Caryl

I have never worn gloves, do not know anyone who does so, and have never personally heard of anyone getting this disease. Yes, it is a risk but you can pick up diseases from your garden and other places. I would not worry about it.

Any farming supply store will be able to sell you long sleeved, up to the shoulder, type gloves as they are used by farmers and vets.

This is the disease commonly referred to as fish TB. The Nov. Aquarium World will have an article about it and a story from a woman who caught the disease.

Well, all clubs should have received Tropical Blues' offer of major discounts on the new range of Sera fish foods they have just started to import into NZ. These discounts were offered to FNZAS affiliated clubs only, before the brand goes onto the retail market. I hope you all took advantage of the offer! My club, Marlborough, have just received their order. It was like having Christmas come early! Not only did everything we ordered arrive but a few extra sample packs and goodies were thrown in as well. Perhaps if I don't tell the other club members about them I can just keep them for myself

Bigger ones won't heat up so fast. We started with a 3ft x 18" x 1ft then up to a 4ft x 18" x 20". I wouldn't go smaller than a 2ft x 1ft x 1ft I don't think.

Aqua, try right clicking on the pic square, go to properties, copy the url and paste it into the address line.

You are most welcome. That is what this forum is for

There was a big stink when the film came out in the US because they had a representative from Tetra give a talk on morning TV about keeping these fish. She said it was easy, recommended the wrong sized tank, never mentioned cycling, had a clownfish in a tank with unsuitable tankmates, said they were mostly farm raised and generally got it all wrong. Many were calling for a boycott of Tetra. I don't know what happened with it all and what effect it had. Petshops over there were selling hundreds of the poor clownfishes. Bet they are all dead now! Perhaps we should all visit as many pet shops as possible and ask them to make sure prospective owners know about the proper care of these fish before buying. I am considering contacting the local papers and asking them to do an article about hobbyists' concerns re the keeping of these fish by newcomers to the hobby.

We added everything straight away. We had the tank sitting empty then went to the beach and picked up rocks (with as much lichen on them as possible figuring it would be another food source) and sand and the sea water. The water was in 30 litre barrels so we just caught the critters and threw them in one of the barrels of water. When we got home we arranged the rocks artistically (ie dumped them in a pile ) put the sand in and poured the barrels into the tank. The filter was turned on, and voila! The filter was only there to keep the mucky bits out and the water circulating. Not sure whether it did anything as a biological device. I do not think any of the anemones are poisonous.

Welcome to the fishroom fishnut. Sorry you are having problems. It would really help if you tested the water. Do you have a shop nearby where you can take a sample to be tested? Some fish shops offer this service. The tests are expensive to buy but they last well. I would not think adding another filter would cause problems, especially as you knew to keep the other there until the bacteria had built up as well. Is the shark (and other fish for that matter) panting at the surface?

Some looked like that. They are brittlestars. All survived for the 2 years we had the tank set up except when it got too hot, the legs would drop off the starfish and they would die. The paua needed it a lot cooler too. We do not have any pics of it sorry. It was pre-digital camera days.

Let' see, what did we have in the tank? Hmmm... red beadlet anemones sea cucumber biscuit starfish cushion starfish firebrick starfish brittle starfish (aptly named) shrimps (did you know they have red knees?) paua (shhh don't tell) hermit crab we avoided the common crabs as we were told they would eat the other inhabitants octopus chitons limpets whelks sea lettuce - Caulerpa sedoides triplefins (saltwater cockabully) rockfishes lots of other unnamed critters

It isn't illegal as long as you don't catch undersized paua or crays. Yes, I mean flakes but it might have actually been goldfish crumbles. We had a hermit crab. Don't know where he came from, he must have been caught up in a patch of lettuce as we didn't deliberately catch him. If you have a hermit crab you must make sure there are bigger shells for him to grow into. Do you know what I mean by sea lettuce? It is the bright green seaweed that grows along the tide line and looks, believe it or not, a bit like lettuce leaves

I don't have the tank any more as we could not keep it cool enough. The only stuff I gave them to eat was sea lettuce which we gathered every 2 or 3 weeks for the fun of it. When I had fish in the tank I occasionally threw in a bit of ordinary fish food.

Don't you believe it Ira, they stick like glue! You have to prise them very carefully with a knife. Once you get the edge lifted it breaks the seal. You have to be very careful with the anemones, nothing too sharp, or they die. Try to find some which happen to be on a moveable rock and add them, with the rock, to the tank. Chris, I did not do water changes as they say. We froze the water inside 3 litre juice containers and floated them in the tank. As they thawed they were put back in the freezer and replaced with frozen ones. At the height of summer we were having to freeze 18 litres a day!

The bigger tank should stay cooler longer, heat up more slowly and therefore be more stable but we did not find it so. It just meant we had to freeze more bottles! The tank was in the computer room which gets full sun from early afternoon so rarely dropped below 28 during the day and 18 overnight (we are talking sunny Marlborough here). We have since installed airconditioning to keep the computers cool but can't afford to run it 24/7 to keep the room cool enough for the tank. Besides, 10 - 15 is a bit cool for my liking Several of our glass merchants make tanks to your requirements or make them up over spare glass and have them for sale at their place of business. Ring the nearest to you and ask. They are a lot cheaper than buying from a lfs who have a huge mark-up added. To your questions Chris... I didn't change the water, just topped it up as it evaporated. Didn't need to do it very often as it had a lid. It didn't need a heater as it was cold water. Our problem was keeping it cool over summer. It had an AquaClear HOB filter.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder

All OK here as we are both interested in fish. Grant hasn't anything to do with looking after them but he does enjoy looking at them. :lol:

Why get a tank from Jansens? Cut out the expense and go direct to the glazier - lots cheaper. Someone caught the octopus in a fishing net I believe and kept it alive for us, knowing we had a coldwater marine set up. It was only tiny, about 10cm with his little tentacles stretched full length.

I understand you are upset Ira but please watch your language when posting. An edit would be appreciated or I will ask Pegasus to remove it. I would not have thought a power cut that short would have that reaction. Perhaps the combination of the water change beforehand was enough to tip the balance. The tank doesn't sound overstocked - unless there are lots of still live fish you haven't mentioned. Did you clean out the filter when you did the first water change? Sorry about the loss of fish.

Well they haven't brought it to the asians as their countries are slipping further and further into debt (like the rest of us )

We had a rockpool tank set up for a couple of years. Most interesting tank we ever had but keeping it cool was a major problem. They could take higher temps for short periods of time but a room sitting at 28 deg wasn't good. The water needs to be 10 - 15 degs. We had a 3ft tank, added sand and rocks from the beach and caught all sorts of critters in the rockpools - triplefins, rockfish, shrimps, anemones, sea urchins, chitons, hermit crabs etc. Never fed them either, just topped up the water with sea water every now and then. We used sea water as we figured it would have the microscopic greeblies the others fed on. Must have worked as everything survived. We also added sea lettuce regularly. Lots more critters would come with it too We had a couple of small paua at one stage but they do not cope with higher temps. An octopus was doing well but was an escape artist who discovered he could not overcome carpet fluff! We didn't light the aquarium as there was nothing in it that required light. The only plants being the sea lettuce which was eaten by the inhabitants.

Double yuck! I don't know why the asians have to keep playing around with existing species. Some of the goldfish were bad enough. Why they stiill have these notions... Red eyes that scares away evil Bump head (like the head of Qilin) that brings prosperity Green spots that looks like jewel;symbolising wealth is beyond me. What does a lump on a fish have to do with prosperity!!??

If you are collecting from the beach you don't need a heater, or lights, for the tank.

PM me the name of your breeder and I will be able to tell you if he belongs to a club or not. Often breeders do not join clubs.