Caryl

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

Do they have any food outlets there? At conference we were forced to eat fish and chips on the beach. :slfg:

Cherry barbs are great wee fish and can be very colourful.

A keen aquarist in a town in the King Country returned from holiday to find that 4 boys, aged from 6 – 10, had been using her garden to play in, and some of the ponds to swim in. The garden gate was locked but they had climbed over that. There was not one live fish in the shubunkin pond which had contained 22 large fish, and what the boys did not catch and throw on the lawn to die, were squashed and dead in the bottom of the pond and strewn over the lawn. There was one moor alive out of another pond, and all the moor fry gone. All the plants had been pulled out and thrown all over the lawn. In a 2,000L pond she had 60 single and veil tailed comets; she now has 31 left and all her large fish were destroyed. One small ray of sunshine was that the boys missed 9 large Japanese fantails. This was her second start after another bout of vandalism some time ago which had left her with 4 surviving fish. What was the outcome of this loss and heartbreak? One mother was most upset because her dear boy could have been drowned and she would not have known where he was. Another said she could not be responsible for other people’s gardens as it took her all her time to look after her own, but she would speak to the boys about it (two of the vandals were her sons). One father said he would pay for a quarter of the fish if the others did the same. This was the only one fair offer given to an elderly fishkeeper who cannot work up any more enthusiasm, is not going to buy or rear more, and now has 5 empty ponds. Is it any wonder she cried until she was sick??? Now, before you start saying things like “Kids these days are allowed to run wild!” or “Parents show no responsibility these days!”, this article was originally printed in the NZ Aquatic World magazine, June, 1960.

You Need; one book, video, or something of similar size. acrylic wool in a dark colour (easier to see the eggs) scissors Wrap the wool round and round the book (longwise or lengthwise depending on the depth of the tank) 30 or 40 times (the pics show the wool wrapped only 20 times). Tie one end Cut other end Tease out the wool strands by unravelling the separate plys to make them fluffier and bushy. I tie a small block of polystyrene to the thread I used to tie the top end with and this keeps the mop floating in the water. You can vary the depth at which it floats by altering the length of the wool. Note this is a different mop and the knot on the end was done slightly differently by sliding the wool off the book first then tying a knot a couple of centimeters from one end - the wool did not change colour! :gigl: When you first put the mop in the water you will need to squeeze it a bit and swish it around to waterlog the wool and make it sink properly, otherwise the strands will want to stay on the surface.

I suspect you will have trouble with the blues if you try and introduce other similar shaped fish anyway.

http://www.applesnail.net/

Try searching local stock troughs.

I would be asking them to pay for replacements!

Pics definitely!!