Sunbird73

That is a cool little fish :love:

Zayne, did you buy a thread attachment for your faucet or did you already have one?

It looks vy interesting. My faucet is not threaded so wouldn't work on my tap. Tho you would waste twice as much water as you have the tap running to drain the tank as well as fill it.

I would think a BN would grow too large for that tank. Some of the smaller cories would be ok. I wouldn't put many guppies in there at all (think one or two), in no time you will be overrun and overstocked cos they breed so quick.

went to HFF albany yesterday, they have turtles but no lizards. No frogs/tadpoles either unless I was going blind. I would head to the bird barn.

wow what insurance company was that? That is unbelievable, they were happy to take your money before it got stolen, never asked to have you keep in Fort Knox. Sounds like a case of bullies with money knowing you won't have money for lawyers when it comes time to pay up.... reminds me a little of ACC ....

I have always found Bunnings good for cutting to size, never had a problem. Even if they do charge $1 per cut (never have been charged the full amount for my cuts tho) its still worth it if you don't have power tools. Their cuts are straighter than our circular saw & jigsaw so I still get them to cut mine. Just re-iterate that you can't cut it at home so they are extra careful with measuring etc. DH built a fish tank stand years ago from MDF, painted it all well. Then under the tank we used a sheet of vinyl to protect against dribbles. Used it for around 3yrs under the tank with no bubbling. So it can still work but you have to be careful. I don't think I would worry too much if it was just the floor.

what website?

gorgeous fish. My guess is that that it is a female with fantastic colours. Where did you get them?

yeah I would love to be able to find some for my insect mad daughter but haven't seen any for ages, none on the gum tree next door

Gum trees. The caterpillars of this moth are my favourite, very beautiful, I regularly collected them as a child from the large gum tree at the end of our street. Heres a pic of the caterpillar And this was an honoured guest in the kids favourite climbing tree acouple of weeks ago. He appeared to lick the tree for a day and then left.

when I was looking at getting some I could only find a couple of accounts of successful breeding. Here is one account of a successful spawn http://www.perthcichlid.com.au/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t2121.html Here is one that I saved when I was looking cos the link was buried deep on the web and really hard to find Some other advice I found was to put them with a cory that is easier to breed (like bronze cories) that are spawning regularly and hope that the hormones will trigger the schwartzi's to spawn. Also make sure that yours are adults, don't think cories start breeding until 18mth -2yrs but don't quote me on that as I haven't ever bred them.

Gone are the days stalking the postie relentlessly ... Gotta love the internet Good luck to everyone about to check their results!

photo?

protozoans are parasites generally, Ich is an example of a protozoa (tho there are many different ones). There are many things that can cause dropsy (as it just means swelling/fluid in the abdomen) but its my understanding that if its bacterial, then the bacteria that cause it were likely present in the tank anyway but its a change in the fish immunity/susceptibility (ie. changes caused by stress) that made her succumb to the bacteria. By the time the signs of dropsy are seen the infection would be huge as it has caused enough changes to damage the organs and cause the swelling. I would give the vet a call and see what they say about the meds, it might be more $$ than its worth (ie. only a small chance it will help). I doubt they would give you both meds at the same time tho. I think that Apisto's are particularly sensitive fish, and heartbreaking .... :tears:

It is TOTALLY ok to be completely pissed off when some lowlife breaks into your property and steals your stuff. There is always someone better off and worse off than you... I am sorry you lost all your things, not a nice feeling. I hope the insurance company has some christmas spirit and speeds your claim through before xmas. But definitely, go give all your family a hug and be thankful for the really important things and that they left your family alone. Watch out too for any repeat snooping (hoping to cash in on your insurance return). I would borrow a very large dog for a while... that three headed one from Harry Potter would be useful

bummer. I have one worse.... my first redtail male apisto'd a couple weeks back but still had my most beautiful red tail left strong and healthy, just waiting for them to start breeding again. Today I did a water change with just a hose siphon, had fingers on the end and everything but I looked away for a fraction of a second at another fish and he blardy went up the siphon! No saving him, massive injuries. So gutted cos he was big and healthy and beautiful. :an!gry :facepalm: :tears: :tears:

Agree. Not an accident, he plead GUILTY. He didn't plead "not guilty" because it was an "accident" - because its obvious that was the only excuse he could think of at the time. And the fact that it destroyed his relationship and career is just incidental and showing the gravity of the crime - I think all people that commit sex acts on kids SHOULD have destroyed relationships (who would want them) and careers, but that should also have nothing to do with the law punishing them. So saying someone had their wife leave them and their jobs ruined because they sexually abused their own kid should have no impact on whether they go to jail. He only got a fraction of what he deserved. The travesty is that he admitted guilt, but the judge let him off. *rant over* Also quite happy to not have snakes here. Proud of our snake free status

http://sciblogs.co.nz/chthonic-wildlife-ramblings/tag/spider/ scroll down, Cambridgea foliata - nice closeup photo for you. The 4yo found the slater eating spider (Dysdera crocata) today in my woodpile and wondered what it was, so this link helped me out too! That one had massive fangs and wickely red legs - very bizarre looking. And 6 eyes interestingly!

Looks like a nz sheetweb spider, the males wander around looking for females in the spring. Very shy quiet spiders but can run like bejesus if you disturb them. Have MASSIVE fangs, but no recorded bites as they usually stick to their webs. I wouldn't push your luck tho, you wouldn't want to be the first person to find out a) how much that bite hurts with 4-5mm fangs or b) how necrotising that venom is We have had quite a few around our house over the years, have never ever had one flare and show me its fangs. We tend to catch and rehome tho, not in the habit of poking them first :sml2: Think they might be nz largest native spider? could be wrong tho

No sadly, this tank is in the kitchen so I can watch it and has an eheim pickup filter in it. I checked it anyway (clutching at straws!), nothing. When I was watching her with her very last fry, she gave him an almost agressive look/body positioning when they were eating. So I think she got to him the next day. Shame cos he was looking very active and healthy, I should have taken him out! I have put the male back in now, but they are both still quite aggressive to each other. It is a different male and he may just be too aggressive for her? He is in the dogbox/breeder trap at the moment, will let him out again tomorrow to see if he will behave. Otherwise may have to try the original male - who is nice, but not *quite* as good colour in his tail as the one in atm, but he had better manners towards the female.

me too. I loved it, was very cute. And now you can't see me! Wait... is my butt showing? :lol:

I LOVE ragdolls, they are beautiful and so chilled out. :love:

Well, fry numbers dropped to 10 visible from 50 then to 1, day before yesterday. Haven't seen any yesterday or today when I fed some microworms so have the male about to go back into the tank. He is currently floating in a bag and the female is bright yellow again when near him and reacting fairly aggressively towards him through the bag. So ... too soon? Shall I keep them separated a while longer (it was an opportunistic catch - he wandered into my trap when I was trying to catch cory's :roll: ) I thought about taking her out but dunno about feeding an apparently empty tank :dunno: edited *scratch that* Have just put him back. Will keep her on her own for another week and feed her up.

awesome. Can't wait to see some in person (think my LFS has some on order for next week). How blue is the male IRL? am wondering if I need to clear some tank space