waterfaller1

Thank you for all of the new photos posted of your gorgeous country! 8)

Hello my wonderful New Zealand friends! How have you all been?

Beautiful new pics added. :love: I was going through my bookmarked forums, and thought I would pop in and say hello.

Hi everyone! Hope you have all been well. It's been in the mid nineties here, so I suppose you are all enjoying snow skiing, correct? Any new photos to share?

That is my guess.

You need very soft water for eriocaulons, my KH & GH are 1 & 2, PH 6.5. Thanks again.

The "yucca tip" or porcupine shaped plant is called Eriocaulon Australia II. I have not bred my betta, I am not a breeder..just a lover. The baby blues are growing, but very slowly. Thanks for the compliments. 8)

Some new plants & some removed.

Kudas are sweet. The H. abdominalis are cute and comical looking. I am partial to H. barbouri . 8)

I'm sorry if I sounded abrasive, I did not mean to. This is what I would do. Take into consideration that I am not familiar with what equipment you have available in your country. Seahorses look great against a black substrate, but they are more work to keep clean and nice looking. You are aware they cannot be kept with any stinging invertebrates? Get a good refractometer. Will you be making the water for the tank yourself, or purchasing it? I would add a sump, to place equipment,add water volume, and add oxygenation to the tank. Keep your heater and protein skimmer here. Will the tank be drilled for an overflow? Perhaps consider growing seagrasses and macro-algaes first. Put sand, live rock, and cycle the tank for several weeks. Some macro algaes such as the red colored ones can be touchy in a new set up. They can be quite beautiful if set up properly. Consider that displacement from rock & sand takes away some of litres available for your ponies. . I would also set up or at least have available, a quarantine tank. You might want to consider tank bred horses over wild caught. The price is much higher, but mortality rate is lower...as they are accustomed to life in an aquarium. They don't come with the various maladies that seahorses are prone to, and are raised to eat frozen mysis shrimp. Get a good quality salt mix. With a marine tank, patience and research are paramount and will bring you success. I have not personally kept seahorses, other than working with them. They are very beautiful and fascinating. They are not an easy first marine fish to keep. I would add two pairs to start.I will help any way that I can.Good luck. 8)

You are going to put 10~ 8" fish in a 2 foot cube? I would suggest you do some reading on seahorse.org, please.

new pics

Gorgeous photos Olly & firenzenz. 8) ALL of them are, thank you so much everyone!

Ding ding..we have a winner~I am a sleuth I tell you.. Anisomorpha buprestoides ~ http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/walkingstick.htm http://www.whatsthatbug.com/walking_stick.html other lovely things.... http://www.geocities.com/KindlyRat/Bugz.html

I will have to do some research. In the 70's{yes I am that old} I lived in Lake county, which at that time was unpopulated, and still semi-wild. I lived on 1,000 acres. We had a friends' little boy out, and I remember this thing being jet black & school bus yellow. Long, yes, like a walking stick type bug. It spit in the boy's eye, and we had to rush him to the hospital. The blindness was temporary, or they gave him some sort of anecdote.

Excellent! 8)

Oooppps..I am so sorry. I totally forgot I had posted this. Thank you all for the kind words!

Aww..they need a bigger log or something..so cute. Seriously that is for real? I thought it was a photoshop job..

What did you do to his eyes? LOL :lol: Thanks for the compliment. Nice perpin!

Mr. Smiley

I should not have said Bald Eagle..it is our national bird. :oops: We get lots of different birds passing through here in Florida, as it's warm when parts of the country are very cold. We do have some wild and wicked bugs. One looks like a bright yellow stick..if it spits in your eye it can cause blindness.

My apologies, you did stick up for them. 8) Our state bird is a mockingbird. Sure, it might have been cool to have a blue heron, or a bald eagle, but hey..I wasn't the one who was in charge of choosing it. Except for mosquitoes, roaches, and fleas, I can't really say anything bad about any creature on this earth. :lol:

I would never have thought you would be hating on the poor little kiwi so much. I grew up looking at them, they were on a can of shoe shine I believe . I think they look cool, and unique.All of the animals that share your country are. They must serve a purpose, and may be a link to the past...when there was a reason for this bird not to have a need to fly. I think you should reconsider. At a time where so much of our natural ecology is so threatened, be glad you live in a place where it is still very natural. At least from what you have shown me here, it would appear so. Long live the kiwi! Let's hear from a kiwi lover...there has to be someone...

Thanks so much for the nice compliments!

Thanks Caper! 8)