Caryl

Welcome Brendan, I must admit to consuming a few fish but have not had them consume me! :lol: (not that one or two haven't tried when I have stuck a hand in the tank).

We publish the NZ Aquarium World magazine quarterly. It is a 40 page full colour A5 magazine printed on a colour laser (not a fancy professional glossy one). It is free to all affiliated members but others may subscribe for $21.80 for a 12 month sub ($5 per mag plus $1.80 post). If you live overseas it is $20 plus whatever postage to your country costs. I am editor so all enquiries to me please 8)

It's called the seafood diet See food and eat it

You would have to feed an awful lot at once for a fish to overeat enough to hurt itself. Fish see food and eat as much as possible as they never know (in the wild) when the next bit is going to go by.

Overfeeding pollutes the tank so causes more problems. Underfeeding can stunt the fish. In a well established tank the fish can browse on algae.

Yay! Show us the pics!

I am working this week and away in Wgtn this weekend (BBQing with other people from the fishroom) but after that "I'm free". Name a day. 17th or 18th perhaps? Not too late? I assumed you lived in Nelson. It takes 4 hours (each way) to get from Blenheim to Hokitika and since it takes 1 and a half hours max to get from Blenheim to Nelson I can't see the trip taking too long from Nelson. 3 hours perhaps each way. Conditions down there - floods wash waterlogged native timber out of the bush and it ends up at the river mouth just waiting for us to come along and collect it :-). I would assume it would be the same at the mouth of most West Coast rivers down there but I haven't looked.

wild caught fish for feeders run the risk of unknown disease.

I didn't mean to put you off the Timaru club at all! They are a nice bunch of people (or they used to be when I was still in contact with them but that was a few years ago and I do not know who their members are anymore). They will still be of help to you in setting up I am sure. It is just that they are no longer affiliated with the FNZAS so do not get the benefits of this. Try going to a glazier rather than a pet shop as they will be cheaper. The advantage of the ones the pet shops have is that they are already to go just point to the one you want, pay and off you go! I believe Animates may have a tank sale on at the moment down there. Pays to shop around and ChCh has many shops to choose from. A tank 4ft or larger really needs an external type od filter so it doesn't take up room in your tank. I use the Shark internals as extra boosters and always have 1 or 2 of them running in a tank for use if needed in a hurry (another filter fails, a tank has to be set up in a hurry etc).

I think when you drill rock you need one that drills wet. Not sure of the terminology here. People often silicone their rock stacks together too.

We can arrange a day trip with you one day if you like Helene. I could come over to Nelson, pick you up, run down to Hokitika and be home in time for tea. Lovely sunny day, roof down on the car, what more could we ask for? 8) I will be bringing a number of different sizes to the BBQ Anthony. I several very small pieces around 5 - 10cm too

But don't you mean you are monitoring your total house consumption Mark? Helene just wants to know how much the tanks and stuff add to the load.

Gouramis are eaten for food in many countries. Ira has a nice recipe.

Welcome to the fishroom. 8) Bigger is definitely easier! Much more stable and more forgiving if you make a mistake. Things tend to go wrong more slowly so you have time to figure out what has gone wrong and fix it before things get out of hand. Getting the goldfish out of the hex tank and into something larger would be good. There is a club in Timaru. They recently pulled out of the FNZAS though (with a few nasty words unfortunately). Last contact I had for them was secretary Gary Laird, 38 Hassall St. Look him up in the phone book. mgilchrist in here is in Timaru so perhaps you should send him a PM and you can talk fish together. He actually belongs to my club (Marlborough) as he wanted to be affiliated to the FNZAS. Check out our trade section in here for tanks and many people find good deals at Trademe, the internet auction site.

What use is icecream if you don't have a tank to sit in front of while you lick?

It will differ in cost throughout the country as price per unit varies too.

You used to be able to buy a kitset kilowatt meter (Dick Smith, Jaycar outlets) which would measure the power consumption over a period of time. The problem is you don't know when the heater is on or not so you have to measure over a period of time.

Have a look under FNZAS Clubs for the thread entitled Marlborough's Great Driftwood Hunt. It gives all the details and pics! The river mouth at Hokitika Beach.

Good for you Anthony!

They haven't been eaten so far so I will leave them and see how they go. Not worried if they don't survive anyway. Most surprised there was fry to start with!!

Dimension limit is actually 640 x 480

Because the majority of people want pretty, brightly coloured, fish in their tanks. Males are more colourful and sell well, females don't. They can also keep the price up if they can stop people being able to breed their own.

Hang on Shae. Melafix is an anti-bacterial medication so how does it introduce healthy bacteria into a tank? This isn't to say it is not a good medication but it is made from Melaleuca (tea tree). Tea tree is commonly used as a germicide, antiseptic and disinfectant. It is also used in some acne medications. Aborigines use it for headaches, pain, colds and insect repellant.

Should look real good once those plants take off B.

Yes I know. Not worried though as they only have a bath to live in. One day I will build the pond (been saying that for 20 years) :lol: