BikBok

if it's a virus I would be concerned about adding new guppies. That's one reason I always quarantine new livebearers for a MONTH. If I have any new fry I put a couple of them in with the newcomers to see of they catch anything. I give the tank a dose of salt at the same time . The only time I didn't quarantine some nice new fancy guppies.. I had problems.. one died in two days and the other a few weeks later and then almost all my males died soon after and I had to start again. i think it was columnaris

what is the expected lifespan of Dwarf gourami? I've had mine for a year now and they are remarkably robust considering having endured being stuck in driftwood tunnels (with fin breakage/wounds and loss of scales as a result) and they did not succumb to whitspot or columnaris that were brought in by new fish. I had heard that they were not terribly hardy but put them in a newish tank anyway and they are doing great so far.

hehe.. get another small tank (double as a quarantine tank) - grow them up a little and sell on trademe! ... or you could put in a female fighter , a couple of dwarf gourami and they'll help to keep the numbers low. The parents will eat some too. We have three guppies in the eel tank and that provides him with live food haha.

nah... any experienced bidder will "snipe" in the last 3 minutes (NOT 2 as commonly thought as that will autoextend the auction and give an extra two minutes for latecomers to get in on the action) works well with most auctions but those $1 reserves usually create a lot more interest so everyone is there lurking and waiting!

guppies and platys are easy care semi schooling fish that tend to get along in most communities but prepared for lots of babies. If you're patient you can get some beautiful guppies! They are a personal favourite of mine. Small and pretty. Otocinclus (otos / otto cats) are another small fish (catfish) that I like.. and do a fantastic job at keeping algae at bay but they really need to go into an established tank. They like to be in groups of 3+. Kuhlis are cool!

i stopped using carbon about a month ago and just replaced the empty space with more filter wool.

by my calculations , you got her when she was 7 weeks which is quite young. I think 8 weeks is the minimum recommendation but i usually try and find a kitten 10 weeks plus because mother cat has better trained it (yes mama cat can toilet train kittens.. where to go etc) and it's more socialised before being taken away from mum. It could very well be a comfort thing that she will hopefully grow out of.

what sort of foods would contribute to fat build up?

on the lawn. we moved one to the edge of the garden and she moved it back out and then laid a second egg. silly duck. She's gone off and left them both in the hot sun now.

well there are now two eggs and the duck has moved them together.

ok thanks. was given similar advice on TM messageboard. Will let nature takes it's course then and see what happens.

the humble little bristlenose! those odontes can hurt!

we have two resident ducks that spend each day on our front lawn. They are young, I'd say first season as the boy barely has his male markings. Anyway .. i saw him mating her this morning and then 1/2 hour later.. an egg appears! What do we do now? can we move the egg 1/2 metre to the garden so we can still mow the lawns. She sat on it for a while and is now sitting near it.. does the egg have to be warm at all times? I'm worried about nightfall which is when the two ducks usually waddle back accross the road to the reserve.

HFF have some wildcaught ones at the moment. (they don't breed very often in captivity) I brought two of them , they need a good length climatisation but then they should be fine in an established tank. So.. if you're going to get some for Christmas.. leave a panel of glass to grow some algae so they get a good feed, or leave a rock in a bucket of water outside to get a good growth :-) Mine will graze on zuchhini and alagae wafers but prefer real algae as most of them do. They're good at keeping the leaves clean.

I have three little otos in my tank. They are very cute and swim around together.

will try and find out what is happening with the bird on Monday.

have sent the link to all my friends and facebooked it

lol - yeah . Maybe they're racing pigeons that got lost. The one at our school seemed sort of dazed like a bird that has flown into a window. Barrie has PMed me with some info so hopefully we'll be able to reunite the owner.

A pigeon was found wandering our school yesterday afternoon. It has a leg tag but the phone number on it was not connected. It seemed disorientated. It is being cared for by our gardener. Another one was found at a nearbye high school. I know soembody on here has birds but I think those are doves? ...but may know who has pigeons. I'm at work so might not be able to check back untill later in the day. If you need more info you can phone Manurewa South School - 2668341 and ask for Andrea or Deanne. (I'm Rebecca)

thanks.. I have contacted the teacher and he said the cuttoff is this coming Thursday 18th. He entered all the data on Friday but will check my sons entry on Monday. It may show by Monday anyway as the correct "A" .

agreed - but can't do much about it! I don't like the specific way in which the English questions have to be answered either. The English externals are just crazy and are not a good indication of understanding at all... IMO of course! if you have to explain why/how you understand something then it loses the point altogether.. you either get something or you don't in literature.. trying to explain it in technical terms, takes away the emotional response. anyway I'm sure he will pass his NCEA but may need those particular credits for a course next year.

thanks , it would be good to know for sure.

well I searched all over the NZQA site and it looks like the cutoff is first week of December.

Yeah I know that results aren't always entered quickly .. but at this time of year they should be nearing the deadline I would think.. schools all but over for seniors. (just the external exams) and a result HAS been entered - it's just incorrect ! should be "A" not "SNA"

Hope somebody can answer me. I was just checking my sons learners record on the NZQA website and noticed that a standard that he sat AND passed had been entered as "SNA" - standard not attempted. That's inaccurate .. he DID sit the internal exam and earned 4 credits for it. I've emailed the school but there's nothing more I can do till after the weekend when I will try and get through by phone. I just hope it's not too late to get the result changed. If anybody knows the answer.. that would give me some peace of mind over the weekend! (hopefully!)