AW

Just a thought, perhaps you can buy one of those plastis hex tanks and use for a skimmer body. You could build a 6 pump model

http://www.pakglass.co.nz/product_range ... e_low_iron http://www.metroglass.co.nz/009.asp

I have a theory thats it the advancement of reef keeping technology and equipment thats making Catalaphyllia hard to keep. I had a frag years ago which I got given to me from hollywood, grew fanatastic with a wetdry filter and standard fluros, no skimmer or MH lighting. Killed it off when i changed my system to a highly skimmed / mh lit enviroment. Bearing in mind they are a lagoon type coral / typical in sand with probable higher nutrients levels than that on a reef. Oddly enough when I started off, they were considered an easy to keep corals (already mentioned above), hard corals such as acroporas and the like were the difficult/impoosibe. Now its reversed with the technology and most systems aimed at keeping these hard type of corals. Of course the Coral additives / supplement scene is getting more intence and no doubt someone will find the magice ingredient to make cats' more happy in the modern equipped aquarium. Probably be able to keep the Goniopera too with the same magic potion. Are you using NSW or AW for the water changes. I have an unproven un-sciencetific gut feeling that NSW will help the cycle period.

Just out of curiosity, were you required to get Resource Consent or does your zoning permit Private run quarantines? Cheers Andrew

Couldn't resist any longer......it's just so compelling. Although our government believe we are a world power, I am afraid to inform you we are not. I'm no economist but i do beleive there is a thing called economy of scale. Judging by the talk on this thread we all seem aware of it. So, I guess it safe to say we would all agree that both the US and UK have a larger economy of scale than NZ. The internet is bringing some interesting dynamics to the economy. NZ's can benifit through the US and UK on-line internet shops which are propped up by the population of their home land, seeing as they ship everthing anyway, it's not a big deal for them to ship overseas. Bear in mind though, LFS in the US have a hard time competing with these on-line shops. If you go into the business yourself of importing, these on-line shops become your competitors too! As far as importing live stock, I imagine NZ orders will be the lowest priority, and untill you establish a good relationship with your wholesaler i would say all you would get is the left overs. I know of an importer, now out of business that had some orders arrived that were quite different to what was order and paid for. So how does this affect prices, heck too complicated for me to work out. Good luck to those who want to give it a spin. I must admit I very interested in seeing how Nick/Steve business turns out and the sort of prices they charge. I imagining a whole lot of trade-me action going on. Nick, you made a comment that NZ prices are quite low, would you care to quantify that statement? ie. quite low compared to...... NZ price a couple of years ago, UK LFS prices, US LFS prices? I haven't really noticed in great change since the last time I was keeping a Reef, but my memory a pretty bad (probable a good thing). The only thing that stands out to me is the price of Yellow Tangs (I bought my first and only yellow tang for $55 6-7 years ago) More high end equipment is now available in NZ aimed for the Reefer, quite suprising considering the market size, and the money involved in holding low turn over and relatively high cost stock on a shop floor. As for super-profits that people are making on these items and livestock, I don't see the run of the mill corner pet shop cashing in on selling marines. It is only the larger / specialist or shops owned by marine enthisasts that are into it. All interesting stuff...... Be interesting to see how these private quarantine ideas pan out. I for one, at the end of the day like to physically see what I'm spending my money on. If everthing ends up on-line, this could be difficult for me, if the LFS closes down, what would i do on sundays? Enough of this, I'm off for a cup of coffee....

Going to have to agree and disagree with this one. I would have to say that clown can also be kept without anemones, alive and healthy and breeding. It also depends on the type of clown you keep as to their dependancy on a anemone. Some clowns aren't to fussed what they use as a host. Some are quite happy with a larger hairy mushroom. I kepy my percs without an anemone with no problems, thet seemed happy as long as i put some food in the tank on a very regular basis. Some anemones are easy to keep to. I will have to quantify this by adding if you know what you are doing and monitoring and maintaining your tank proper. I would have to say that keeping clowns is the most rewarding when they are kept with a host anemone as company. Seeing as recommending books, if your particulary interested in clowns "Clownfishes" by Joyce D Wilkerson is an excellent book for this. Cover ALL aspects on clown fish as well as host anemones etc. I recommend this to be you first purchase into keeping clowns! " " too criptic for me to interpet. Cheers Andrew

1# wondering if any1 has breed clown fish before??? as that is the only thing i want, and wouldnt mind having a crack at breeding them!! but i am getting ahead of myself! A few people have breed them and raised fry in NZ. Getting them to the point to lay eggs is fairly common, the hard part is rasing the fry. 2# i want to setup a marine tank nothing bigger than 3 foot. If you just keeping a pair of clowns, this is ample. I use to keep a pair of percs in a 2x1x1. 3# as i have said total newbie, wouldnt mind a list of what im going to need and prices! A 3 foot set up for clowns, nothing fancy needed at all. I would perhaps use a canister filter (I like the eheim brand, expensive but nice) and regular water change (once a month?). Another option is to go with a overflow and a bare sump. You can chuck bio-balls (or whatever media you choose) in the bulkhead and the heater in the sump. Then if you want to head toward reef, you can do away with the media (replced with live rock) and and a skimmer in the sump, add lighting and power heads for water movement and your done. either way with cannister or overflow/sump will probable be in the same cost. Prices? depends on what brand you buy. The high end marine equipment is more geared towards reef keeping where water parameters seem crucial for good coral growth, not to mention water movement and light and a bucket load of additives for coral supplements and on it goes. Fish only on the other hand is fairly low tech. 4# where would i get this stuff as have never seen any marine gear in wellington pet stores!! Don't live in Wellington so can't help you there. Of course, everybody has a different way of doing things but If your doing a 3 footer with clowns, you don't need anything flash. Cheers Andrew

The prices weren't to bad, the funny thing i found is how they just swapped around, ie the cheaper fish back when are now expensive, the expensive now cheaper. Of course this a very broad statement based on 4 fish prices, make of it what you like, I personal had a laugh. It was a farily big Potter definetly a medium size bag would be required as opposed to a small one. However a little birdy (theirs a lot of them on this site, kinda funny considering) told me it was from the display tank. Probable die of old age as soon as someone buys it Anyway, apparantly dipping the net in one display tank, netting said fish, walking around the corner (with a new dry-method of quaratine which reduces the time down to 5 seconds, quite co-incedental the same time required to walk around the corner) and dump said fish into selling tank adds a lot of cost. More so than importing them in from overseas even :lol: But after all said and done, I'm a gambling man, I'm off to but a herd of yellow tangs and hopefully I'll make squillions in a few years time. Cheers Andrew

Chilly bins work great.

LOL Was in at Jasens today for the first time in a couple of years. $200 for a yellow tang $140 for a Powder blue Probable a meaningless post but I found it funny how prices change. Oh yeah, $300 for a potters angle $220 for a juv. emperor. When did potters become so popular/pricey? It was nice to see they re-worked their Reef display, Much more interesting aquascaping than what they had before (ie 2 yers ago). Looks like thet ditched the trusty RSB skimmer on it too Oh yeah, Ex hollywood staff working there as well. All this in a couple of years. I'm going to wait 4 years before I go in next, or i may invest in Yellow tangs, heck they're returning 25% per annum.

If you really mean trickle , then you'll find most likely that the bulkhead would be full of water up to the level of the main tank. One option may be to raise the bulkhead level of the one you want a trickle from. Although to do this, will require some tweaking as you are playing with equalising/ balancing the water levels and water pressures/flows through the pipes. I suppose I'm saying what your proposing is do-able, just tricky. Bear in mind that you be cutting down tank volume to form the second bulkhead too. As the above post suggested, it will be easier to tee off the main outlet and regulate that to a trickle. Cheers Andrew

I'm in AK. Use to keep a couple of Polypterus bichir several years ago but switch out to marine. Broke down the reef a couple of years ago and haven't been in a pet shop since. Beblondie, thanks for the suggestions, will look into it. The delhezi sounds promising. So are all the Bichir family avialble in New Zealand now? Whats the going price? Heck, while i'm at it, are f/w stingrays availabe now? Cheers Andrew

Does anybody know if these are available in New Zealand? or eveb better, know of anybody selling. Seen a few around in LFS but always not for sale. Cheers Andrew