CodKing

Though I'd better make up for that effort...

New tank, new light (many thanks to those involved!!!) Blue looks nice in the dark but doesn't photograph very well!

Ha ha, really? Good-luck counting those little buggers!

http://www.frogprints.co.nz/ I've seen some of their work and it was very tidy. Not sure about the price though. Some advice I can give is don't skimp on the dollars if you want a pro job. I've found printers that are cheap are usually using fairly average gear. Yellow pages is a good start, go in and have a talk with the printer is also another must. Take a good look at some of their previous work. In my haste I've done none-of-the-above a couple times to get jobs done and regreted it everytime! You need to be very clear about quality, margins and colour reproduction. If you have text over complex images I would talk to them about 'haloing' the text. All these things may seem common sense but once that toner hits the paper it's all over! Hope this helps! Good luck

Males living together seems to be alright so far. As you say Stella, their personalities can be widely varied. I've been monitoring the situation as best I can and it seems the largest male has the issues, with him seperated I've notice a huge change in the mood of the fish and they all come out much more often. Although this could be the calm before the storm, a new alpha will surely appear. There also seems to be some reaction to light. I've got some kind of 12V orange coloured light near them and noticed they all came out for a look when its on. Is there anythign in this I wonder? Maybe a subject for another thread. The meat thing I think was just how 'chewy' the liver was. Heart muscle seems to be much less dense and fibery. Fibery? is that a term? heh.

Wow, that's a cool looking setup!

My guineapig is a crackup! Never thought I'd have one but had to rescue him from a crap owner, now he's part of the family Did always wonder about the difference, hamster --> Gpig. I always assumed it was the Americans calling a Gpig something different. Everyday's a school day!

Over night is the ticket dude, especially if you are intending on netting them. I'm not 100% but I think the smelly meat is a bit of a myth. I've been catching and eating eels for years and I've used everything from dog food to cheese but never rotten meat. I've been successful on most occasions. In my experience, if they are there, they will find the bait, especially at night! One thing to try, attract the eels using whatever you think and when you can see them..... Get some pantyhose, the longer the better, and put a tablespoon or two of dog food/cat food in the foot. When you see an eel cruising around pop it in the water near it and he'll come have a look-see. When he sucks up the stocking his tiny backwards teeth make it hard for him to let go and impossible if you are pulling on the stocking. All you gotta do is give the stocking a good yank and flick him up onto the bank. And of course grab him quick before he makes a break for the water!

Oops, chopped off the feeding bit... My Bullies have a main diet of Ox heart, Sand fleas (little bugs you find under rocks in the garden), small earthworms and frozen bloodworms. First up I tried Ox liver but they seemed to be regurgitating it. Found awful looking decaying chunks of food all the time. Since then it's been little chunks of heart offered to them on the end of a bit of wire If you offer one bit at a time you can control who gets what and saves on excess food floating round your tank fouling up the water. Plus I've found that most of them wont eat anything that's just lying on the ground, sometimes even live food! Now they are used to 'food on a stick' they come out as soon as soon as I take the lid of the tank. Oh and that reminds me, put a lid on your tank. I lost a few that way, came home to carpet fish they dont do so well on the floor! What I've found they wont eat: Earwigs, Grass grubs, Slatters, Leeches and Slugs

I had a tank of similar size that happily housed 4 Bullies (3 males 1 female). I layered rocks and scenery so they had good hiding places at all levels in the tank. The filter I used was suitable for a 70L tank which generated quite a bit of current. I had this on for about 10hrs/day, switching it off at feeding time in the afternoon and leaving it off all night. The Bullies seemed to enjoy a bit of a splash in the current, especially when a I added a few live bugs! One thing I've found, when feeding them ox heart or liver, the fishes 'poop' was quite big and seemed to get trapped in small gaps. To combat this I swished the tank in the opposite direction to the flow of the filter and that dislodged a lot of it. A quick swipe with my little net and poop all gone! I've found my Bullies fascinating to keep and feeding time is way cooler with these guys than any other fish! Great characters with a couple proving to be quite 'quirky' Hope this info helps!

Due to a change in situation I need to rehome 2 great looking males and 1 small female. All are healthy and have spent the last few months chowing down on, liver, heart, sand hoppers, earthworms and blood worms. Male 1 is small and dark coloured. Very sneaky little guy, he has a tendancy to snatch food off the big boys! Male 2 is also dark but a bit bigger. He is quite shy, except at feeding time of course. Female is very pale brown and small. She is healthy and lively but doesn't tolerate too much attention from the lads. I intended on releasing them back to their original stream but though someone here might want them. I'll try for a couple of photos over the weekend. If you take a look at this thread you can get the idea... (not sure which fish is which but photos are of actual fish) http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=46926

Right-o! Nice, thanks for that. A bit more reading and I can see what you're saying.

Thanks all! He is a real fatty huh, might be due to me feeding him quite a bit but he seems to be comfortable. Manual focus lens is really the only way! Most of these shots were taken @ around 1/60, f11, ISO400 if that helps anyone

A few had some glare from the glass so they are a yellowed. I also have a bit of MDF up against the back of the tank... aaand, the afternoon sun was really yellow!! Despite the conditions I thought this was a successful shoot!

Negatives? The only negatives I can really see are stripping the water completely of things my plants can use and probably how ugly the end result will be Thanks for the tip!

Describes the spectrum. I might have to give this a go. Anyone recomend a powerhead? Never used one so don't know what to look for. Tank is 65L (ish) http://www.oilgae.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=1267

any idea of the light range one might need to grow these little critters?

Yeah sand was the other option. I've got a nice design for a fluid sand filter. Putting a false wall in the back on the aquarium so the backdrop is a narrow chamber swirling sand. For the algae beds I was thinking maybe an LED setup. I've got an old computer powersupply which I've turned into a benchtop 12V power supply which would run awhole bunch I was thinking if done properlly it could be quite small and tidy.

I've just been reading this article: http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/saltwat ... r-diy.html Any thoughts or opinions?

Thanks Flatfish! Last couple of days I've seen a bit of biffo in the males tank. I think I need to seperate them, which means having 3 tanks Might be time to take a few back to where they came from. The slightly bigger tank seems to be spot on for the others. I don't see the female much, she's been hidding the past few days but the males don't seem do mind the setup. The boys take turns at feeding time which is new! That's a pretty cool article, can I find these on Scopus you think? I'll have a go on Monday anywho. Yip I'm just starting second year of BSc in Geog. GIS papers and backing them with a few Biol. Probably get some more ecology in there. Masters aye, hard out! I'm not sure my academic life will be that in depth, just have to see how it goes next exam season.

I'm back! Those abstracts are heaps They just gave me more questions! I've got so many papers I need to be reading atm, I should really be reading those I managed to get some measurements on the fish, and I was miles off! (I'm gonna be such a good field researcher ) 2 of the males are pushing past 8cm and the other two are just over 7. The female must be about 4 or 5. I've seperated them as the big lads were dominating all the good spots and I think the silver lining of the lost fish is that everyone seems a bit more relaxed, but this might be due to the, wild-fish meets rectangular-aquarium stage concluding. The setup now is a 30L tank with Big and small male and a 45L with 2 males and the female. Female gets her own place tomorrow evening! I think the tanks are small but they have a good network of holes to hide in, any input on this would be good. Maybe even a new thread..? Native photos are a bit lacking, only got time for a couple of rounds and out of that only 1 was good, and really only anygood if it's high resolution Did finish my tropical setup though, and have a few pics coming to an appropriate thread soon That 'eye colouring' thing... The sheen is when low angle light of some kind goes through the clear layer on the outside (whatever its called) as the shot I had framed up was looking down the fishes back, i.e., from tail to head and the light source was in front of him but out of frame. I think any eye would do it in the right angle of light. I think I got a shot of a frog with a good example, if I find it I'll post it

Wow, I'll have a crack at those for sure, thanx I'll go see who's awake and see if i can get some good scaled shots, maybe I'm over estimating... Big male is alive but I think he might be a bit... funny now, I have seen him swimming funny, kind of to one side, but I've also seen him swimming normal He was eating and being bossy today so I think he is happy.

Heh, yeah I get that bit Thats just seems an odd number. And, my bad, I made the 655

Whats with the 645px thing? What a random value. How come I can't post these? Solved When the sun sets they come out and hang around in the last of the sunlight, I tried to get some shots tonight but this is the best they would give me! Their eyes get this amazing blue sheen in the right light. I'm sure I'll capture it eventually!

Yes please, that would be ace! I've had a couple of escapees Left the lid off one night and lost 2 small males and a female, got home today and one had jumped through the mesh! An 8cm(ish) male. He's not doing so good, so I've put him in my plant tank to see if he'll recover. So now I've got a new lid For the ones that are still there, 10-12cm for the biggest 2, one is quite dark and the other light, both males, and a couple of 5cm females. I'm not really too sure about the head count at the mo. New tank is coming along nicely so I'll be able to get a good look when I do the big change-over. The river I got them from was absolutely teaming with them, definitely some big fat breeding stock there. Something I've been meaning to ask... What kind of max, min water depths do Bullies live in?