Luke*

I heard MAF are reducing the quarantine time to 3 weeks somewhere? Is this still happening? If so MAF costs should reduce? (I know that's like saying ppl with water meters should have their rates go down right? .. refer to quote "what goes up never goes down" !! too true... speaking of which saw gas was up another 6c tonight yay. mind you it did go down 1c for a couple of hours before that. Yeah I'm sure all the money is in the filters, live/frozen/dry food, chemicals, tanks... but thank god it is.. otherwise we would never have a LFS to go to. I think the key ingredient to LFS survival is friendly helpful staff. Eg Brookfield pets'n' things here in Tga.. i recall the previous cheery owner saying he'd outlasted 18 other petshops!! the new owners lasted a year or two and shut down recently...they often tried to push-sell and made you feel a bit uneasy.

gorgeous?? ummmmmmm gotta say what a few ppl will be thinking i'm sure.. one of the ugliest fish i've ever seen... lol! but i know, each to their own

there's one i believe called "Accuclear" that i got from goldfishbowl in hamilton i was surprised that it actually worked a treat! try that stuff.. fixed up new tanks i started quicksmart.

yeah i'd love to try the nz bbs too do the whole patriotic thing. i know how to hatch them it's just i always did it in the hot water cupboard and was wondering if there was any point. be interested to see your set up still.. pmd.

sounds interesting... no pun intended. ha sounds like my parents wondering what every little noise is it's usually the fishtank get over it already

thanks for the replies... i take it you mean a heater in the bbs hatching tank too barrie? where's grassmere?

time to bring out the big $$

lol well said

Zev means the dog yeah kaimai road was closed temporarily due to snow!! i've never heard of that happening before

glad i live by the sea again now hey are you guys heating your brine shrimp tanks at the mo??? or just aerating?

I can see how the untrained eye would think they're hideous beasts but once you've owned them and seen how long they take to grow - once they're a few years old that is - then you can appreciate the time and care it's taken to get them this big, and just wow at their ginormity.

OMG purely awesome *sets alarm clock for 15 years and waits on my clowns i thought were big already*

nice and quite an unusual fish, well done

hey johnny awesome man that's so exciting the first time you see them pair up and then it's even better when you get your own babies. they're wicked fish to have breed too. both red eyes, interesting bright pattern, and most importantly both pigeon (as a turq/pigeon cross such as a pair on T* at the mo = ugly hugley peppered babies). they don't look too stunted but if breeding at that size it is likely they haven't grown to their full potential that they could have. doesn't matter tho. if you raise the fry on daily water changes/great diet they can easily superceed the size of their parents. go for gold with raising them in planted tank if you want the only thing is that as the parents are pigeon bloods the fry will likely get lost trying to find them cuz they'll go for anything dark. when i bred mine i had nothing in the tank even had to take out the black filter sponges around the key time of them going from wriggling to free swimming so they could find the parents. i do have a big display tank i could put the 2 other ones in if you're stuck but it's at my friend's place so i just can't keep an eye on them everyday is the only thing. that small tank would be ok if doin daily or every other day large wcs.

mmmm sounds cool. i like red varieties they seem to be rarer like red tiger lotus. suppose it's cuz it's harder to grow/needs more light

no it's never been a worry for me. as they hatch 24hrs after putting them in the bubbler degasses the chlorine from the water by the time they hatch anyway

think you mean threadfins lol yeah i wouldn't add them cuz they'll stress out the ram parents and rams are certainly not the hardiest fish in the world! also you'll need more than 3 rummies like prefer to be in schools of 6+ like all tetras

WB ps go trim those plants

hrmm let's see tried shrimp and pork buffet.. time for other white meat chicken entree followed by beef buffet. lol jokes

ummmmm look up planted tanks on google images for some ideas

I think this would be a great link for anyone wanting to know if they can ask their LFS to get a particular plant ordered in for them

Nice one.. and good number. i noticed a major difference when i went from having 3 to 6. Now i have about 12 lol. just keep a few caves cuz they will sometimes battle for territory. this will make them feel more secure too. keep good clean water and they like some peat every now and then too enjoy them

bahahah too true. still, i think we should stick to the natural varieties...they are as beautiful as anything you could ever want anyway

get some dried sheep pellets if you can and put them under the water. i made a PMDD mix with no phosphate that would be great for that application. if you crank the light enough eg metal hallide/lots of T5s or T8s you will generate enough heat to not need a heater in the tank. sounds like a good idea to get your plants rocking along ps ouch on the power bill.. heat pump time?

not so good for the insulation aspect ay?!