Stu :)

I'd say get a large cat that could bring down a bird like that; e.g. a Maine Coon but... my Maine Coon also swims :oops: Has been known to jump into peoples ponds and the local creek and swim after the food he wants :lol: At least twice a week I find remains of goldfish/carp, frogs, ducklings, etc... by the backdoor. Stu

I think the fish in that listing are Ruby Barbs. Here here, but how? I can't find the animal cruelty bit in TMs 'terms & conditions' and/or 'code of conduct'... even the mention of Nazi memorabilia has gone west since I last read it... Stu

Wow, thank for all your suggestions. I'm just currently putting them through the old grey matter... Stu

Hiya, I'm planning on building a external filter for my tank. The basic design I got floating around my head can be seen on the attached picture (excuse the MS Paint quickie), which is not to scale - The pumps running the input and output are going to 1000lph. The material I'm going to use is 4-5mm perspex ('cos I've HEAPS lying around). Questions- 1). What size/volume should each filter media slot be? 2). What size/volume of the overflow tank? 3). What's the ID of the water hose I need to use? Feedback... anything please. Tell me if I've missed something important, something that could be done better, etc, etc... Many thanks, Stu

I'm just rinsing the lettuce leaf off with tap water and clipping it to the side of the tank opposite side of the plants. The juvenile Silver Dollars and slightly bigger green sevs don't complain. I can tell when my baby Plecos have had a go at the lettuce as it looks 'striped'; meaning that that part of the leaf looks more transparent and you can really see the veins really well. All I have to do is work out better way of feeding the monsters the algae chips... :roll: Stu

Thanks for that. I pulled some out last night and what appeared to be a whole leaf just turned into slime and fell apart soon as I touched it. It great too as soon as I started adding lettuce leaves to the tank the silver dollars have started ignoring the plants :bounce: Obviously fancy lettuce tastes better than aquatic plants. Stu

I put a lettuce in my tank to supplement the feeding of my Silver Dollars and Green Sevs, I was wondering how long should I keep lettuce leaf in tank before swapping out and replacing? Many thanks, Stu

I was wondering about duck weed the other day... Who'd would you think/bet on to win this battle- Duck Weed versus Silver Dollars? Stu

Ok... alarm bells are ringing here. As a RC boater I know that epoxy breaks down and starts to oxidize when exposed to water and UV light... and there's plenty of that in the aquarium Or am I over-reacting by cross referencing hobbies? :oops: FYI - Epoxy "filler" (sometimes called "micro-balloons") is actually very fine polystyrene balls that turns good ol' two part epoxy into epoxy glue. You can also get very fine and short loose glass fibre, but for all intensive purposes both act fairly well as flaring material. Polystyrene foam for ship building is good idea, but I've got VAST amounts of styrene sheet, tube, rod, etc lying around. Also I'm fairly use to building model boats with styrene too. Plus I can 'cheat' on some parts and vacuform them. After some more in depth googling some posters on other fish forums say that paint with words "Non-toxic" and/or "Child's Toy Safe" on the bottle/can are good to use if left to cure for one to two weeks and well rinsed with a good test soak first. Can any confirm or deny this? Thanks Stu

Arrr... yes there is THAT route, but I'm one those snobby scratch builder types, due to the fact there isn't many ironclad and dreadnought kits around and the ones that do exist are moulded in white styrene. I've got a spare kit; the Mikasa to be exact, I thought about using but... a). It never sank and is currently a museum ship b). It's $200something limited edition version Stu

Do you mean polyurethane per chance? If "yes" I've got cans and cans or that stuff around... Yes I can post lots pictures for build log... RC boaters online demand lots pictures when someone starts a new boat project and lets everyone know about it... Stu

Hiya all, I want to have a sunken ship model in my tank. I've looked around the various stores and online, what I have seen so far I think is quite naff looking and almost all of them are the gallon/tall ship/pirate types. I myself am fan of ironclads and dreadnoughts. The idea is to build a "model" in either three or four parts with a bow, stern and one or two broken mid sections which will give lots of hiding places for the fish... plus it will look realistic as dreadnoughts and battlecruisers tended to break up after going down. I understand that styrene plastic is fish safe, but I don't want big white model. So any suggestions for paint? I normally use water-soluble acrylics (alcohol based) for my RC boats. I know water-based paint with flake over time. Not too sure about enamels as I avoid them like the plague... Many thanks Stu

Thanks for the welcome. Ahhh... after a quick google that annoying fish WAS a Kuhli Loach. Darn thing use to either float around on the surface pretending it was dead until I netted it out, or when I was pretending to be alive is use to wrap itself around the plant stems in front of the filter outlet. Stu

Just quick note to say 'hello' and a quick intro and fishy background. My name is Stu and I've spent most of my adult life at university. My interests include RC Boats, wargames and photography. I've keep fish before mainly cold water (I was good with Black Moors) and then after a tank disaster I bought a second hand heater and kept tropical fish in my early teens; the usual starter mix of barbs, guppies, danios, swordtails, a silver shark, an angel fish and some yellow-black snake-like fish that kept playing dead I've won a good re-starter setup on TradeMe (tank, heater, filters, pumps, etc) with a view to setup an Amazonian bio-type tank. Stu