oO SKIPPY Oo

nah old lady that wouldnt fit through the window - and the other neighbours are good friends (our kids play together)

i just hope the 3rd thing isnt as bad as these 2 weve had !! were in miramar and have felt pretty safe here for aages - no alarm but as soon as i get some quotes im going to get one installed asap yeah 3pm must be the magic time cause we left here at about 3.15 to go swimming and then bang we get done - 2 neighbours home that heard nothing saw nothing which is really un-nearving... yeah were ok thanks - better this morning for sure - now we are just waiting for the cops to come and take fingerprints - our little girl is asking about the burglars etc - saying are the cops going to kill them and stuff like that - so we are trying to take her mind off it but she keeps coming back to it.. luckily they didnt take the hammer to the fish tanks or anything - i would have been gutted if they had !! thanks for the offer - we should be ok for now just gotta work out how i can get our mobile phones and stuff working soon cause im putting my mobile as my contact for job hunting !!

yep fully insured so thats one thing - it just sucks to know some little bugger has been walking through our house un-invited !! i guess we are also lucky they didnt do any real damage just knicked some valubles and put the wind up us... full on security system with cameras etc will be on its way in the next few days !!!!

bugger - in all my attempts to keep my tank understocked ive overstocked again !!! Warning: Chocolate Cichlid is not recommended for your tank - it may eventually outgrow your tank space. Warning: Your selected species will eventually require 438% of your aquarium space. You may need to deal with territorial aggressions later on. Try removing some of (Heros severus, Hypselecara temporalis) or get a larger aquarium tank. Recommended temperature range: 25 - 26 C. [Display in Farenheit] Recommended pH range: 6 - 7.6. Recommended hardness range: 5 - 15 dH. Warning: You should add more aquarium filtration capacity. Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 72%. Recommended water change schedule: 51% per week. (You might want to split this water change schedule to two separate 30% per week) Your aquarium stocking level is 157%. [Generate Image] [What's this?] You should consider a larger tank for this combination.

2 weeks ago i was made redundant today our house was broken into while we were out swimming what the hell is next !!!!

yep a cave of some sort is needed - my 2 decided that a half ship was close enough - i now have wrigglers no sure if i should move them out of the tank with the other hungry fishes or leave them there and see if they survive

i like my severums - they eat from my hand and one jumps for flies

the sand in the first 2 pics is silica - bought from placemakers - very fine the sand in the last 4 pics is east coast sand - again bought from placemakers - a bit more coarse than the silica they both look darker when wet and again look different when the lights are on etc. oh and the sand is all located in the trade area - on the right hand side near the back of the building as you drive in.

check out this link - it has pics of both my tanks with sand in them - and what they look like - the east coast sand looks more natural than the silica Cheers Skip viewtopic.php?f=4&t=42993&p=466055#p466055

i will try and find the threads where my pics are located and post them for you to take a look at - placemakers in Kaiwharawhara is the only store that has the silica - the one in evans bay is a bit slack in that department - you could use play sand if you like the grey stuff - the east coast is a chocolate color - one thing to watch out for is the silica goes blue when you use something like tonic to treat fish

placemakers - about $25 for a 20 or 25 kg bag As nice as the silica sand is i personally think the east coast sand is nicer - i have both in my tanks - if you are near miramar you can come and have a look at them both ? cheers Skip

I just got some KH and GH tests and wanted to know how to read the findings KH = 4 drops to change color / 71.6 ppm / 4 dKH GH = 7 drops to change color / 125.3 ppm its my 200l tank with the rainbow shark, severums, and chocolate cichlids and just want to be sure these values are within normal params for these guys thanks Skip

sweet as thanks for all the replies - i have one more fish to go in that tank that i rescued and maybe some more long plants to go at the back then that larger tank is done, just some hairgrass or something for that smaller tank and that should be done too

yeah i think i did for all but i had to for the biggest one - it was wanting to fall over did fancy my glass being smashed and the fish flapping all over the floor :lol:

yeah thats what ive read so should be all sweet - i think the tanks look much better now i have rearranged them a little

ok here are my rocks - is it white vinegar you put on them to test if they would increase the ph ?? i did that and they didnt fizz so i assume they wont increase the ph

thanks for the replies - thats nice 'n' easy

I got some rocks today from evans bay and thought i should check what the normal process is for putting them into tanks ? ie do they need to be soaked for a week before putting in ? or a quick wash and they should be good to go ? i think they are above the high tide mark but im not 100% sure on that cheers Skip

i kept getting called skippy when i was in the UK - the brits cant tell the difference between us kiwis and aussies - so it kinda stuck coming back here

long story - i have them in an icecream container / breeding net cause the parents started eating them while we were away had to put the parent in the same partition as the babies so this was the only way i could keep them alive cause the parents started eating the baby sword tails when i moved them in the same tank so i could use the little tank as a quarantine for the new severum i got.... would have been hard to keep that lot going with out a whole lot of tanks!!

yeah thats the hardest - part keeping them all alive and uneaten from the parents and other fish in the tank.... i so need my baby tank back from being a hospital tank - dunno if i can do a 4 week quarantine

i have about 80 small sword tails, my angels bred last week and have quite a few wrigglers, and today i found i have bristlenose eggs, hehe guess that means my fish are all happy

lets hope so

no lights on the tank - its in the kitchen so in a fairly bright spot anyway - he / she seemed to do when in the original tank - i honestly thought there was no fish in there at all cause it always hid i hope it changes its attitude and plays nice with my fish when i move it over

its a VERY VERY shy fish - every time i go near the tank it tries to hide (not much room to hide in a 38L tank) and changes color dramatically then stays there till i stop moving around for about 5 mins - is this normal fish behaviour ?