Aquila

The butterfly is still really dark but I love the patch on his/her forehead. I've decided to call him/her 'Inky', short for Ink blot

Finally my patience has paid off and I got my discus 2 weeks ago. Its just taken me this long to get decent pictures of them! I got 2 adults (white butterfly and ring leopard) at about 10cm as well as 2 babies (super checkerboards) at 3.5cm from Vincent Discus. I think they are adorable and am really happy with them! The babies have settled in really well and are currently in a bare-bottom tank with a pair of rams. They are eating like piggies 3+ times a day! The adults have somewhat settled in the community tank but are still fairly dark and have yet to eat anything! I'm also getting one of phoenix's turqs tomorrow! And I plan to buy another 2 babies, blue diamonds, in 2 months time

Lightbulbman.co.nz has powerglos for a lot less. Their store on Boulcott St. has more bulbs than their website lists. Well worth a trip, but you can also call to see if they have the bulb you want in or if they can order it. I am not positive on their selection of T5s but I've got the following T8 bulbs above my 220L which were bought from there: Sylvania Aquastar 10000K Sylvania Gro Lux ~8500K and 2 Daylights I know they also have Syvania CoralStar..but i don't know anything about this bulb...

I would recommend not moving the Botia out at all. You may shock them if you take them out and put them back when the concentration may still be high. They will be fine with a normal dose of flourish. I use to dose Excel to my 220L where I had a Botia angelicus (aka kubotai) and clown loach and they were absolutely fine. I had a couple spots of black beard algae at the same time as black hair algae. I start treating with flourish excel by squirting it directly onto the algae (it would turn orange a few hours later and then fall off by the next couple days). In the end I opted out for just buying a couple of SAE instead and also switched to DIY Co2, as i though excel would be too expensive in the long run. Haven't seen either kind of it since. You mentioned that your SAE is eating the 'hair' but not the 'beard', this maybe just because it was overwhelmed by the amount of it, but once you get rid of most of it, the SAE will be able to keep the rest in check. Once your plants take off (especially with that dosing of the excel), they should be able to out compete the algae and prevent it from returning. Goodluck!

Love the new substrate Where did u get it? I think I actually prefer the one without the black background as well...but looks great either way!

Looks wicked!

I also reduced my photoperiod from 12 to 10 a few months back because i had all those little green dots that wouldn't come off! It fixed the problem where i don't seem to be getting any more, but i still had to use a razor to get them off the front of the glass! They are stubborn as heck! Thanks for the post though Very good lessons learnt!

I named my Nazgul because they flew dragons in the 2+3 LOTR:)

Cool You learn something new everyday! Thanks for that!

bispider and jennifer are right, its not just a jellyfish. It looks like a comb jelly that was harbouring some sort of crustacean larva (typically they molt at least 3 times). You can see the antenae and leg segments as well as compound eyes (aka image forming)...unlike the eyes that some jellyfish have which are simple (can only see light and dark). I would guess it is a very young crab which crawled into the jelly, probably after it had already died and settled on the bottom. Jelly fish can go quite rigid after they die, as opposed to something like a salp that just turns into snot!

Very cool! Post some pics when you get a chance I think that discus definetly go through a learning curve so just be patient!

Add a bit of baking soda to stabilize the reaction (especially if the mixture is frothing) or just reduce the yeast by a bit in the next batch. Looking good!

Really great photos! They would be great to use in a fish ID book

I could recommend something to do with fish behaviour or physiology. Some ideas: -habitat preference -anti-predator behaviour -dominance, territoriality or partner choice -if amount of room fish have affect their growth -visual conditioning

Same in the city. I was at work....got instantly dark around 4pm. After work went outside and found the scooter had been blown over (first time ever...its really stable and I suspect another motorbike fell onto it). Brake handle broken and throttle jammed...great. Had to leave it there. Caught 2 buses home and still had puddles in my shoes. Luckily i managed to catch the last bus up Mt. Vic or I would have been in a really bad mood.

I'll answer what I can... Garlic can be used in preventative cases and it also said to help boost fish's immune systems. What you do is just lightly crush a clove or 2 and then drop then in your tank for a couple of days. This can be repeated every so often like once every couple months. To help prevent a internal parasite outbreak or to treat a mild one, you can pre soak some food like brine shrimp or bloodworms in water with a crushed clove for about 30 min to 1hour and then feed the fish. Not all fish will like the taste so if they are being picky try reducing amount of time left pre-soaking. This can be combined with the garlic clove in the aquarium as well. Feed them like this for about a week if you can.

I was told to grind it down to a fine powder using a mortar and pestle and then add a bit of water to further grind into a paste.

Sorry to hear that, they were awesome. I don't know about the co2, but your best chance at getting the little shrimp to stay alive would be to make sure you match the temperature of your tank with that of the stream. The only other think i can think of is that maybe your tank water had too much chlorine or something else in it that was too much of a difference for them. For future attempts, don't forget to also feed them. They obviously didn't starve to death this time but might do so in the future as your tank is new and doesn't have any algae to feed on. Try spirulina tabs or algae wafers.

Thats excellent I will be volunteering (most likely for the touch tanks)!

Its not too expensive...a bit more then java. See if anyone on here is willing to give/sell you some. You are unlikely to find it in a petstore. There are people selling it on trademe occasionally, but usually overpriced.

You can try Christmas moss. Its a bit more frilly then java moss and looks really good if you have lots of light an Co2...grows like little trees. To attach moss to things like rocks or driftwood, just tie it with a few strands of cotton thread and over time it will cling itself. I don't know what types of fish you are trying to breed but some people also use a bottom covered with marbles to protect the eggs from adults.

My friend got these... http://twitpic.com/16m7yi

Hi All- The Victoria University Coastal Ecology Laboratory (VUCEL, http://www.victoria.ac.nz/vucel) will be hosting a public OPEN DAY in support of SeaWeek, this Saturday, 13 March 2010, from 10am through 4pm. This is a once-a-year opportunity for the general public to visit our facilities. Please feel free to come down for a visit, and please spread the word, to your friends, neighbours, colleagues, children's schools, etc. We're located at 396 The Esplanade in Island Bay (all relevant details are given in the attached pamphlet). For more information about SeaWeek, and for a listing of other events on this week, please see: http://www.seaweek.org.nz/. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=1273bd780ae8c08a&mt=application%2Fpdf&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3D2%26ik%3D721f4a6eca%26view%3Datt%26th%3D1273bd780ae8c08a%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dattd%26zw&sig=AHIEtbS7e2khsSm9UutkzOOKT4APZzMEiQ

You can try putting them in a larger tank so that the male will have a harder time guarding the entire territory and the females will have some place to hide and rest.

I just realized that you may have been shining the light at him instead of from behind him. Basically just take the flashlight behind him and shine the light toward your eyes, but with him in the way. Hope that make sense.... Also, epsom salts (aka Magnesium sulfate) can bought from a regular grocery store like NewWorld.