twinkles

All growing in submersed in the boggy parts next to the river, up to 50cm deep. Is the ferny-leaved thing in the background here milfoil? And what's the leafy middle one? This one has wider leaves than it looks in pic, and some are reddish underneath..

Nice

Searched everywhere in town for low VOC paint, finally found one 1L tin of clearance taubmans eco paint. They've pulled that brand and their new paint which is coming out soon is all low voc, will be on the tin and they're really helpful on the phone. Tinted it with ochre and a little bit of umber and oxide, thanks to my painter friend. Painted a coat on the front, it took heaps of paint to fill in all the bubbly porous surface, second coat barely made it before it ran out. Threw some leaf litter stuff on the second coat to make it less boring. Once it was dry glued all the back and put it in place, very hard to stick because the covered drill holes on the back wall stick out so it couldn't press fully onto the back glass. But looks pretty well glued so hopefully it'll stay in place when water is added. Here's the back.. Close up of box corner thingy.. Front of the same part.. One shelf bit being glued in.. Will be glueing pebbles and moss and stuff onto the shelf once the glue is cured, and across the top from that level up. And here's the little holding tank in my kitchen that I made while i was bored waiting for glue to dry, to hold the new bullies for a few days when I get them. Don't want to put them straight into the new big tank, partly in case they're the wrong species or sex from what I want, because they're alot harder to tell apart in the dark and when they're freaked out and pale. They'll be impossible to catch in the new tank once all the rocks etc are in.

I cut the poly into two sheets the size of the back of the tank. Cut each into three sections, so they'd fit between the braces on top of tank. Then glued the two pieces together to make it 60mm thick, for the middle and right side sections. The left side was harder cause I wanted to make it cover that box thing, i'll get some pics of that tomorrow. Once the glue was dry I sliced the poly out with a craft knife, very easy, then with a rough old breadknife and fingernails to rough it up since it was way too smooth and artificial looking. Didn't really have much of a plan except to have the above water part angled and with a groove for the plants, but tried to make some ledge bits and caves for the bullies to sit on and the koura to hide in. Put the filter in-out holes through on an angle, then carved gaps in the back for the pipes to run up to the top of tank. If i was doing it again I would have carved it held together instead of glued, cause I carved most parts right back to a thin edge on the back piece of poly and wasted heaps of glue, plus the edges of the silicone are hard to carve/paint/hide. Once I was done carving it I ran the heatgun over it carefully, idea seen on here somewhere, which smothed the flaky bits and sort of hardened it all. Then painted. Will write the rest tomorrow.

It's amazing And great write up

Nope :oops: I'll get one from the front side properly tomorrow though, so you can see it straight and where the joins are etc. Haven't put anything in the gaps yet. And i'll get a couple of pics from the back too.

I'll be the guinea pig and you can learn from my mistakes lol

Here's what it looked like 7 overflow holes, with messily glued glass covering them, a box thingy in thing the left back corner with plumbing in it, 3 dividers siliconed in place and filthy glass. Looked pretty bad but I was stocked cause it was cheap lol. Cut the dividers out with a razorblade, and almost all the silicone. Went and bought some chemical stuff to get the last thin film off in a couple of places, got a free sample of one of those white 'magic eraser' cloths, found that worked amazingly well and went back and bought one. It removed the silicone, dried algae and cyano, lime/salt water marks and general grubbiness, with ease. It's chemical free and my new best friend. It does say not to use on fishtanks on some brands of them, but I imagine that's because it takes off silicone so easily, I stayed away from the joins. Can't recommend it enough. This is the front side glass now.. And this is the background, middle section still has stuff holding it firm.. Had to really squeeze to get that pic so sorry about the angle, my room is way too small and I can't shift the tank. That's from the left end, the corner box thingy is behind the background there, and it curves around more than it appears in this pic. It's also less yellow and more ochre than that. The channel part near the top of background is to shove plants in, and it overhangs from there and gets thinner towards the bottom. There's another bit to glue still which will make a larger sticking out bank bit at the end. On the back of the tank there's cut out parts through the background for the filter I have, a second external filter, and airlines, all meshed over and angled so they're hard to see. If you can see in the first pic, there's an open tap fitting thing on the right side, which i'm pondering what to do with. It's above where the waterline will be and can easily be hidden in the plants, but I might try and find a hose fitting thing to screw onto it, so that i can do water changes by running the hose into the tank and attach a second one to there going out the window as an overflow for the inevitable time I forget to turn it off. Dunno yet anyway. With the box corner thing, it has some sort of plumbing thing, for marine i guess, which has a long pipe going down then out the back of the tank down low. I don't feel that safe leaving it as is and relying on the water not getting in to flood out the back of the tank one day, but not sure what to do here either. Maybe silicone up the top of the pipe. Or find a cap to fit the outside part of the tank exit bit. When the stand comes i'll be adding onto it to enclose at least the back and the right side, some poles up, poly on the tank, then plywood to cover, to help keep the temperature down cheaper. Don't know if I should do a top hood thing at the same time, will ponder it. Want to leave the other end open though so I can look in.

Not too much, sounds reasonable and polite to me, not something to stir up a response like that anyway. I put a question on the tm auctions for shrimp to say that they're covered by fisheries legislation and illegal to sell, we'll see what they say if they answer..

I wont be ordering anything from either :evil: What did your email say to them? Have also just found out that freshwater shrimp don't breed in tanks - have a marine stage - thanks to the person who informed me So the ones on trademe aren't captive bred and probably shouldn't be sold either. Are freshwater shrimp covered by the freshwater fisheries rules? Or general fisheries?

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/publ ... 96933.html that's the part covering permits already existing. So who wants to contact animates and anywhere else selling them and see where they get them from, to see if they've got a permit?

Sorry, should have included the link.. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:8JyYErN3JOcJ:waimaori.maori.nz/publications/TWMT%2520Environ%2520Scan%2520final.pdf+freshwater+mussels+selling&hl=en&gl=nz&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi6aRnofH0oWot6LCp1Jb5yyb2STnXsuatrIbEp_hx4BtQHJG4bW8nXN04EBK3gpXD-jz7N8GHNtt3T0vDuWbl59xtD8U_BLdMzEovEfKu-_rRp9D-p1nbbF1IZM3wPiReWKCdY&sig=AHIEtbRlOGe_nr8ZvojfHloBu9U_OIAF3w And here's the act itself... http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1996/0088/latest/DLM394192.html

Three other freshwater species are listed in Schedule 4C7 of the Fisheries Act. These are Lamprey Freshwater mussels Koura stocks in the South Island. To fish for non QMS species a fishing permit is required. However no new permits are being issued for species listed in Schedule 4C in recognition that these species are subject to concern about current utilisation/sustainability..... ....Part 5B also makes it is an offence to sell fishing rights to freshwater fish12 or to buy or sell or possess freshwater fish taken in contravention of the Act. That sounds fairly clear...

So where are the petstores getting them from, and what are the legalities over selling them?

Background has been painted and had some bits of leaf litter chucked on the top with the second coat, it was a bit boring before. Hopeing it'll brown up with algae fairly quickly. Couldn't get the paint as dark as I wanted aesthetically but it's the right colour to match the streams around here, bought home a little dirt covered pebble to check and it's a perfect match Just glued the two end pieces in, will let them set before I do the middle. There's going to be a big gap at the join on one side and a smaller line on the other, so i'll shove a piece of driftwood in and glue it in the crack, and maybe some rooty things in the smaller one. Advice for anyone thinking of sticking in a background in a large tank - make sure you've got things ready to hold it in place. I realised once i'd glued it and put it in that I didn't have anything to brace it and had to run around grabbing books and the vacuum hose stick thing to wedge it firmly while it sets. Seems good now though. I'll probably wait 24 hours then put the middle section in, and a bit more glue around the edges of the other bits, then leave it till monday, clean up the blobs of silicon i've dropped on my nice clean glass :oops: , then I can start sticking in the dirt and plants and stuff above the waterline. Will grab some pics once the background is set

Wow, they actually responded properly, nice job :thup: Green water does sound like the best option, be interesting to hear if anyone's succesful feeding them novotom though. From what I read about them you need a green grotty looking 1000L tank to keep one wee mussel happy.

Good job, let us know what they come back with All the mussels are gone from my area, even the traditional beds of them at Kakahi - maori for freshwater mussel - are empty

looks great :nfs:

it's so big and tough looking, i've never seen one are the red/brown ones tubifex?

In the last pic, what on earth is that big creepy thing? Is it a dragonfly larvae? Or a spider x mantis?

k9 natural is great too, really easy raw food :thup: Jimbos home delivery is made onsite and delivered fresh or frozen, unlike the stuff they have in supermarkets which can sit around for a bit. They have a mutton mince roll which is really rich and fatty, it's great for putting weight on dogs fast. He's a lucky boy having such a caring owner

Definately try raw feeding. We've had brilliant results with dogs with skin conditions etc, and it's definately the best for their overall health. Don't worry about salmonella if you feed raw food on it's own, his stomach acid will take care of any germs. You only need to worry about bacteria if you're feeding raw food with other food, because the grain/cooked meat/dry food will slow down his digestion, block things up and let infection grow in that longer time frame. If he has a full belly of straight raw meat and bone it'll be completely digested within 4 hours, while grain foods take around 12 hours. Jimbos petfood do lots of soft pre-mixed raw foods, and they deliver free in auckland. The power patties might be the easiest option, everything pre-ground and grain free... http://www.jimbos.co.nz/shop/home-deliv ... tties10kg/ There's also a raw feeding vet in grey lynn, she does consults and would be the best qualified person to answer raw feeding and megaesophagus questions. http://www.rawessentials.co.nz/index.php Best of luck, he looks like a lovely boy

eew those parasite things are gross :sick: that little banded is gorgeous, shimmering in the light and the other one is a monster all right, reminds me of a coelacanth with the feet hehe

I was going to get one a foot longer, but this came up cheap and now that it's here i'm glad I didn't, it's huge and weighs a ton empty. The other tanks here are the kids so I thought if i'm only going to have one tank i'll make it a brilliant one, will look good next to my 14inch crt tv in the lounge lol.

Crocodile. Or a fern reflecting Waiting for someone to drop the paint tints off so i can get on with painting it, will take some pics once that's done. Meantime been scraping the last few bits of silicone off the front from where the dividers where, it's coming off much easier than I thought it would. Using a craft knife blade without the handle, held parallel with the glass. It's doing a good job taking off all the dried algae and lime marks too, heaps easier than scrubbing.