Caryl

Congratulations. Email the pics to me and I will put them up for you when I get home in a couple of weeks or so. How bad an accident??? :-?

We have a tank at the local Hospice with 20+ black widows in it. Very peaceful fish and never had them attack any other species or each other. I have never had any nasty ones either.

Now in Dunedin! Will probably wander about the CBD this morning. Will be going to the albatross colony this afternoon. AAAaannnndddd.... IT'S SUNNY AT LONG LAST!!!!!! :happy2: :happy1:

Hello from Cromwell. We have passed quite a few bodies of water (Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki among them) but not seen any fishes. Not that we looked hard! Went to the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre at The Hermitage by Mt Cook. We will have to believe them about the mountain as it was raining hard and very foggy so we couldn't see any majestic alpine anythings. Heading to Dunedin tomorrow and will be going on to Invercargill later in the week. Must check up on what Godly3vil is doing with all the plants! Perhaps a surprise inspection is in order

I don't use salt in my tank.

Grant's birthday pic was over-exposed (the photo, not Grant) and you can't make out what the cake is with white icing against a white base :roll: Have a look at this instead...

Cake now made and iced - of course with cream cheese icing. Carrot cake isn't carrot cake without the cream cheese! It also has lemon (I like a hint of lemon in a carrot cake) and is sprinkled with crushed walnuts. I shall try and remember to get a photo of the birthday boy with his cake this evening. Have to eat it all tonight as we head away on tour tomorrow and I don't think it will fit in the car. :happy2:

Circumstantial evidence As they were newly introduced, it could be one guppy did not cope with the stress and died - then got eaten by the opportunistic cochu. Many of those fancy guppies seem to drop dead at the slightest provocation!

Being an innocent, I would have no idea where to find a tinny house - but I am sure I could borrow some from the neighbours as they often light up of an evening and their deck is beside our driveway. I could get high going to collect the mail! Just made a carrot cake (first time I have tried) for Grant's birthday today. :happy2:

On a good note (for me) the Foxy Morons won the jackpot at quiz tonight so we got $120 each. The rest went into the pot to use next term. :bounce: :happy1: :thup: We came 3rd tonight and 3rd overall for the term. 8) Grant and I start our holiday on Friday, around the South Island, get home for 2 days then off again to Melbourne :happy1: Hopefully the builders will have finished the garage extension by the time we return.

Guinea pigs are popular in Peru.

It is my understanding it is the Ancistrus sp that need wood and they can get it these days in bottom feeder pellets that contain lignin

Hard for me to say as they are so small to start with they were usually fairly well grown before I could even see them! :roll:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food- ... ke-Chicken and, for Monty Python fans...

We know a few hunters so often get wild pork, goat, venison, seafoods of various sorts and whitebait (but don't tell Stella)

Welcome to the Fishroom

It may be someone from further south who swam upstream to reach a hospital where nobody would recognise them

Simpsons and Neals. The Simpsons were the last ones to live in the pioneer cottage at Carluke until Grant's grandad built the place next door in the early 1930's.

F15hguy perhaps we are related as my husband's family populated the Rai too. In fact one of his ancestors was said to have married the last full blooded maori in the area (much to the horror of both sides). My family came to NZ in 1858 (on my mum's side) but dad's side came later from Denmark.

I know we have several South Africans here and a number of Asians (countries mostly not specified so far). If you are now living in NZ but were born elsewhere, where were you born and how long have you been in NZ? Just curious. 8)

Not as bad as when our kids were little and my brother's 2 cats had 11 kittens between them and he was looking for new homes. Husband had developed an allergy to cats but when we all (unbeknown to each other) had pointed to the same kitten and said "If we could have a kitten I would choose that one", we said to the kids we would give it a go until the kitten was due for its immunisations and needed to be spayed. If dad developed a problem, as a result of the kitten, one of them would have to go. Eldest child said "Well I choose dad" whereas the youngest (aged about 8 ) said "Well I'd rather have the kitten!" He has never been allowed to forget that :slfg: Needless to say he now has a home of his own filled with cats, dogs, fish, chickens and frogs. PS. We did keep the kitten and Misty was part of our household for many years.

I'm sure whoever it was is not going to own up! :facepalm:

The big cotton ball would have been an opportunistic secondary fungal infection. Very common to develop over wounds. Often, after a while, you can knock or pull the fluff off and the wound beneath has healed totally. Sounds like something bit the tail off but bit it too deeply for recovery. Usually fish can grow back tails quite quickly but if bitten off too close to the body this is not likely.

welcome and enjoy your time here. You need to consider replacing the husband with a more accommodating model

I often hear people claim UGF's are no good for plants but this is not so. As long as you have a decent thickness of substrate they are fine. The filters today are much more efficient than of old plus the media is really high tech in the surface area they have compared to the basic stuff they used to use.