Bilbo

As air heats up in the lounge with the fire going, the air increases its ability to absorb moisture. The warm room is often where every one is watching the telly and with cups of coffee and breathing and dinner steaming on your lap. That room becomes quite humid and the air holds the moisture. That warm moist air is sucked out of the room and blown into a cold room. The air then looses it ability to hold the moisture as it cools down and water lands on the coldest surface. To compound the problem, in a room with a fire there is usually very little air movement and as we all know that warm air rises, so the air at the top of the room is hotter and wetter. The ducted systems are very inefficient. They loose close to 70% of your paid for heat before they get to the bedrooms. Colder air has less humidity not more. It will temporarily reduce the moisture you see because that moisture becomes airborne.

A heat transfer kit will actually increase your condensation so they cause more problems than they solve. The HRV is kinda expensive but the others have a lower qual filter which allows some harmful fibres from the roof into the home. glass fibres can get down to 1/1000 mm so unless we wanna breath in that stuff it pays to go for the good unit.

Powerpoint?

I used to work for HRV. They are a very good system. I would get one for our new home but for the moment its out of our price range. PM me if you want info

Thats awsome. I am pleased they didnt make a liar out of me :-) Good luck with those and hopefully all will go well. Watch your fingers!!!! Still have the scars from last time

Yeah hopefully the 2nd male will be ok. I have played this stupid game before with them and should have known better. On a positive note. Another spawning of blue rams tonight. around 150 - 200 eggs. 3 seperate plastic bins now with cockatoo fry, ram and agassizii eggs. I doubt if, pound for pound, there are many more agressive fish than a female agassizii with eggs, they are just nasty. None of this mucking about with fin nipping they go for the gills and eyes.

My tale begins around 6 mths ago when I got a batch of young Agassizii. 6 beautiful fish and grew them up with loads of live food and lots of water changes. Been waiting for some to show signs of breeding. Last week I acquired 2 beautiful male agassiziii and found all of mine up until then had been girls. Good news eh :-) A pair went into a 2' tank breeding tank and I waited and checked and waited and checked and waited some more, no joy :-( 1st mistake: Finally decided today do a big clean out and water change. 1/2 way through I found eggs. :-? 2nd mistake: but by then had destroyed the tank so much I had to remove them to raise them separately. 3rd mistake: I left the parents in the tank and reset it up as well as I could. The female too exception to my tampering and dealt out a world of hurt on her former boyfriend. It took less than an hour from thinking all would be ok to finding a dead male floating around the tank

No I only got the first 3 never read Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant or A War of Gifts: An Ender Story.

Another Terry Pratchett fan :-) I am re reading Tolkins LOTR for something to do Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide etc Will read just about anything except 'based on the true story of.....' type books

I have used Aviverm on apisto's with excelent results. Same as above about 1ml to 20 - 25ltrs Levamisole is supposed to be light sensitive so turn off lights and stop any charcoal filters. Remember it doesnt kill the worm, it paralyzes them so the fish can pass them. The worms still have eggs inside them that can cause a new outbreak. As Sharn said you need to do a gravel syphon first and again after the huge water change you will be doing after the 24 - 48hr dosage time.

As per another post on fish rooms. The expense is related to heat loss not heat gain. Keep the heat in and you pay less regardless of what type of heating you use. I have 3 300watt heaters running 8 tanks and to date I have one that I have never seen turn on and the room is ugly hot most of the time. Most of the heat comes from the fluro tubes.

Stu is right about that. Its important to have as much of the space filled with water or something that retains heat but you need room for water changes and to have a look. Also top of my list of sugestions. Spend more on insulation than the cheapest quote! The more time you spend on planning and making sure you keep the heat in, the less heat you have to create. I am fortunate that my room is small (around 3 x 2 mtrs) but even so it has 100mm poly walls, 150mm poly roof and double layered rubber backed carpet on the floor. Also all air gaps under and around the door have been sealed. Also dont invite people into your fish room that may or may not have stolen the one and only key I had for it :evil:

Cool. It will be nice to see everyone. Hope my fish-room is up to standard by then. I live in Bulls which is a bit of a hike from Palmy so let me know if people want to come over this far. I would very much like, at some stage, to invade Kapi-mana club one night with a car load from up this way.

Good Luck. I didnt know these were still in NZ. I have been looking for some of these for ages

I agree with Andrew. My wife and I keep many diferent types of birds in large avaries. We breed Zebbies, Bengalise and Java sparrows without any issue and also number of parrots and doves but keeping those Gouldians alive is tough. Last count we have lost 2 pairs and 2 individual birds (6 total) even though we follow all the rules including keeping them warm clean dry etc. Good luck

Fire ban here Ryan. BUT if we do accidentally light a BBQ then there’s a hose ban so we won’t be able to put it out :evil: I can be in for a tank crawl but as you know I have nothing interesting at the moment except a lot of sick apisto's.

I have probelms with keyholes and can keep rams and cockatoo's alive for ages. Dont know why though

No anything more than any other apisto. I have them and have more or less ignored them for ages unitl I grabbed them out last week and put them in there own tank. They are actually very nice looking fish.

:-) I have spent 1/2 the day on the phone with every vet between levin and wanganui. The only helpful one was our local Bulls vet but even they havent come up with an answer. 5 minutes on here and Mr knieval got it. Shoulda known to ask here first. Thanks evilknieval69 and Ryan.

I have a dose of Camellanus in my Apisto's. The most effective treatment I have found so far is Levimisole but after 3 hours on the phone with everyone from Massey University to Farmlands I have got no where. Its available in a drench mixed with a heap of other stuff. Does anyone have any? or know where its avaliable from? or does anyone know if any other effective treatment?

A lot of us are interested in joining, the idea a few months ago was to have a joined PN and Wanganui club with a meeting point in Bulls but both Ryan and I have recently had additions to our families and don’t really have the time. There is also the problem of becoming part of the FNZAS also and that would have to be done through the FNZAS president. The problem with having the LSF involved is that there is a possibility that they will inappropriately promote there own shop over another and FNZAS, as far as I am aware, has rules around every person and shop being treated equally.

The way I have seen it done is wait until the fry are hatching and then use a long gravel syphon and get them that way. Be careful because at first they will attack the gravel hose but it wont take them long to work out the fingers on the end of it are the real targets and will jump out of the water to get to them. Oscar bites hurt! they will draw blood if give the chance.

Looks like we should plan a trip to Nelson with our wallets open :-) :-) Have Eunotus and Biteniata eggs as of yesturday. so fingers crossed here too.

I have Agazzii, Biteniata, Borelii and Cockatoo. None of which are breeding sadly but hopefully soon. I have another Apisto which is breeding but really not sure what it is but most likely Eunotus. Looking for sensably priced Veijita, McMasteri and Inka50 Have also Blue Rams which are breeding and just (I know not quite the same thing) just got Badis.

IMO a breeding pair should have live fry. Its not a big deal if they cant raise them them selves. I have a breeding pair of rams that I have hundreds of fry now in seperate tanks but the parents loose interest after a couple of days, Same story with a 'breeding pair' of oscars that my brother has. If you are selling a 'breeding pair' then you should look at it like you would be happy to buy them as 'breeding pair'