dogmatix

Copperbands can be great, from my expeiance you have a 33-50% chance of getting one that will actually eat it, and if they do he/she will grow nicely and be very healthy. They tend to leave the larger ones alone and just munch on the babies. In the top 5 of my butterfly lists, and one of if not the most hady IMO. Just watch it for several hours over a couple of days and u should be able to tell if hes munching glass anems b4 u buy (that is if he is in a live rock tank with no Cu present ) HTH B.P

Pies big ups on your progress As for the Aiptasia the best way i have found to eradicate them is with the use of 12ml syringe and a hyperdermic needle, the trick how ever is to pull the Aiptasia out of the water so it has no internall presure and cannot retract. Then insert the needle filled with boiling water inside its blastopore and fill with boiling water untill it turns milky white, be sure not to go through the side of the anemone and if you are lucky will be able to scrape its basal disc and body off the substate for disposal (hello waste master). Any way this works very well for me on the 4 tanks i maintain. Personally i would go for D&D Rowaphos over saliferts as it has an unlimited lifespan BTW keep boiling the jug as the H2O has to be red hot when injected. HtH

Personally i would stay with the filter 'natural' systems in my opinion are for people on a budget. IMO u can never overskim or have too much biological filtration epecially if its a trickle filter, i say leave it be

From memory the most expensive series 3 pendant is $2400 that is for a 3*250w 14000k unit with blue actincs and timers buillt in. There cheapest model 1*150w 10000k unit is around$699 HTH.

Jansens does has metal hallide lights they have been instock over a week, they also have the t5 luminar, that and the hallides (series 3) are both from arcadia and are very nice units . The metal halides are availible in tripple bulbs double or single the doubles and tripples have 2 blue actinics and timers built in. They come in 250w, 1400k and 150W 10000k bulbs. See them at http://www.arcadia-uk.com/en/140pendant.html

Here's a tip for anyone with a a new fluval cannister filter (the type with ribbed hosing ) periodically wash the tubing out under high pressure ie hose with nozzle and blast both ends and rinse heavily for a few minutes. Mine is a year old and flow rate had droped by at least half. Now its like a cyclone HTH Ben. P.S Happy Easter everyone

Big congrats Pies. I suspect that a DIY stand will be better than any custom built one if you look at any of the stands that come with tanks they only have a few pieces of MDF suppoting them and thats for up to 300ltrs = 350kgs (inc rock etc) How long till the first fish go in ? where are you getting the live rock from ?

I found this recipie on the net a while ago. Liquid Fry Food (makes about four Fluid ounces) Basis ingredients: 3 tablespoons powdered whole egg 2 tablespoons powdered nutritional yeast 1 tablespoon chick-pea (or other king of legume) flour Water (distilled or filtered is preferable) Optional ingredients: A few drops fish liver oil Flaked fish food (the *growth* formulas are particularly suitable) A small amount of fresh vegetable, like lettuce or zucchini To mix this up, it's best to use some kind of mechanical device, since R needs a lot of beating to form a good suspension. I have one of those miniature food-processor gizmos, which works wonderfully, but a blender, either hand-held or the stand type, ought to work fine, particularly if you have a small blending container. First combine all dry ingredients. If adding flake food, and not using a blender, try to pulverize the flakes somehow (coffee grinder, mortar & pestle, rubbing between fingers) before adding to the other ingredients. Now add the *wet' ingredients like oil and vegetables. Do not add more than a few drops of oil; in small quantifies the oil adds nutritional value and increases the size of the *clumps* of liquid that get suspended in the water, but if you add too much you'll end up with a slimy mess that floats on top of the water and makes a horrible mess of your tank. Add about 1/4 cup of water and blend well, then stop to check the consistency. It's really impossible to say how much water you'll need to add in total, since the yeast and egg powders are very hygroscopic, and their moisture content varies enormously. The best thing to do is add water in small increment, and keep checking, until you have something that pours like whipping cream. At this point, try it out on your fry. An eyedropper is the best way to deliver it; of course you remembered to get one when you were at the pharmacy asking for fish liver oil, didn't you? If you should get R too thin, so that it disperses immediately on hitting the water, add a little extra pea flour. If you're not careful, though, this sort of trial and error can yield a much larger batch of food than intended. Once you've got the consistency right, refrigerate it immediately. It'll go bad in a matter of hours if left out; otherwise it keeps for a couple of weeks. For really tiny fry, you probably want to stick with the basic formula, and make the mixture quite thin, so it disperses quickly into the water. Even when you can no longer see the particles of food, you'll see the fry chasing them. As the fry get bigger, you thicken up the mix, and add the oil, which makes it form slightly larger clumps of suspension in the water, which usually get swallowed before they can disperse further. You can gradually introduce flaked food, vegetable matter, or whatever other food that you're planning to use when the fry outgrow the liquid formula. In this way, you avoid sudden changes in diet, which can be stressful, and reduce any potential problems with acceptance of new foods. It's an easy thing to play around with, and you can experiment until you find the right mixture for your particular fish. A parting caveat: be careful not to overfeed, or your tanks will get very filthy very fast :roll: HTH Ben

I think that jansens is a great store, i also think the same of hollywoods. I was in both stores 2 days ago and found the prices to be very similar if not the same. But jansens does seem to have ten times the stock to choose from over hollywoods, maybe thats why its a little more ? because of there really good selection I believe that they stopped stocking marines at the other stores so that they could consentrate on it in just one store and provide a better service in general, not because of excess loss. Also id love to know where i can get a coral beuty for $80 dollars plz tell me of a shop that normally sells them for that much and ill be shopping from them from now on.

i know the resun fluidised bed filters leak !!

Your quite right lionfish are not allowed in NZ HOWEVER i have heard from a good source that they do sometimes hang around poor knifghts during migration, now if you really wanted one u could allways bag it yourself and then put it in its tank Of course you didnt hear this from me

Hi Pies Glad to hear another fine young man is taking the plunge. A small word of caution if you set up a cold H20 sys you must completly cycle the tank again befor you put the tropical marines in it, it isnt just a matter of putting a heater/stat in there and some inverts. As the bacteria will be killed off due to temperature. Also if you are using a wet/dry filter in the sump make sure that u have a sloped panel in the sump below the wet dry, probably 20 degrees with a small powerhead mounted there, this will prvent the build up of fine detritus in your sump. Jansens in Mt Eden sells live rock but none will be ready for six weeks . You may or may not know all this but i hope it helps. P.S try aqua.net.nz

A friend of mine kept a NZ fresh H2O cray in his tank with a black ghost, fire eel, rainbows and cichlids he was cool a real character. Once he got comftorble however these guys are a nasty piece of work!!! He attcked every single fish even the ghost and eel which are like 40 cm long He put it in a jail for for a day or two which must have shocked cause he died soon after his release

Also Bill this may be of help, family names for plants will end in aceae i.e Liliaceae or the lily family (garlic) etc. Animals family names will end in dae e.g. hominidae, cichlidae etc. I know its a little irrelivant but i figure it will probaly help a few people know what they are reading about at a glance. Ben.

I cant remeber that much on it cause im studying for an exam tomorrow try simplydiscus.com so many ppl there are real helpful and know lots

water quality isnt the probelm with the growth of discus. See discus secrete an X-growth hormone which seems to inhibit the growth of one an other. This will be my main reason for the water changes. Hard work yes :-? , but woth it definately

:lol: This time i matched the male with a different female, She got it right first time no problems. I now have 75-100 free swimmers (that no one wants), the parents a doing a great job herding them aswell

I agree all the way i had discus i still have one and i am gonna get more. During my last batch i had nothing but disasters this has led me to now doing 20% once i week because i am lazy, my blue diamond still does fine but i feel he will never reach his true potential :oops: When i started keeping discus 3 years ago i bought 4 baby RT discus in a 30g tank ( i know this is small but all i had ) however i used to change 50-60 % a week and they trived, As they grew i slowly sold them off to the LFS untill i had one left and he did fine by himself for a long time untill he had to go as well. In the new year i will be buying 30 babies to grow on (in more, larger tanks) but i will be changing 50% of the water a day. Hatcheries in singapore and U.S.A change 100% a day

hi Pegasus Technically all organisms can only have one scientific name which is given to a species when it is discovered by the person who discovered it (this would be published in a recognised scientific journal), the only exception to this is a group of fungi called the deuteromycetes. The name given to the sp is the one that has to stick, we have to hope that this person knows what he or she is talking about and gives it an apropriate name in the right genus. Similary two organisms that look diferent may be given diffrent names when they are actually the same, i believe this is the case with Pelvicachromis pulcher (the krib) and two organisms may be dicovered at similar times by different people thus two names. Again the first name should stick. A second problem arises in the form of phylogenetic systematics espicially now with DNA sequencing which may result in movement into another more apropriate genus however it must still keep its specific name under the rules of binomial nomenclature e.g A. ramirezi is now M. ramirezi. This is more likely to be the cause of modern name variation. I mean I don't really know myself but I HTH, it really is a tricky subject with alot of debate. Ben

Under the consumer gurantees act shop refund only has to be given if the product cannot be repaired or replaced. If you want check on this Kellz I suggest you contact your local citizens advice bureau or the ministry of consumer affairs they will tell you exactley where you stand. If this shop is the only one in your area i deffinately suggest not to go in waving your arms around. Like i said go have a good talk explain where you are at and how you feel, because if you have to deal with them again you want it to be on good terms. When people come into my shop with a warranty problem i am much more recptive when they are polite, of course if they are not i still fix the problem but they lose my respect. HTH. Ben

Holllllllllllly Crap I hope you hou have some extreme foor support. Dang now im gona have that dirty picture in my head all through my studying. Real Nice, Real Jealous. Ben

Hmm i have a flual3 plus in a tank and it is doing a great job no problems infact its got rid of all my algae Do you have the flow rate turned up to full. Also turn it up and down left and right etc to remove all air bubbles while it is under water. The consumer gurantees act states that the manufacturer or in this case importer has a reponsibility to repair or replace the goods and this is at there own discretion. As this has happened 3 times allready if it happens again you could ask your LFS if they would swap it for something else as they should get a credit or replacement which they can then sell off. If it continues to happen go and have a calm talk to them if they value your buisness they should help you !! And ask for a new one not just a repaired one as they could be replacing old parts. I do not use the air intake at all on thees filters so the problem might lie there? These filters also got a good review (from memory) in a recent issue of PFK so i just dont know Also what size tank is it in ?

I couldnt find them there either, i know i've seen them somewhere befor doooooh try here www.apistogramma.com/forum

I had a couple of blue faced agassiz's from jensens a couple of years back, they are real characters. You should have a look at www.thekrib.com i searhed for ages and i am sure i have seen them there. Ben.

I've to my deligight got a breeding pair of sheepshead acaras, they have layed about six times in a community and raised the brood twice which have sadly only lived for a week. They are now in there own tank and spawning but not managing to raise any of the fry, i am not sure if the female is eating the larvae or just removing detritus also they are moving the eggs from the egg sacs to a pit before they are free swiming, is this ok ? Anyone out there got any suggestions for me :lol: . Much appreciated Ben.