Caryl

Congratulations on the elevation to president Mitch

Please note - those of you coming to conference on the Aratere's 2pm afternoon sailing - there will be 25 of you on board. Please make the effort to seek each other out (I suggest the most likely place to find the majority will be in the bar :lol: ) and those of you travelling with first-time conference attendees please take the time to introduce them to other FNZAS members and make them feel part of the group. Mitch, it appears you Mark and Carol are on your own on the later sailing but we won't forget to send someone to pick you up!

Thanks for that information Carla. As an immigrant yourself you would well know what is involved. The FNZAS is made up of 18 clubs around the country. We are all hobbyists wanting to learn about our fish and to help others with their fishkeeping. If you look at our home page (click on the 'fnzas.org is here' logo at the top of the page) you will see our aims. We are just about to have our 50th anniversary of the FNZAS and will celebrate with a party at our conference at the end of the month.

Gouramis spawn on leaves at the surface ywork so fish can eat the eggs from below. Putting a coke bottle over the top would not help in this case. You could try slowly moving a container underneath, so as not to disturb the nest, and lift the lot out. Otherwise I would just leave it and see what happens. If you want to try breeding them, put them in a separate tank, make sure there are leaves on the surface they can use to help hold their bubblenest together and make sure the water surface is calm.

Welcome to The Fishroom oscar sheila. They sure are some tank busters you have there! No wonder you need a bigger tank. Hope you enjoy posting here.

Bear in mind we have very strict quarantine laws here with many fish banned so his selection may be a lot less than he is used to - especially coldwater fishes like goldfish and koi - both banned imports.

We meet on the 21st so I will make sure it is discussed. When I was editor and doing the YB I gave people a cut-off date and if the names weren't there, they didn't go in the book!

Hi Noa, Not sure how to answer your questions as I have not looked at the aquarium trade from an employment point of view. There are certainly a lot of fish keepers here and many own aquariums. You also see them in malls and other public places so there are people who offer set-up and maintenance services. Not sure how much money is in it though, I imagine you won't get rich The economy isn't all that great here at the moment either (by the way, which contry are you from?) but most who come here say they do so for the lifestyle, not the money. If you are going to be poor you might as well be poor in a pleasant climate (that depends on which part of the country you live in too) We have extensive mussel and salmon industries here so perhaps he could branch out into other areas of aquaculture if nothing else is available. Anyone else got anything to add?

We appreciate anything you have done so far and most are well aware of the effort involved. If everyone did their bit things would run a lot better!

It is not 6 months until the next YB is due - it should go out with the August Aquarium World. Since you are about to get this year's capitations, we should get the right list for the right year. Any information you have is already at least 9 months out of date since most club AGMs are in May and allowing 3 months for members to get their As into G.

I have had a lot of help, with setting up my African tank, from the cichlidiots in The Community Tank. They told me to have a thin layer of sand, just enough to cover the bottom, as it is easier to keep clean. Cichlids like lots of water changes and good quality water and the sand traps food particles. It can also compact and go bad.

Fins crossed for you Ira!

I have both Eheim and Fluval here and the Eheim has certainly been no trouble at all which is more than I can say for the Fluval!

I hope you are not planning on handing out Year Books at conference as our club has no intention of paying for a book which should have been out 10 months ago and a new one is due in another 3. Will get caps to you as soon as we get subs in. Have just started this. Whether you will get them in excel is another matter! :lol:

"Paperwork is in the mail" Now where have I heard THAT before?? :lol:

You are coming to conference aren't you pies? Talk to Warren Stilwell while you are there as I believe he is a veritible mine of information re RO. Andrew will be there too of course

Good to hear it has been done with no problems nico. Sounds funny to have to pay for a hole doesn't it? Of course, if you were digging for a fence etc you are paying for holes as well

The motel will not hold rooms after Wednesday. If you haven't booked you will miss out!

Bristlenoses will do OK in summer but not winter. I have kept them in coldwater tanks but inside only so the temp never went below about 10C.

Welcome Mark. As well as learning lots we hope you are able to offer help to others too.

Will be good to see you. I am very tied up with organising the FNZAS conference at the moment, being held Queen's birthday weekend.

Just type 'flowerhorn' into Google and you will get plenty of sites about the dreadful looking things

I'm sure it will be worth it blueram :lol: All the best with the wedding. That's 2 of our members getting married soon. Thanks for the update shilo. I am sure a lot more people will give these plants a try.

Oh, THAT Graeme :lol: I remember you (even if I didn't remember your name!)

Anchor a piece of lettuce down and when the snails are on it, whip it out. You get lots at once that way. I always found squishing was the way to go - find some kids to do it for you - they love doing it!