twinkles

i vote we find a fish store to sponsor it with vouchers for the winner or top three. One that ships, like hollywoods? We can always hope

i've got an empty jebo r338, exactly 40L, does that count? It had no bulbs when i got it though, i'd have to find out what they cost to buy first I've got a 9L at school i'm setting up this week too, its tiny

wow :bounce: he's beautiful

that's a stunning tank makes me want to try cichlids have you got a full front pic of it? good idea too, i'll have to try it out with my bristlenoses

great work Mark re fingerprinting cars - i had my mp3 player stolen out of my car a few weeks ago, now this was one i'd bought for only $20, and had gained a smashed screen, missing end, and the file system was broken so it only played the last album i'd loaded - micheal jackson's history lol - and i'd left my car on the street unlocked overnight. Never the less i thought i'd better report it since it was probably the same kids who have been doing a string of burglaries around our street. I was amazed that a cop showed up within 10 mins, searched everywhere for prints, and logged it all. We have a 70% solved crime rate here, thanks to cops who take the time to investigate every little thing and like to know whats going on. I couldn't care less if i get my mp3 player back, it'll be going in the bin anyway, but its good to know that they're paying attention to what goes on around here. They know as well as the street does who it is thats doing all the burglaries, just need something they can pin on them to catch them for it. We're getting cameras soon to record the front and back of the house, so hopefully we can catch them at something. Mp3 player was replaced same day on trademe - only $10 for the same one, brand new and sparkling, made me wonder why i hadn't done it earlier

ah well more tanks it is i keep remembering those rocket killies... and the bitaeniatum.... and the sjoestedti.... one day i'll have my own fishroom for them all :bounce:

but are there any you can mix and let breed, and know they are breeding true? Or am i out of luck and need more tanks

Also is there anywhere with information on which species (if any) of killies can't crossbreed with each other? I'd to have a few types in a display tank, but i had it impressed on me from the breeder of the first ones i got that you never risk ruining a strain by mixing them so i've kept them all seperate. I know the annual and non-annuals can't breed, but i'm not keen on trying the annuals yet, and my favourites are the fund and aphy species which i think can all crossbred?

now i'm just more confused trying to match those names to pics i'll have to come to the killie thing at napier next year

that's very cool :bounce: must have a good camera? barrie showed me some of the normani eggs when i visited, i was amazed, they're massive i believe the description was 'eye watering' lol

also, are the species picks at killi.co.uk reasonably accurate? Thats usually where i look first for info on each species...

i thought the f. gardneri gardneri's were blue/green too, and not that yellow colour that the one in the auction is? Or are there albino ones that are golden?

hm's? they're very cute :bounce:

there's a brilliant bird rescue lady on the north shore, if you give the spca a ring they'll give you her details, and they might even collect it and take it to her. She always has a load of babies of all different types, might be another plover for him to be mates with And then he'll get re-introduced to the wild, so you wont be stuck with a noisy pet.

it's only very faint, don't think its etched in there. typical story, someone buys a 9L tank and a couple of goldfish for the class, goldfish die in a few days, tank sits empty on the shelf for the next year. Will put a couple of guppies and maybe a betta in there

haven't filled it yet but i know the ones on my tanks show when they are filled. Yes its that calcium build up stuff. I tried cleaning it off my tanks with white vinegar after reading about it here a while back, but it didn't work very well. If i soak a sponge in it and keep wiping will it come off eventually? I really don't want to scratch it with my nails.

I was pleased to find a little tank sitting empty at the back of my daughters classroom Can't remember the brand but its a little 9L all in one thing, with plastic sides. There's water marks and a few other grubby bits on the front, so what should i clean it with? I know those water marks are darn hard to get off glass, and i don't want to scrub the arcrylic hard and scratch it all. Anyone got a magic cleaning solution for these tanks?

to be a critic, it would look nicer with the heater behind the cave thingy, but i can't talk, all my tanks have got ugly heaters slapped in the middle of the aquascape. At least it makes it easy to see them working

welcomes :bounce: bikbok the heater will be safe as long as the waterline is above the heating coil and the two spring bits that it hangs off, provided there's a good current around it to keep the hot water moving off it. The temperature detecting bit might be out of the water, so you want to make sure the hot water moves around to heat the air above it, otherwise the water will heat too fast in that spot and crack the heater before the air has warmed enough to tell it to turn off. But i have one of those tanks and they have a good current from the spray bar, plenty of water movement. I've never heard of problems with submersing submersable heaters though? I'd think it would be safer the deeper they are. I'd expect the rubber to wear out faster in the damp hot air than in the water, and if it wears out it will fill with moisture either way.

I've figured something out lately which I thought might be of use for anyone else who has a memory as bad as me. I always forget to make sure i have a newer microworm culture going before my old one starts to slow down. Suddenly one day its hard to scrape enough worms and i panick about what i'll feed the fry in a day or two. So i've found that you can get a new one ready in 1-2 days. I use a little yoghurt pot, small spoon of porrige in the bottom so its only 1/2cm deep, sprinkle maybe 1/2tsp yeast on it, and add some of the old culture in dots all over the new one, so there's a fair bit on it in different places. Then i cover it and put it in the fish cuboard (22c) and within about 24 hours i can harvest enough to feed the fry, and by the second day there are heaps all over the sides. I'm not sure if its the small amount of space and food, or the warmth, or the large amount of starting worms i put on, but it works so much faster than the normal way of starting a new culture. They don't last as long, maybe a week or so, but by then i've made another proper one and i can relax until i forget again a couple of weeks later lol. So if you run out of worms try it out

the black on the guppies doesn't fade i meant to say, the black and orange are their only colours that stay in the dark. But the black on the angels does. The other colours on the angels change heaps too, the blue-green tints, but i can't be certain if thats just the way they happen to catch the light or if its actually changing with their mood.

well if the green is the reflecting of the underlying cells, and the orange is the colour cells, maybe the orange faded away to show the green underneath? Interesting however it happened

even i'd dearly love one lol i can't play and don't know anything about them, but its just so purdy, every little bit is so shiny and gleaming, perfect looking in every way, and it even has pink satin in the case. I just like looking at it I'd wish i'd learnt to play at school, i'm always jealous when listening to partner play, the way the music just flows out of the guitar so wonderfully. It'll be worth the dollars and the huge amount of effort put in when she can just pick it up and stun everyone :bounce:

The difference in the types of cells for different colours would explain why blue fighters show their stripes/bands much more than some colours, i'm told you can hardly see them on red fighters whereas our blue girls change in seconds to the scared stripes if they are having a disagreement, and the dominant one changes to deep bright unstriped colour when she wants to show she's the boss.

nearly all of my fish change colour, for example the fish in my daughters tank go really pale over night, so when i turn the lights on the guppies, rainbowfish, bettas are faded looking. Once the lights have been on for a bit they brighten up. I had my scheeli killies in a bare tank with only natural light for a couple of weeks, and they went almost transparent, no sign of their normal blue. Within half an hour of being back in their brightly lit tank with black gravel they were full of colour again. On the other hand i have australes in a bare tank with real weak lighting, and they are as vivid as always, it seems to be the blue and green colours that fade easiest. I think only the yellow/red/black are actual colour cells, and the rest are some other reflection of the light? That could explain why only some colours fade. The guppies are orange in the morning, blue/green/purple/orange a bit later. My new angels are the most noticable, they're next to the tv so i watch them alot, i might glance over one minute and their black stripes are gone, so they are nearly white, then a minute later their stripes are back and true strong black coloured, its amazing.