Caryl

For the first time ever, we have ants in the house. I have no idea where they are coming in, or why. I have seen the occasional ant outside, or had one come in with a sprig of parsley or whatever but now they are appearing in large numbers. I thought this was an upper North Island problem, never had them this far south before! They are nowhere near food and I thought that is what they liked - sugar and sweet stuff. I came home the other day to find the bench island swarming with them. Since then, they keep appearing in weird places (so far, thank goodness, nowhere near the pantry). Squishing them does not work as they seem to be fairly unsquishable. I have sprayed with fly spray but that leaves residue on all surfaces. Those of you who have had a long standing battle with them - what is the best product to use?

Hi and welcome. If you are lucky, some of the convict fry will be eaten. The problem with convicts is they are prolific, and vicious, breeders.

Unfortunately, no. But we can offer good food and accommodation (first in first served) :bggrn:

I only have one 4ft tank in the lounge and it is enclosed on 3 sides by a wall unit. The lounge is kept warm although it can drop to 15 overnight sometimes (less often now we are double glazed). Our power bills don't vary much between winter and summer as we use the air cons year round to both heat and cool. I suspect water heating may go up a bit as we have longer, hotter, showers in winter 8) Tanks in a well heated, insulated, home shouldn't make any difference to your power bill in winter.

I'm starting to worry about my 4ft. It is well over 10 years old (probably closer to 20 - time flies) and the sealant is looking worse for wear. I keep expecting the seals to give way whenever we have a quake but so far so good :tears:

The red eared slider that appeared in my pond is still there as it has come out of hibernation. I think I will clean the pond out to catch it as it is very wary of any movement and we can't get near it. The pond has been going 7 years now (hard to believe!) and never been cleaned. The mulm is 10cm thick so a clean-out is probably overdue. Anyone want to come to a pool cleaning party before the goldfish start spawning (sometime late November usually)? :dnc1: We need some muscle to help haul the plants out and divide the water lilies. We have a pump to get the water out so no bucketing of that required.

Any fish added recently? What, if any, were the symptoms before they died? I wonder if a new fish has had an infection of some sort that your other fish had not encountered before and had no resistance to it.

We had left the Coromandel by last weekend and on our final leg home. We rented a house for a week in Tairua a few years ago and really loved it there. Plenty to see and do in all directions.

They are part of 100's I took at The Kauri Museum at Matakohe. http://www.kauri-museum.com/ If you start here and go backwards through the pages you will see the great displays they have there. I was impressed with the quality of the mannequins.

You do not necessarily get conflicting information that means one is right and another wrong, it is just different people have different ways of achieving the same result. Pick the one that sounds easiest for you to manage. There will be fishkeepers in Upper Hutt (and perhaps you could consider joining the local Upper Hutt fish club). I am sure one, or more, would be happy to help. Try a PM to flatfish (a member here) as he is in that club and very helpful and knowledgeable. Sometimes he is at sea so unable to answer quickly.

Have you done any water tests? I doubt molly fry would stress a plec and it is hard to see some things on a pale fish body. Is it a plec or actually one of the Ancistrus bristlenose catfishes? (commonly called plecs by some). Albino fish are weaker than commons so more prone to disease and illness. Do you siphon through the substrate at all when doing water changes? Sometimes bad bacteria can build up in the substrate and will affect bottom dwellers first.

A bit :smot: now but it is your thread so...

Alan Wakelin, now deceased, lived in Whakatane and was a prolific killifish breeder there for many many years.

I hope you enjoyed the Coromandel as much as we did Sophia 8)

This is a hard question to answer as a lot depends on the shark. Have you added other fish to the tank recently? These fish often tolerate fish they have grown up with but attack any new species added as they consider the tank their own territory.

Where in Wgtn are you? Perhaps someone here lives close enough to swap some of your new filter media for their used - quick and easy cycle!

School holidays for many at the moment and good weather means people are out doing things instead of sitting on their computers (I hope). Took some pics of some model trains made of kauri for you Aotealotl. Will send them when I get home and have time. They are in The Kauri Museum.

Beautiful day in the Bay of Islands today 8)

It isn't the blue/yellow thing that leaks. Those Ziplock bags tend to leak in the bottom corners.

Grant and I are currently touring the upper North Island. If anyone wants to see the pics, have a look here. There are sub albums under NITT (North Island Tiki Tour) and Day 4 has a lot of parrots.

Up at 4.30 to catch the ferry. Now out in Cook Strait. Only a bit wobbly thaank goodness! Heading for Mt Maunganui tonight, first sto on ou tiki tour :dnc1:

I hope he has the space for the appropriately sized tank then as I have seen one outgrow an 8ft x 2 1/2 ft

If that is your argument, then why could the God not create a chicken which then laid an egg? :dnc1: They both magically appeared simultaneously :bggrn: I think the question of why did the chicken then cross the road to be more interesting :slfg:

Been dood by me too :gigl:

lasagne