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fmueller

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Everything posted by fmueller

  1. So I am getting a bit bored with my mbuna and am thinking about switching to livebearers. I wouldn't want a gaggle of different color morphs in the same tank that randomly interbreed. I would also prefer to buy from a reputable breeder rather than Animates or HFF. Who breeds livebearers that breed true? Auckland area or shipped. I am willing to compromise on species and color morph as long as it's good stock. Ideally I would want large swordtails that are red with a black tail. But could go all red, or platies, or... Many thanks for any and all suggestions!
  2. Is anybody in the Auckland area breeding auratus?
  3. Caryl - Many thanks! Robert - I see you are not only good at bird shots, but macro too! My garden is only one year old. We bought the place in 2014 with a weed patch out the back that was too steep to use. Took everything out and got a fortune worth of soil delivered to terrace the section. Planted last year around Christmas, and now I enjoy watching all kind of creatures moving in. I knew the lizards were back when the kingfishers sat on the power lines again!
  4. Just saw this in the garden. It's about 1/4" or 5 mm across. Does anybody know what this is?
  5. Great photo! Hard to fill a frame with one of these! I am not of a birder myself, but this one landed on my grevillea recently.
  6. fmueller

    New Tank

    Thanks, and yes, this type of volcanic rock is plentiful in Auckland.
  7. fmueller

    New Tank

    After moving to NZ in 2014 from Ohio, I have finally got a tank up and running!
  8. Thanks for the responses. Still thinking about it. ;-) I have shipped plenty of fish myself in the US. Never had a problem, but there are a lot of things you can do wrong, and even if I tell this guy what to do, if he has never shipped before... By the way, in the US I have always used the post office, which usually means a 2 day delivery, sometimes 3. If the fish are bagged well, that really is not a problem.
  9. I'd like to buy fish from a guy at the other end of the North Island. He says he would ship them, if I can get a courier to pick them up. Has anybody done this, and what courier companies do this - if any?
  10. It felt a bit hard for a sponge, but than I didn't feel like fondling it a lot, in case the orange is there to signal not to touch it. The last thing I picked up from the beach to show folks, and ask what it is, was a Portuguese man o' war. Luckily, it had already lost its tentacles. Anyhow, thanks for the input. At least I know now that I found something a little unusual. Too bad I don't have a marine tank to put it in.
  11. Seen today at North Head in Auckland. I am guessing it's some type of soft coral. Does anybody know more?
  12. No, it isn't. I've attached two drawings, but I'll post pictures and an explanation of the setup once it's finished. I trust, it is nothing like you have ever seen before. Running it on siphon isn't possible. Siphon drain pipes give me the creeps anyhow. I never had one, but in my previous tank I had two 5 cm drain pipes, which allows for an insane flow without siphon. I did some calculations myself, and I ordered a Jecod DCT-4000. If I don't get enough current, I'll have to add a wavemaker. Would be a pain, because right now there is no technology in the tank, and I'd like to keep it that way, but we'll see. This might well turn out to be the greatest disaster ever built, but there is hope yet.
  13. I am setting up a tank with an overflow that has a 4 cm drain pipe. I really wanted 5 cm, but the dude who built my tank made the hole a little too small, and I can only fit a bulkhead for a 4 cm inner diameter pipe. So that's what I have to work with. Seeing that I wanted lots of flow, I went for a Jecod DCT-15000 pump, thinking that I could always regulate it down, if need be. Well, I underestimated this pump, which is a monster! Even on the lowest setting, it sucks my sump dry, because the water just can't return fast enough through the overflow. My wife wants some type of water feature for the garden, so the DCT-15000 will come in handy for that project, but now the question is, what pump should I buy for my tank? I'll probably order online for cost savings. Any suggestions appreciated!
  14. Thanks, Caryl! If anybody is still interested in Bolbitis - it's a very cool plant, slow growing, but otherwise easy to keep, and seems uncommon in NZ - the dude who is selling it on TradeMe is Dallas Jones (dallas.jones@gmail.com). He has pieces of varying sizes and charges according to size. If you don't want to spend what he is asking on TradeMe, you could probably get a smaller piece, or haggle him down a bit
  15. Thanks, Caryl. I responded to your PM before I saw you had posted here
  16. All a complaint with TradeMe will do is HFF removing this one photo. It will not solve my demand for compensation, nor cause HFF to change their dishonest business practices. HFF had a reasonable claim to plead ignorance, until last time I explained the copyright situation to them in great detail. Besides, ignorance is no excuse. Have you ever been pulled over by a cop and explained you were completely unaware of a speed limit on the Auckland Harbor Bridge? That will do you no good! As for other TradeMe sellers using generic photos, as long as they state that, or use a photo where it is blatantly obvious, I have no great problem with that. But HFF does it in a very sneaky way. If you wanted to show a generic photo of Tropheus Pemba, you would use one of fully colored up adults that show the stunning contrast of black and bright orange. But they used my photo of fry of about the same size they are selling. Only my photo shows fry that already show an amazing amount of color for fish that size, while HFF presumably has geyish-brown runts. Another good example is the photo of Labidochromis caeruleus they use. Those fish are amazing. Bright lemon yellow with a solid black stripe along the top of the dorsal fin. If anybody in NZ had Labidochromis caeruleus of that quality, I'd buy them at any prize! I've seen the fish HFF sells. They have whitish patches in the yellow, and the stripe in the dorsal is disrupted and at best dark grey, not black. Frankly, despite still swimming around, they look like the have been dead for three days and a pleco has sucked on them. Just bad genetic material. Not fish I would want to breed. I asked HFF if the photo they use is of the actual fish they sell. Not surprisingly, there was no response. They know what they are doing! Interesting to hear from SirGM that there are other bad apples in the barrel. This thread should be moved to the Commercial Trade and Exchange forum, and become a sticky!
  17. Thanks for the advice, Shilo. HFF has done this with at least one other of my photos that I am aware of. I went through the polite email explaining what they are doing is wrong and why that is then. I also went through the still polite but more serious email then, and they did take the photo down. However, no apologies, let alone compensation. It's not like I monitor HFF's TradeMe listings all the time, but I am just looking to buy some Tropheus, when I came across their listing. The fish are fry, but show amazing color for fish that size. I liked them as soon as i saw the photo, and was wondering if I should pony up and buy them. It took me a day to realize why I liked them so much - they are my fish from many years ago! So HFF has done the same thing again. I don't make a living from photography, but I have sold photos, and licensed some out for people to use. More often I have given people permission to use my images for personal and academic use, and I am happy to do that for free, as long as they credit my site. Anyhow, I have written an invoice for HFF today with a fee that grants them a non-exclusive, limited right to use the image for advertising purposes on TradeMe only. The fee is reasonable, but I was not in the mood of cutting them much of a deal! But the copyright infringement is my beef with HFF, and I am going to sort that out one way or another. I would not have posted here for that. HFF has good reputation, and FNZAS members might reasonably assume that when they buy fish from HFF via TradeMe, they will get the fish that are shown in the photo that's with the auction. I think FNZAS members have the right to know that this is absolutely not the case with HFF. HFF takes an image of a prime specimen of the species they are trying to sell, and passes that off as the fish they are selling. Again, if HFF was using the photos for their website, just to show what the species looks like, that would be an entirely different story. But if I see photos of Tropheus fry (not adults) with an auction on TradeMe, and that auction is for fry of about that age, I would assume that what's shown in the photo is what I'll get. Not so with. FNZAS members should be aware of this, and I would be surprised if there are not at least a few for whom this is news.
  18. +1 on what nays said. You should only filter over carbon when necessary, not permanently. The thicker the sponge, the better it is for bio-filtration, which is the most important aspect of filtration.
  19. HFF have a nasty habit of stealing photos from my web site, and use them on Trade Me to sell their fish. More than the copyright infringement, I despise the fact that they use photos of super quality fish I had in the US, and make it look like that's the fish they sell in NZ. When I look at the fish they actually have for sale, they are nowhere near that quality. It's basically fraud, in my opinion. They've done it before, and I told them to cease and desist. They take down the photo once told, but next time they need one, here we go again. Right now they are trying the same old trick with the Tropheus they have for sale on TradeMe. They are asking $20 for one fry. Don't they have a cell phone so they can take pictures of the actual fish? I think I am going to send them an invoice for using my photo and see how that goes. I don't mind people using pictures for their private use, but for commercial purposes, it's unreasonable to expect to get them for free!
  20. Yeah, you could say that! I shouldn't have slept that long! Turns out I found some Anubias locally from a guy who also sold bolbitis! Took me years to find bolbitis in the US. So I am super surprised and happy that I found it so quickly in NZ! A good day after all. But then, every day is a good day when you have the beach only 10min away
  21. Thanks for the tip! Bought it ;-) Remind me in a couple of years when I have some to spare. This stuff is super slow growing, but I've done it before. Here is a big one - plus lots of Anubias - in a tank I had in the US.
  22. Nicely done! I just subscribed to your YouTube channel. It certainly deserves more traffic!
  23. I have to admit, I am not the world's greatest fan of Zebra Danios, especially when it comes to albino and long-fin varieties, but this is a very nice video. Thanks for sharing!
  24. So there were these two HUGE Anubias plants on TradeMe. I am in Auckland, they were in Wellington, and buyer says no shipping, because they are on large pieces of driftwood, and likely to break. I'd be putting them on rocks anyhow. Tropheus don't like wood. So I ask if the seller is willing to take them off the wood and ship to Auckland. I'd pay full BIN and of course shipping. Seller writes back over night: "no worries". I get the message the next morning, and seller has put a $70 BIN on each. I am super excited and try to buy them right away. You know, before somebody else snaps them up. It's only 8:30am, and I have just got up. Turns out another buyer has bought both of them 7min before I got to the auctions! If one of you folks here has them, congratulations on the purchase, you lucky bastard!
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