner, because people just know that its not the done thing. But by all means, its your business and I believe you should be able to do as you please with it. You can poo on the counter next to the cash register for all I care, but I'm sure customers will express their displeasure by shopping else-where.