twinkles

one of mine is riddled with it too... and of course its my 'display' tank in the lounge lol. Left lights off for a couple of days and put a sheet over it, seems to be 80% gone now, lots of clear patches on the glass. Will have to siphon all the bits out and then see about the rest...

yes what he said from me too if they've been giving out the same info for years it wont hurt to wait till everyone has more time after christmas etc, seems like everyone around here is run off their feet at the moment.

i must join a club so i can get it, sick of being left out when everyone's talking about how great it is. I picked a few old ones up from a garage sale the other day, from the 80s, still great reading. And killifish articles in each one

see thats a great article Hey Caryl, add something about cold water fish and send it off to the spca on behalf of the fnzas

Oops yes thats what i meant sorry. Maybe more than 20 years though, the glass siphon tube is exactly as described in my "Cyclopedia Of Reciepts" from 1897 lol. Anyone offering to write a nice simple starters guide to fish care? If its sent on behalf of fnzas i'm sure they'd link to here, for people to learn more. From that note at the bottom of the article it sounds as though it was written before this site, when there was just the magazine and clubs to refer to.

Just reading this and thought it sounds like it needs some better info on it, and this would be the place to find someone who could email them some relevant info/a better article, perhaps on behalf of the society or something. http://rnzspca.org.nz/caring-for-fish-2 There's a few things like this "Fresh water should be added to the tank when needed, to make up for evaporation. If water in the tank becomes obviously discoloured, it should be changed. Changing the water: The use of a glass syphon tube and hose will facilitate cleaning. Syphon out about 1/3rd of the water. Get the tube right down into the gravel, work it across the bottom of the tank, and allow the water to run into a bucket. Never undertake a complete water change." that sound like they're 20 years old, and it would be nice if there was either a little more in depth information about what fish need, or links to places to find out more (like here lol) Given that i was sent the link by a friend who was recomended it from a petstore, it would be nice to see some better information being published as the spcas advice on fish care. I'm sure they'd be appreciative of some help to update it, but i'm not the person to do it. Mods please move this if there's a better section for it

yup, my boy will teach them their manners when they start running around, he's good at being role model and protecter to various puppies and kittens we end up with, they're his babies too lol. And we have two boisterous dogs of my partners, a dog and a bitch, who will give them some more pack interaction when they're older. Nothing worse than hand raised pups who haven't been socialised.

They're heading dogs, well bred from working parents, so should be easy to find homes for. But i'll be super picky about where they go, since they're my babies lol. Sam i'll drop one off if you like I don't think they look like rats, i think they look like baby rabbit kits, their heads are the same shape with the flat little ears etc. They're already pretty noisy, Dip has been able to make little barks from day 1.

their mother had no milk, rest of the litter died. But i wont go into details here :-? Was really worried the first couple of days that we'd lose some of them at least, but they're all doing really well and have doubled their weight so i thought it was time to name them :bounce:

Haven't posted all week cause i've been run off my feet looking after these guys They're 9 days old now, were 48 hours when we picked them up. This is Jed, the fatty puppy - And this is Dip, the middle puppy And this is Sweep, the littlest puppy They make a huge amount of mess and need feeding every few hours but they're cute enough to make up for it :bounce:

i have a crowntail boy who is almost doubletail, but not quite, the end/outside of his tail has a slit like that, then it joins, then there's a split closer to the root, so its only a few mm where its joined in the middle. When he's not flared it just looks like a rip in his tail, then when he flares it you can see the funny gap through the middle. Is he young? Might just have to wait and see if it starts growing back or gets more obvious.

for the light, if you take the hood off there should be writing on the bulb that has the wattage and possibly the k-rating. Its a tank i've seen before, i'm sure someone will be able to tell you the likely brand and model.

in my inexperianced opinion, the plants you have look pretty good. I think if you change the substrate to a dark gravel or sand, and add a background, you'll find they stand out brilliantly and of course they'll grow in over time to fill it more.

thats only 2 buckets worth or so, can do easily. I'll bring it for you on labour weekend if you like?

how much do you need? i can probably bring it up or get a mate to, travel up there lots

i'll just put all the wood and stuff back, plus a load of rocks, and then fiddle with it if it doesn't look right. I think it'll be nice though as it is but with sand and a background. here's the sand in my other tank, its alot darker than in the pic -

free black sand is = take some buckets to the quarry i'll post a pic of it in my other tank in a bit if you're interested, its black with a few bits of white pumice, but they're lighter than sand so easy to wash out if wanted.

how much do i want to spend? nothing at all lol. Can get black sand for free though. what look do i want? not sure, i hardly ever pay any attention to this tank but its sort of started looking ok lately, which has snagged my interest and made me think what else i could do to improve it. i think i might pull it all apart on the weekend and change the background, substrate as suggested, replant everything and weigh the big things down with rocks, then see how it goes. With rain warnings inplace i'll need something to do for the day :-?

lol, but mr. algae has different ideas. Every few weeks i grab all those big floating pinkish plants and snap them in half, and plant them again, and that night he pulls them out again. The few that are rooted have big rocks on them that he can't move easily. I think i might do the whole tank over afterall, then i can change the substrate cause i think its too big for the hairgrass to cover, even in the thickest part it still shines through really ugly, and add some rock piles to keep the plant roots under. I worry though that if i disturb algae he might decide to attack the hairgrass, he ignores it at the moment.

nevermind found it on the main page plant info. so thats what babies tears is :oops:

thanks does it have a common name too? looks suprisingly nice when it grows above the water, and yep, it grows like a weed, otherwise it wouldn't have survived in my other tanks with really bad lighting and fish nibbling at it.

the tank is hard up against the wall, tried to get black paper in there once but it was too tight a fit. If i could find something quite stiff i'd be able to shove it in though. Otherwise i guess i could drain most of the water and move it forward a few mm's. Definately not changing the substrate! one day maybe, but i can't be bothered pulling the whole tank to bits at the moment. It actually has a thin layer of dark sand underneath too, thats what you can see in the middle of the tank, the plants do grow much better in it admitedly. Maybe i'll get the new substrate, then when i have a day spare i might get inspired and get round to doing it. Could kill two birds with one stone and do the background then too. Trip to aucks got cancelled, so i didn't get anymore furcatus, but i'm going up on labour weekend so will have a look then. Want a few more of them, and a few more celestials, i feel sorry for those two being all alone. The heater is one of those annoying non-submersable ones, so theres a big gap above the waterline. Its started looking a bit better lately since some of the woods were too long and poke up, and one of the plants is growing well above water too. I had planned to swap the heater when i can but now i think i might try to get more wood and plants going up there instead, quite like the way they look. The plant thats growing above water i need an i.d for, i've got no idea what its called, but its the one thats in the first pic on either side of the themometer with little round leaves.

here's some pics of the fish while i'm at it

This is my daughters tank, which has always been a hodge-podge of various spare fish and plant cuttings from my tanks. Couple of months back i decided it looked pretty boring so added the wood and a better light, soon as the light went on a load of plants popped up that i thought had disapeared, some i don't even remember ever being there lol. So now it looks pretty good i think, and a good carpet of hairgrass has started growing. But short of changing the awful gravel what could i do to improve it a little? Still looks a bit bare i.m.o Its 100L or so, understocked but I don't want to add any more fishies unless i can find mates for the single ones, has a big algae eater, 6 guppies, a little rainbow, a celestial pearl and a female betta. Left side of tank - Right side - and don't suggest more plants in the right hand corner, Algae doesn't like them there and he removes them every time i try lol

bought it dirt cheap second hand.... just been trying to find one on trademe to replace. i put it in the bin pile, partner pulled it back out, took it apart, declared it fixed, plugged it back in and stunk out the house for a second time..men ah :roll: will try hff in the morning to see if they can order one in, but i suspect it'll be cheaper to buy another tank second hand and then sell the lightless one. Still be fine for a quarintine tank or something. At least they're pretty common tanks.