Caryl

Good to see you have gone to so much trouble to read up about your fish now Goldigirl. You are right, goldfish are adaptable but that doesn't always mean they are happy! They will accept quite a temperature range but the warmer the temperature I am told, the shorter their lives will be. It sounds like you have them at a good temperature now (I am so pleased I have a calculator which converts F to C degrees). Are you able to read pdf files on your computer? You need a programme called Adobe Acrobat Reader. If so, I would be happy to add you to my email list of non club members who receive a monthly copy of Fishtales, the newsletter of my local group, the Marlborough Aquarium Club. Newsletters can be up to 850k when there are photos added. One of our members actually lives in Venus, Texas. Happy fishkeeping...

Hi Ben, There are 3 fish clubs in Wellington. Upper Hutt, Kapi-Mana, and Wellington Aquarium Club. The first two are members of the Federation of NZ Aquarium Societies (FNZAS) but the last is not. Cees belongs to the Upper Hutt club and I can give you details for Kapi-Mana if you are interested. The Wellington group used to meet in a room at the zoo but I think they had to move premises recently. I can give you a contact there too if you want.

Hi from NZ Goldigirl. What a lot of people don't realise is - it is not the amount of water, it is the surface area that is more important. This is especially true for goldfish. Bowls are the most common, but the worst things you can put a goldfish in so I am pleased to hear you have a tank. Most bowls seem to be narrower at the top than the middle so the surface area is drastically reduced. This means less oxygen for the fish. If using a round bowl, always fill the water level to the widest part of the container. Good luck with your fishes. Obviously the number 8 was not good Feng Shui for the goldfish! :lol: We all learn by our mistakes (I hope) and I think most of us are guilty of overstocking at some point in our fish keeping. Hope we hear from you again soon.

It is my understanding that proper aquarium coolers are available around $1,000 but I don't know where to get one (plus I don't have $1,000 lying around at the moment. Must go check my Kachingo tickets!) Thanks for finding all that out for me Bruce. If, I mean WHEN, I finally get this tank up and running I will tell you what I ended up with.

WELL DONE ROB!! I am an Oscar. Now you have guessed correctly, it is your turn to start the next one :lol:

You are right Fee, there are really two different issues. I thought the balloon fish were being made that way but was assured they are a natural hybrid being selectively bred. There are apparently a few albinos around now which are not bred that way but injected with dye. Squid wants to see all fish going back to their 'pure' form I think and he is entitled to his opinion but we don't have to agree with him. If we all liked the same fish it would be a bit boring wouldn't it? Someone somewhere else in these posts said he didn't like discus. I have been waiting for all the discus lovers to defend their fish but they have been silent. It is good that we have so many to choose from - despite having many banned from NZ. Since Squid has told us which fish he doesn't like, perhaps he will now tell us which ones he favours - and why.

No I am not a redhump geophagus. I am not any sort of geophagus. 8 questions left

No I am not a firemouth, sorry 9 questions left

I don't think I would call myself "brightly coloured" but I do have a 'red form'. 10 questions left

No, I am not a dwarf cichlid 11 questions left

14. Yes I am a south American cichlid 13. No I am not Aquedens pulcher 12 questions left

I am not quite a Central American cichlid :lol: How's that for a bit of a clue? 15 questions left

YES! I am a cichlid 16 questions left

Have you seen Ren's Puffer Page? http://www.rr.iij4u.or.jp/~kohda/en/en-dwarfpuffer.htm He has bred them and tells how he did it in great detail, with pictures. I found this page after going to http://puffernet.tripod.com/main.html The Puffernet Page was interesting too. Both these pages say this particular puffer Tetraodon travancoricus is a freshwater species.Since Ren has bred them I guess he would know! Good luck!

No I am not a tetra 17 questions left

No I am not a white cloud. 18 qustions left

No I am not a coldwater fish 19 questions left.

Pegasus suggested a game of Name That Fish and suggested somone start the ball rolling. Well, I will take up his challenge and give it a go. Here are his rules: 1. Poster gives the first clue and how many attempts are to be allowed (not class, or sub class, but possibly region only or something). 2. Each member then gets one question eg Is it a catfish? Is is a bottom dweller? 3. The same member cannot ask two questions in a row but may follow after another person has asked. 4. The poster can only answer Yes or No but may say if the member is getting 'warmer' or 'colder'. 5. The fish must be a freshwater or brackish species and still available to aquarists, either here or overseas, with recognition in fish books or magazine. Think of games like "20 Questions" and "What's My Line?" (those old enough to remember black and white TV!) and you will get the idea. Don't know how this will go but.... I am an egglayer and you will be allowed 20 questions.

Any help you can give would be appreciated Bruce. It will be around 250 - 300 litres, depending on how many rocks we fill it with. Anywhere from 10 - 15 degrees would suit but not higher on a prolonged basis. Ira, it will be saltwater, which is corrosive to copper.

I have never heard of balloon mollies or balloon gouramis, nor seen any. I certainly know about the poor glass fish being injected with dye and hope that stupid idea has had its day as I have not seen any for a long time. I am now picturing mollies and gouramis being filled with air so they look like puffers! What are they?

Hurry up Warren, we wanna see the photos!! I am sure the finished set-up is going to look spectacular. I have a copy of the Nature Aquarium World and was able to look at the pages you say your tank will be based on. Will it be ready by conference? :lol: This may sound stupid but...if lights don't reach down to the required depth, why can't you use underwater ones? Are they not the right sort of light, or not strong enough?

Parrotfish are man-made but why are you mentioning 'balloon fishes' and what are they (apart from mollies and kissing gouramis)? What is wrong with mollies and kissing gouramis? What did angels have 40 years ago that they don't have now? Some of us are not old enough to have been able to see fishes 40 years ago. You have got me curious Squid!

Had you done anything to prepare the wood before putting it in the tank? It does sound like sediment from the wood and not algae but it must be leaching a lot to be forming on the glass like that. It will not harm the fish but does look unsightly. Ancistrus (bristlenose) catfish need wood as part of their diet. It must be a hard wood though. Never use willow by the way, I understand it is toxic to fish.

Maybe you have two different problems here Disneyworld. The brown stain in the water is the natural tannins released from the wood. The only way I know of to fix it is to do regular water changes. This should not affect the glass though so aren't sure why cleaning the glass helps the problem. I would have thought it would not stick to the glass. Have you actually got a brown algae growing on the glass as well as the tannin from the wood?

My books say Bettas live about 2 years but if Pegasus has kept them for longer then obviously the books were wrong! Longevity is affected by a lot of factors from water conditions to genetics so stating how long a fish may live with any accuracy can be pretty difficult (and hit and miss). Perhaps if enough people send a post stating how old their Bettas were when they finally died, we can get an average overall They like a pH of around 6.8 - 7.0. Most Bettas I have observed don't move around much, they just hang around at the surface (that's why I prefer the Africans as they are always on the move). They need to get extra oxygen from the air as they are labyrinth fish so perhaps they don't like the depth of the tank. Their natural habitat water level is not very deep.