Graeme Holden

anyone from Timaru or close to, also note my other posting for babysitting my collection for a while, tks Graeme

I use one of these, works great but the filter needs cleaning out every other day as it is a paper type filter, but if you could modify one of the filter elements to foam then it would be great, passes huge amounts of water allowing more animals per litre and in the sun (which mine is) will not allow green algae to take hold, - just another thought for what it is worth, can get these very cheap occaisionally on Trademe. I have several and paid I think $15 for the dearest and $1 for the cheapest, only thing to watch out for is if they have been used with clorine, so lots and lots of washing before use if using a used filter element and preferably get a new one or modify one. p.s. have a large (very) snake neck in with red necks and it actually bullies the others for the food - also very very quick with its strike at the food so does not miss out very often, perhaps I am the exception to the rule as well because I have fish in with most of my turtles and though the turtles can't count very well, most of the fish survive(at least the healthy, fit, fast ones)

Looking for temporary accomodation for up to 10 turtles till I buy a house and construct accommodation for my mates. I have One large (yep big one) snake neck and 9 red ears ranging in size from eggs to a quite large old female and a couple of neglected ones as well currently being treated for shell rot. Also have one that is quite old and has been dog bitten and mistreated so needs a little extra care but is quite ok as long as is able to be left alone. This one is supposed to be a female but is looking more like a male - hard to tell as lost all its claws, partial shell missing as result of a dog bite (long time ago and all healed) and has a very dark and pitted shell. Most of these live outside in Papakura although there is one under 1 yr old and a ex midget in a warm tank together (both males I think) and a sex maniac (male)who does not get one with any other turtle but is good with people. I just wish to get in touch with someone who can help with housing these for maybe a few months and probably during the cold months too as my house has not sold as yet. Initial contact then decisions later is good, Graeme 092988751 or 0211500 000 or email is always good

No worries, I will figure it out myself, tks for the comments

some of the tufts of algae are probably up to 2 yrs old, always very hard to remove from any surface but now very easy, fingernail easy off things like air hose and glass etc

nothing and I do mean nothing, has changed in the tank apart from oxygen plant and black beard algae is dying, not worried about the o2 plant but the black beard has been so hard to get rid of I just wondered if it has a terminal life cycle. It is in a 2ft tank that has baby platies that are not at all interested in it, no filter, heated, aerated and probably a little more so recently because of the platies growing up, and feed and light is normal and no changes, water only been added to counter evaporation. One possible clue is that the valisneria in the same tank is now quite stunted but healthy, ambulia still growing, same as indian fern. Last time I tried to treat this tank was many months ago with no success so just decided to use it as a fairly natural breeding tank

bad word for me, agree but I have watched and this does not appear to be happening, the larger ones are eating differently than the small ones, I guess they are just midgets, p.s. do not have the room to run another tank

I have a spawning of golden barbs that was quite successful quite a few weeks ago probably about 6/7 or so weeks, there is a huge difference in size of the fry, biggest are probably 15mm and smallest are like new borns just a little sliver with eyes. I realise there will be big differences but this is really amazing, fed on egg yoke and green water - which must be ok as the bigger ones are growing like crazy, still feeding egg yoke and also now crushed up flake which has caused a big growth spurt in the larger fish obviously

just need a little clarification please, cosby to me is like a blue/three spot but with lots more of the dark colourations in patches all over the body and the opaline is a clear single colour generally very light bluish fish with sometime a little deeper(by that I mean bigger in the chest area) body ( sorry not into all the latin names etc). Just simple answers are best for me thanks

no heaters in my tank or my ponds, I did have a heater in the pond last year but the turtles were in unknown condition at that stage, but over the summer they put on weight and condition and were probably going to be ok in colder water as long as it happended slowly. One of the ones outside in the pond has had a very traumatic life, being rescued from a main road in central auckland with a large chunk missing from the back of it's shell and missing all claws from walking around on ashphalt etc. It is thought that this male (once thought to be female) is well over 20yrs old, but grumpy but could be excused I guess through it's pretty rough past history. Now quite happy fighting with another male through holes in a perspex divider and sunning himself on a brick in the summer time

still about, no jewels, and if I keep getting disease nothing much else either, no just had a very bad run in the last week and lost a heap of fish to fungus or similar, getting ahead of it now though

I tried to upload a couple of photos but failed, there really are hundreds of guppies in their tank, no gambusia in this tank but there are still heaps in the outside ponds and tanks, two of the oversexed males are sort of hibernating at the moment anyways and not really interested in eating anything of course

Golden barbs are nutters, mine go berserk every now and then racing around for no apparent reason, do not be too fooled by them, a bit like clown loaches lying on their sides looking dead, maybe the barbs are just overexuberant

Tks for that, I actually presumed just by the name that mal green was a copper derivative of some kind

When they were in the swimming pool, I had large and small goldfish, thousands of Gambusia , and the only things that ate them were a bloody cheeky blue heron and a local kingfisher, even then they could not keep up, the largest of the females is pretty damn big now and some of the males are not much smaller !! guess I just feed them too much for them to bother using the energy to chase fish

tks Alan

cheers, thanks

I currently have 7 or so large golden barbs in a 60 litre tank with heaps of plant, no heater but inside and not too cold, I have one baby that bred by mistake or missed the hungry mouths and that was before I put all the plant in the tank. Should I increase the temp to simulate summer ??, the fish are very active and very large, I periodically get one that gets very bright red fins which I imagine is a male coming into breeding condition but that does not last long and I have made no attempt to seperate what seems to be a pair - comments please

Alan, what fish are affected by copper?? do not want to get my disease back again and copper seems to be a good preventative

I have hundreds of guppies, and also 4 or 5 albino cories in with two turtles, initially I had just a baby turtle by itself and the tank was chokka with plant but now I have another turtle as well in the tank (bit of a midget as it was not kept properly), perhaps the turtles get a few but never ever seen it happen and the cheekier guppies will compete for meat when I feed the turtles. One thing I have found is that the mixture works very well to stabilise the water quality - the plants are growing like crazy as there is plenty of fertilizer in the water, only have a fluval 2 internal filter that gets cleaned every 3 - 5 days or so

Tortoise??? any one have any?? you can pm me if you wish to keep it quiet. I had one when I was a youngster in Timaru many years ago and it was called a box tortoise far as I can remember, but it went into hibernation and never came out again, perhaps too cold in Timaru. Still very interested in obtaining one if they are still available

I have a large one and it is very dark coloured, it lives outside currently in a large glass tank, but in the summer is in a swimming pool (minus clorine or course), but I note that it never comes out of the water to sun itself at all, never !! I used to put it on a log in the sun and it would jump straight back in the water, if I get it out to handle it and check it over, it will invariably hide under my t shirt or jersey etc, it is very healthy, fat for the winter, bright eyed etc so obviously does not need to get dry at all, is this other peoples experience or do I have a one off as it were that thinks it is a fish

I have a large outside tank with 4 red ears, a large snake neck, a very large pleco, and Gambusia (mosquito fish) that have gone through two frosts with no apparent effects. All the red ears climb out to sun themselves and warm up during the day if there is any sun and will normally dive straight off into the water if I come close, but now that the sun is so welcome and they are trying to warm up more, they just stay there. I thought the pleco would not tolerate the very cold water but he is still doing ok, water temp may be going down to maybe 5 or 6 degrees I guess. All of the animals have been outside now for maybe 9 months so are will acclimatised and accustomed to wide ranges of temperatures. YES WE DO GET FROST IN AUCKLAND, actually we are in Papakura which is quite a long way from central Auckland and in a valley which is why we do get more cold and more heat as well

This tank has now almost come right, lost all the white clouds, some guppies, a neon, albino cats, I now have pretty good looking fish with nice proud fins, new born guppies, healthy snails, looks normal to me now, death rate has stopped, still a death a day in the big tank, but also looks to be on the mend

I had a similar problem in a tank absolutely full of ramshorns, I was told to put in cushed oyster shell, did that and now have about 10% of the snails left, probably the best thing you can do is water changes in my opinion