Caryl

A filter should run 24/7. If it does not, you might as well not use one at all. 2 small fish in a 40L tank should be fine without a filter as long as you do regular water changes. Better to do lots of small ones rather than fewer larger ones.

TM I am now considering a UV unit. Yes there is a pump there as it runs the filter and pumps the water up through it and over the waterfall. It is a Laguna 6 which says it does 6200l/hr.

I get the online version. Read bits but tend to forget to read the rest. A very interesting magazine. I used to buy it but we were spending so much on magazines we cut back. I often use back issues for reference when doing the Aquarium World.

Tme watching fish is not time wasted. It is time refreshing the mind and spirit and lowering the blood pressure. unless the fish are dying of unknown causes, or the tank has sprung a leak, or the hose has fallen off the filter during the night and drained the tank, or.... :lol:

Thanks for the hints as none of us have done it before. We will probably have at least 2 kids with us so they will be warned!! :lol:

On Jan 21st we are planning a night club trip to White's Bay (20 minutes from town) to look for stuff in the stream there. According to the local freebie paper, it is possible to spot short finned eels, redfin and common bullies and banded kokopu.

This is true Simian. I was thinking of my own, which are different sizes, but mine actually sit in a reflector which sits on top of a glass lid. If the end caps are firm it should be OK.

You don't need to soak it to get rid of accumulated salt as the salt is only on the surface and in nooks and crannies. A good spray with the hose fixes that.

So you are taking in strays now too Stella? :lol:

Hi and welcome. Good to see you didn't give up!

The bigger the fish the more trainable they are. Ask oscar owners

Very hard to see any other fish but did I see a hoplo catfish? Hoplosternum thoracatum Like this?

My pools were 29C yesterday and 19C at 7am this morning.

It often does this and new plantlets grow from the "rusty" bits.

Check with various ISPs about getting broadband installed. Perhaps it is time the people in the house where she is staying went to this :lol: How about the neighbours? Have they got broadband with a wireless link and are they friendly? I know it isn't the same but a lot of libraries these days offer free wireless, or some other form of internet access. I know ours does as you can't sit and read there anymore cos all the chairs and tables are taken up with young people and their laptops! Starbucks used to as well but I don't know if they still do. Telecom offer a month's trial for their broadband I think so that may be worth looking at (check their fine print though).

Manufacturers are now making fluorescent tubes narrower which is why you can't find matching ones. My concern would be moisture getting into the end caps but the heat from the tubes should be enough to keep them dry. As long as the caps can't fall off you should be right.

I find I often get a cloudy bloom like this when I do water changes over summer. It should clear on its own and isn't harmful to the fish.

Today at 4.15pm our outside thermometer (south side of house in shade) reads 30.4C. The 2 pools (183cm x 38cm) are sitting at 29C in partial shade. Thermometer at other end of house says 31.4C but it is a bit sheltered so reads a little high. Tanks are going to get too hot if sun hits glass.

When we got our current number it had previously belonged to the vet listed first in the phone book. Since farmers, particularly, never updated the phone books in the cow shed/sheep run etc we would get calls in the middle of the night from farmers needing urgent help. They used to be very rude when we informed them the vet had actually left the country over 6 months ago! The number had been out of circulation for that time before being reassigned but farmers just reached for their old book, or their list on the wall :roll: Our number was also 2 digits reversed from the local fish and chip shop so we would get orders for them too. Occasionally we would play along and tell them it would be on the way shortly (if we didn't like the sound of the person). 8) Before the STD phone system came in and you had to dial an operator to make a toll call (my age is showing) we would get a lot of calls for the local freezing works as the toll operators would transpose the last two numbers :roll:

Luckiy I don't have any job horror stories but congratulations on your new job! I am sure you will enjoy it. It is a great opportunity for people watching so it shouldn't suck too much.

I don't think angels need to relieve themselves do they? Had to wash the sheets again, twice, and even after using Bio Luvil there are still some marks left. Not sure what they had been eating or whether the splats changed colour thanks to the blue sheets and the original droppings were actually red. Plenty of red berries around and flowers :roll: Haven't ever seen a pigeon stop in midair :lol:

...You have a full line of washing (sheets in my case) and a flock of birds flies over depositing great splashes of bright purple poo all over the clean wash! At least I hope it was a flock, hate to think a single bird could deposit that much! :evil: They managed to hit every sheet! :roll: At least it is hot and sunny so it won't take long to dry them again after they come out of the machine for the second time. 31C at the moment. I was going to mow the lawns but think I will wait until evening.

Upgrade - you know you want to!!! 8)

I have never seen an orphaned orange before. Very nice :lol:

I am surprised you kept 22 goldfish in a bath to start with. I assume the majority are on the smaller size? Other wise they must be greatly overstocked. Your standard regime is terrible! :lol: But it has obviously worked for a long time :roll: . I used to have goldfish in a bowl (gasp!) and once a week I would fill a bucket with cold water (bore water so very cold) empty the fish into it then scrub out the bowl and gravel with soapy water, rinse, then fill up with more bore water and drop the fish back in. They survived that too! I guess the fish didn't know this wasn't the right thing to do - I know I certainly didn't! :lol: Mel's suggestion of the overflow regularly is a good one and you are less likely to have the same trouble again. Although the council say the chlorine level hasn't changed, I wonder if someone flushed the water supply to your area with something else. To have so many die so fast indicates something toxic in the water to me. Out of curiosity, was it mainly the larger fish that died or the smaller ones?