Moya

Ryans right. Those who spend a greater percentage of their earnings on good and services will be hit harder. Ie, the poor.

Yeah, I only realised that was there when I had finished, zoomed back out to look at whole picture and thought, hmmm those are a bit greener than they should be. Tried to fiddle with it to make the green dissapear, but I only made it look worse Im not sure about sites for it... I have a pen tablet though, which makes my strokes a little bit more fluid, and hence the cropping a bit easier.

Just an side note, but I once had an interesting discussion with a lovely beta breeder about water flow effects. Apart from the standard problems arising from strong current (mr fighter being sucked up against the intake or battered about by the outake) he also showed me that adjusting the water flow even slightly will affect the quality of the fins. They naturally occupy very still pools of water, so the closer to this ideal you can achieve (without adversely affecting the filtration) the better. He told me to turn the drip rate down of the filter on the fighter-bay for one specimen in paticular who could have looked better (the drips were already pretty slow too), and the results were excelent! Nice smooth caudal fin, no more tattyness, yay!

Haha... Very careful clipping!

Just thought Id share some photos of my discus I took last night. The red spotted green (1st photo) is new as of yesterday and I cant get over how gorgeous it is!

Respect.

My Male Bristlenose hangs out in a soup cup. A can attest to their strength.

Site looks very swish. Much nicer than the old version. Love it.

Oh man, Dukeman, did you get that one that was on trademe? That looked sweeeet.

Yeah went and got a new heater, was still under warranty, only 3 months old. A jager too which I was upset about. Had good experience with them otherwise. Fish are fine now, when I found them that morn I thought the little blue one was toast (or bread if it was too cold?). She wasn't moving and just getting buffeted around by the current every now and then. Shes recovering now though, tough little blighter. I got her for free because shes ridiculously stunted and rather messed up internally (has a lot of difficulty doing number 2s). Seem to be out of the woods, yay

Well they're still alive this morning so thats good. I wish I didn't like such expensive fish. Its a pain on the pocket and the heart when one goes.

Yeah, I've got 60+ baby plecos in that tank and they couldn't care less about the temp, still within range for them really. They are pretty awesome. Have a feeling my 3 little clown loaches will either be dead, or riddled with whitespot though. Havent found them yet, as had to go to a biochem test

Woke up this morning to feed my fishy's and see little miss blue discus practically suckered against the filter intake. Tank water was 14 degrees, the heater having probably gone in the night. My big male discus was looking a bit better for wear, but still not so good. Having put them in my other discus tank and acclimatising them (though there was a big temp change so this was still probably a bit of a shock) they haven't really improved much at all in the 12 hours. Has anyone else had experience with something similar, i.e fast cooling and then how long it takes to recoup once warm? The boys fins are a bit tattered and hes putting out extra mucus and appears to be having problems with buoyancy, sitting at the top in once corner resting against glass. The little blue is sitting behind the intake on the gravel resting, still breathing, but very clamped. I will be so ridiculously upset/pissed off if I loose my beautiful big white boy

Awwww, they're so adorable! Thanks for having us Gatito, Spud had a wonderful time stretching his wings and making lady friends. Hes currently got a friend staying (also called Buddy ) who finds Spuds aggressively friendly nature a little bit too much...

What a brilliant idea! I'm totally going to try something like this. Thanks for the inspiration

Oooh and Isaac Asimov

Dune Series Lord of the Rings The Commonwealth Saga His Dark Materials Redwall (childhood read ftw) The Dark is Rising London Chocolat Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett, Terr.... But most of all Dune. READ IT if you have an interest in sci-fi, religion, philosophy, politics. Terry Pratchett.

What kind of fish do you keep Brennos? Different species of fish will appreciate different values of water hardness (KH and GH). For example, if you've got Discus, or most other South American fish then your fish will be happy as larry with your soft water. Provided the pH is also correct and not tooooo low. Think of KH as the degree of resistance to pH change. High KH = harder to move your aquarium pH, Low KH = tank water is more vunerable to pH swings. Heres an easy breakdown courtesy of the API website = http://aquariumpharm.com/Products/Produ ... oductID=74 "Carbonate hardness directly affects the ease of making pH adjustments. In freshwater a high KH level makes lowering the pH very difficult. Each time a pH adjuster is added some of the KH is "neutralized". Each consecutive dose reduces the buffering capacity (KH) of the water. The pH will not go down, however, until the "breakpoint" is reached. When the breakpoint is reached the KH is sufficiently reduced to allow the pH to go down. This is why it may take several doses of aquarium pH adjusters to successfully lower the pH. Adjusting the pH is much easier after the KH has been reduced. Maintaining the pH once adjusted can be difficult with tap water having a high KH level. Every time tap water is added more KH is added to the aquarium. This shifts the water chemistry toward a higher pH level. Some aquarists use distilled water to replace evaporated water. Other kinds of bottled water like spring water are usually high in minerals and will increase water hardness."

That is truely epic. I salute you sneaky.

Mines a compilation of a whole bunch of art I like.

We had a cat that was harassing the cats at my parents. We were a bit worried that perhaps it belonged to someone in the area, so we caught it in a trap and checked to see if it was a full male or not (you can generally tell quite easily, as the males scrotum is rather....erm....'full'). It turned out to be a tom, and was unfriendly as hell so off to the SPCA it went! In my opinion if there is a problem cat in your area, even if it does belong to someone, if that person has been so negligent as to not de-sex their animal then they should have very little right to complain when you take matters into your own hands (whether this be desexing it yourself, or euthanasia).

We get the same sort of situation at our flat. There is a particularly thick bit of bushes that is next to our sleep-out that is constantly used as a birthing spot for stray mothers, and we guaranteed will have about 2 litters every year from random mums. So each year we catch mum + kittens when kittens are old enough and no longer need the milk. Babies go to SPCA to be homed as they can be tamed very easily. The mums are generally very skittish but harmless enough and so get desexed and returned to us for a small donation that they request. They then get released on to our property where they are fed. Some wander off, some stay with us. Both boys we've caught have been nasty pieces of work, and have gone off to the SPCA to no-doubt be euthanized. I'm suprised your SPCA has said it costs $45. Up in Auckland the donation is generally $20 and you simply hire a cage off them with a deposit, which you get back when you return it. If he really is very feral then he will get euthanized, otherwise you can request to pick him up after he gets desexed and release him on to your property. Please don't feel too awful about having him put down if this is the case. By catching him you will be removing the possible threat he poses to wildlife, and also preventing him from fathering plenty of babies each year. As well as no doubt stopping alot of harrasment he is causing other cats in the area. It is better that he is put down humanely. (Although he might not agree with this )

Oh man they must be the cutest little guys ever. I went all *squeeee* over my baby bristlenose, and ottos are even cuter. I thought ottos were pretty hard to breed too. Well done!