Caryl

They are worth attending Tsar and we find them fun and informative. Of course, you have to listen to a lot of sales pitches! :roll: :lol: They are heldaround this time every year.

Where does it say the parents must be alive at the end of the 30 day period wok? This is news to me too (hunts for her YB to look up the rules)

I never thought of them as a misspelled chicken :lol: Ingram Micro are the wholesaler from whom we buy a lot of our computer and peripheral stuff (printers, scanners, cameras, hard drives etc etc etc). I assume the Micro comes from Microsoft. Every year they do a roadshow in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch where they set up in a large venue in each city and have displays from the various companies whose products we buy from Ingram Micro (eg HP, Canon, Acer, 3M, Kyocera and many more). It is a chance for resellers, especially us little ones, to get a look at new products coming out, (being pushed) and time to have a play with some stuff we are unable to keep in stock (unlike the big chain stores) etc. It can be hard to sell a customer something when you have not actually seen it yourself, except on paper or screen. This gives us the opportunity to not only see the product, but to have a play with it too. We can also have questions answered and often get problems solved. We can gather CDs of information, product catalogues and leaflets to show our customers. It is also a chance to gather useless freebies :lol: . I have a great pen collection, a few post it pads, rulers, mini flashlight, bottle opener, a number of keyrings, stress relievers (you know those squeegie balls and stuff), Chupa Chups (I ate all the chocolate), caps, reusable carry bags and, a sign of the times, a couple of squirty bottles of disinfectant spray. :bounce:

Not many this year we didn't think (although more than 4), compared to previous shows. We thought there were fewer exhibitors too. One said there were actually more exhibitors but they used smaller spaces for their displays but another agreed there were fewer of them. We certainly felt there were fewer resellers than previous years. The big draws have 12 prizes with 2 of them being booby prizes. Or it might have been 10 and 2 booby prizes. You had a form you had to get stamped from 10 exhibitors and the card went into a big clear box which they spun each time then rummaged through to grab a form. The person named had to be present at the draw. When your name was called you went up, answered a "skill" question" and then got to choose which coloured box you wanted. In each box was an envelope which was then opened and the prize read out. I went totally blank on my first skill question when he asked me what IT stood for :lol: . Luckily Grant reminded me (they don't mind if you get told the answer by someone else). On the last draw, a lot of the entrants must have left early as they drew 5 or 6 names of people who didn't answer when their name was called so, yes wok, there were more than 4 and they kept drawing names until all the prizes were gone :lol: A few of the stands also had boxes in which you dropped your business card to go a draw to win other prizes. Of course, the downside of this is you end up on their emailing lists :roll: In our case we then get everything twice!! :-? In past years, when it was resellers only, we would take our son and sign him up as a staff member so would get stuff 3x :lol:

Should be easy to atach sucker cups to them. I was going to suggest Briscoes or similar as I had a pot with 3 plastic baskets, looking similar to those pictured, that fit inside the pot so you could cook 3 things at once in one pot (therefore saving power ) They were more a triangular shape as the 3 fit together in a round pot so the front edge was curved.

Err yes zev. Last year we won a mobile phone, an MP3 player, a hard drive and a Samsung colour laser printer :roll:

I assume the tap water pH is higher? Have you tried sitting a tap water sample overnight then testing the pH again? My thought too was you had big fish in there and it was their wastes causing the drop but they aren't big fish.

Why was the goldfish armed with a rifle? :lol:

We often pick up interesting looking rocks on our travels. A quick scrub and they are ready for the tank. Watch out for limestone or others rocks that can raise the pH.

What size is the tank and what fish are in it?

Grant and I have spent the weekend in ChCh staying with our son Gareth and his partner Dena. We went to the Ingram Micro Roadshow today. On Saturday we went around a few lfs but made a special stop at Animates on Moorhouse to meet up with the Totally Tanked crew selling sausages there. Hi to Humvee, Amanda, Loopy, Donna, carznkats, bdspider and spoon! 8) They were doing a great job and we bought sausages to show our support I bought some zebra angels from Organism to give to Dena for a belated birthday present. (She requested them) On Sunday we went back to Animates to buy more sausages (gotta show more support ) and cruise the car yards (didn't buy anything there) On Monday we met Phantom at the Roadshow then wandered around the exhibits, dropping business cards into the prize draw boxes and getting our cards stamped to go into the 3 big draws held throughout the day. Draw 1 and I won a booby prize of a bag of lollies. Grant's name was drawn next and he won a laptop bag (no laptop in it unfortunately) with a 12V laptop travel multi manufacturer DC adaptor thingie which also works off mains power. Draw 2 my name was drawn again and I won a Eaton Powerware 500va UPS Neither of us was drawn in draw 3 but later my card was selected from a prize draw box and I won a Fuji b/w network capable laser printer :bounce: Gotta love these Roadshows :lol: After the Roadshow we had time to go back to Organism and buy some giant danios for me!! :bounce:

No but it sure makes you popular! :lol:

We were on Go Large but shifted to Full Speed 40Gb Plan (not sure what it is called) as Grant wanted ADSL2 and full upload speed. It has never slowed down on us however the Go Large plan was obviously throttled back most of the time. This meant Youtube was useless on Go Large but the new plan has no throttling as speed for us is excellent all the time. A 600Mb P2P download usd to take 2 - 4 hours. It now takes 6 - 12 minutes.

My son suggests Starsky (cos he is in a hutch - sounds a bit suss to me) Daughter outlaw said Huggy Bear as he was a pimp with a harem of girls

This reminds me of the lumberjack song... I wish I was a girlie, just like my dear papa! :lol:

Some may not be sure of their gender

The cops are going digital these days so you will not be able to pick them up on any scanner for much longer. They have already changed in the Hutt valley I think. You will see a lot of scanners starting to appear on trade sites as people realise they won't be able to use them much longer. You can, however, still listen to ambulance and fire service and some other services.

My BNs often get patchy at times with no apparent adverse effects.

Are those Infinity Systems gas or electric? What difference do they add to the power bill compared with a hot water cylinder?

I really get annoyed when shops sell certain fish as "coldwater" species when in fact they are not. They can tolerate cooler temperatures than most tropicals (eg down to 18C) but not cold! :evil: White clouds and the mussel are coldwater. Danios need 18C or more and the other two are tropical. 22 Lires is a very small tank and you have too many fish for a tank that size. Danios need a long tank as they are fast swimmers and reach high speeds. They are also a shoaling fish and are best kept in groups of 6 or more. Assuming your flagfish are Jordanella floridae, they will get up to 6cm and need more room. What sex are your swordtails? They need to be kept in a sex ratio of 1 male to 2 or 3 females. Of course, if you have two males you might be fine but the larger one will probably harass the smaller one to death as well as attack other fish. If you have females, have you considered what to do with the resulting fry? They can store sperm for many months so were most likely pregnant when you bought them. White spot is an indicator of stress and/or poor water quality. I would keep the white clouds and mussel and return the rest. Get more white clouds once the tank tests are clear. Watch the mussel. If it dies it will go off very fast and kill everything else in the tank. Since you already have white spot this is a distinct possiblity. The fish are most likely sick (fin rot and/or ammonia burn) as well as damaged due to fin nipping. The tank has been going 2 and a half weeks, why would you need to clean the filter? That is where the good bacteria grows. If you keep cleaning it you will kill off the good bacteria and the tank will never cycle. Have you read any articles about tank cycling yet?

Grant scans police and ambulance all the time as he needs to know when a fault comes up on the system (he repairs some of it). Some of the stuff you hear from the police is very funny. I am glad they are able to retain a sense of humour through some of the stuff they have to deal with.

Lately I have heard a farmer explaining abut her cows' scours while I have been eating. That is off-putting! :lol:

I have just emailed my plumber friend so hopefully will have an answer for you soon, unless someone else is able to give you a definitive answer. Lindyloo, I would be going the plumber for his insurance to cover it as it was his mistake.

It will be in the November issue

One eye and the missing scales suggests to me he may have injured the eye, rather than have a bacterial infection. A sudden fright may have had him get jammed in a tight spot somewhere, rather than have been attacked. I would separate him and keep him in excellent water conditions. As I do not use medications I can't advise you on this