Pegasus

Hi Shelly, Welcome to you and your family Hope you find the site interesting and look forward to your posts.

Nice clear pics Conaquavict Just as well the fish don't know it's winter in your part of the world Bill.

Decisions are being made with regard to the direction the new Poecilia Club will take, and your input is needed at this time, so if you have not already done so, could you please go to the links above and confirm your interest so that the club can move ahead. Many thanks Bill.

Alan-au said: Would be good to read the write up on this if you have it Alan-au. Another "theory" is that the barbels of the catfish get erroded away due to the constant contact with the bacteria in the gravel and substrates. They "do" definitely grow back, and the quickest way I have found was to place them in a bare bottomed tank with better food and water conditions... no meds Bill.

Vjarn said: Hopefully nobody will take this too seriously, nor the addition of vinegar Peat Moss is the recommended way to lower the ph and soften the water. Other methods just act as a temporary buffer, that needs regular replacement. Some logs and driftwood will also lower the pH without resorting to chemicals. Oyster shell or Bird Grit will increase the pH, and in both instances it does it "slowly" without sudden changes to the water conditions. "Here fishy fishy..... Bath time"... Bill.

Hi gonzosys, Welcome to the NZ Fishroom Quite a lot of members from down your way, so you will be quite happy here. Might be good to add your location to your profile, then members will know where you are for later posts. Hope you enjoy your visits Bill.

Nice surprise for you Rob.. great stuff, especially now you have them feeding on some decent grub

Sounds like a good show MA Great stuff. Always a market for Zebs if the quality and size is good.

Good to see you here Matt. Look forward to seeing you around Bill.

Try BOC in Penrose... they have a big branch... or look up NZ Industrial Gases.

Shiuh said: Seems like this has happened before, and if so, how did you cure it..? Would be good to know what other fish you have in the tank..? Also... Look at the damage closely and try to establish if it is a "tear"... or is being "eaten" away by fiungus.. (white fluffy edges) New tears usually indicate fin nipping, but can also become fungused quite quickly, so it is sometimes hard to tell. You don't mention the size of the tank, or how many fish you have in there, but unless there is no option... it is not a good idea to dose the whole tank with meds. Have you the means to seperate the damaged fish and treat them in isolation. You will use less meds, and be able to monitor them much better. Regards, Bill.

Hi again Hilary, Can't "really" advise you on what tank you should or shouldn't get.. but you said above... ... so it may be time to sit back and take a long look at what you have and where your interests are going to be focused twelve months from now. As above... you certainly have the bug... but this is normal, and your eagerness to get more tanks is just part of the addiction, but not always the answer. The fact that you are pretty new to all this makes me wonder (JMO) that you may be just rushing things too much, and that it may be better to exchange some of your stock for something more suited to the equipment you have at present... until such times as you are fully confident with all the ups and downs of fishkeeping. Again... (JMO).. but we see so many who rush head first into this hobby, then come crashing down when things begin to go wrong... and this can happen in "hours".... not days or months. Hope that this doesn't sound too negative, but it is only mentioned to save you some heartbreak later on. Bill.

My diagnosis is that you are truly and utterly addicted, and the only cure is more tanks.. (the bigger the better of course).. .. but watch those fish levels, and keep up with the water changes. Welcome Hilary... Really great to see you here, and hope you can post some pics when you get time.

Hi Luke, It's fine "provided" that it has no added fertilizers in it. Look for the products marked "Organic".. and they should be fine. To avoid a messy tank, rinse it slightly and place in a nylon stocking (ladies tights) before putting it in your filter. It will need replacing every ten days or so, and you should keep track of your pH.. as the peat will lower it gradually. Regards, Bill.

Could members that reistered with the Poecilia group please log on to the new forum here... http://poecilia.net.nz/members/ ... and indicate their interest here... http://poecilia.net.nz/members/messages ... ead_uid=21 At the moment, nominations are taking place, and this would be better if all interested members could take part. .

Don't know if it's any help guys, but Cees said on the NZ Website Forum.... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewto ... 2367#52367 Perhaps you could get together to make up an order and get a decent price..? Bill.

Tubifex Worms are normally found at sewage outlets that are running into fresh water supplies. . (The "live" ones... not the Freeze Dried They congregate in masses, and survive in the mud and effulent that is being washed over them They are a thin wirery worm, around the same diameter as a White worm, but are normally a dark livery red. In past times when these were commonly available, the method of keeping them was to have them in a container under a constantly dripping tap. This "eventually" flushed the worms of all the rubbish they had been surviving on. A ball of these worms around the size of an egg would contain many tens of thousands of worms, and would keep the fish supplied with live food for weeks in some cases. They "were" available year round, so were a good standby when other live foods were unavailable. One downfall that used to happen, was that any uneaten worms that managed to drop onto the gravel, soon took up home there, but more often than not, they would die and cause pollution in the tanks. HTH Bill.

Buzzy asked: You must live on a different planet... there's countless millions of them But if you want to shell out the bucks... then try here.. http://www.ak.planet.gen.nz/~bio And if you want some inspiration... try here http://www2.wbs.ne.jp/~arowana/egallery.htm Bill. Lots of links leading to useful things in the Technical Section under "Useful Links"

Thanks Matt,... Thought it must have been something along those lines..

No filter wool used at all on the sponge filters.

Newts....? Reminds me of my younger days when we used to fish in the ditches to catch these wirely little guys Welcome Carl, and hope you enjoy your visits here Bill.

Don't know if my long post kickstarted this... but hey... who cares... We now have a separate forum for the new Livebearer society. It's here in case you missed it.. http://poecilia.net.nz/index.php?id=7 Many thanks for your time and efforts Cees Bill

Hi Mystic, With all the confusion, you were possibly not the only one that didn't get one. I didn't send the forms out BTW. At this stage there is little point in having the form until such times as we all know what the future of the society will be. Can't see your point in saying this Mystic.. We are all wanted here. As my message mentioned... This would not be a standard web page type design, as these type of forums are of a fixed format, but almost all will allow inclusion of graphical type headings, much like this forum. Wouldn't we all Mystic Again from below... You ask: You are helping, and have done so with some relevant questions, but until we get some feedback on what we need, and a place to organise it, then there is little we can do. Bill.

Poecilia Society Formation. (Undecided) We need some motivation here to get things on the move, and from looking at the preceding posts it looks as though there are almost twenty interested members. Cees has explained that he does not have the time to organise the formation of the society, so if it is to go ahead, we need some positive communication from all concerned in order to get the basics set up so that we can move ahead. The nominations for committee members/treasurer/sec and so forth cannot really be discussed on the open forum here, as we need a separate place to discuss and arrange all this. The Poecilia forum link just leads back to here, and at the moment is not a member’s only area. This could happen in the future, but as Cees points out, his main interests are in being a part of the new formation, and not actually organising the setting up of it. Setting up a separate forum entirely for the Poecilia NZ Society would possibly be the answer, and could have a direct link back to here. These forums are free, and take only a short time to set up and get online. Some are ad free, while others carry the Google sponsored links, but these links are unobtrusive, and once posts are made will mainly be fish related. Their servers are usually based offshore, as our present one at the Fishroom possibly is, but this would not effect us in the least, as it would be just a click from one to the other. Possibly Cees could arrange a link to the new area at the head of this forum so that the two sites are still active on your screen at home, which would make going from one to the other easier still. We could have such a forum set up within a day or so and possibly use the existing graphics that are on the present Poecilia site at the moment. This would take the strain away from Cees, and allow all dealings with the new society to be kept in a separate area. Mention of this was made elsewhere and it was suggested that a separate forum might be a waste of time with so few members. This may be so in the early stages, but once the society is known and the word spreads, then hopefully it will attract new members and overseas visitors. Why a separate forum..? 1/ Less work and worry for Cees. 2/ It would give us a self identity, much like all the other clubs and societies in NZ 3/ It would give us unlimited space to create the areas needed for such a task, such as Line Breeding,.. Inbreeding,.. Outbreeding,.. Genetics,... Fixing Colour,.. Fin/Tail Improvements,... Guppy Standards,... Pic Gallery,.. Articles,.. and much more. We could do this on the present forum, but without a separate area it would be very hard to keep track of what was happening. 4/ We can “all†be involved in this, from the name to the setting up of the forums, down to the general outlook of the site, along with committee selection , site promotion and so forth, as hopefully we could get some overseas breeders to visit the site. 5/ This would be almost instant… and the society or whatever it will be finally named, could be up and running in a very short time. 6/ We would not deprive the NZ Fishroom of any members or posts, as the ones on the new forum would be mainly concerned with the improvement and breeding of the Livebearers, and the general questions on these would still be aimed at the NZFR. 7/ We would still be part of the FNZAS, and hopefully be able to produce a monthly newsletter, which to save costs could be electronic only. These are just a few of the things that need to be worked out, but in order to get things moving we need some positive feedback so that we can make it happen. Several attempts have been made to get the society on the move for quite some time now, but all discussions seem to slowly dwindle to a standstill. This way we would have a completely new area that we can organise things in, but yet still be in close reach to our home base here, and it could be set up very quickly. Opinions and feedback would be helpful. Bill.

Six Banded Barbs There's an article here that mentions them... http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/tra ... ang_1.html Bill