Leaderboard

Some good news have found someone to buy from who's quality was so much better than the rest it looks like they will be getting all my further purchases.Dont know if they are on this forum or not.So I wont post their name unless they want me to.

OK, so here is an update on the tank, I've spent the last week in bed on pain relief and the before that in hospital getting surgery so tank care has been at an all time low... just look at the pic to see, ha. All shrimp are going well, plenty of berried RCS, couple berried YCS, CRS are hiding from me, Chameleons are going well and DAS are cruising around. All plants are going well, overgrown to the max, as you can see, Frog Bit has gone mental, stopping light from coming in, once I'm up and about I'll get into the tank but until then, it'll continue to grow wild, ha.

Not a very sophisticated tank - just 3 granite pebbles on a thin layer of inert sand. Eucalypt leaves and sticks (aged in the bottom of a pond) with some Indian Almond and Mulberry added for variety. ~ 30% rainwater changes 1-2x per week (water at room temperature from supply in fishroom). Lighting is strong because the tank is sharing the light with some algae cultures = green rocks and side walls. Tank is small 45cm tank (~20 litres) oriented end-on. Just waiting to move some fish around and will upgrade them to a 40l tank. Room temp is ~23C GH<1 KH<1. The light is over the front part of the tank. most of the zebras hang out more on the filter sponges or under leaves during the day but always a few visible. Seems to be more action at night. I've noticed lots of activity when adding fresh rainwater - they really seem to like the current and fresh water. This is perhaps not surprising given they are found in flowing streams. There are a few juveniles that arrived as eggs on berried females - but no breeding evident in this tank yet.

Ok I know what you mean. You are talking about a sump that is filled with K1 or similar filter media. So the idea is that the aerobic bacteria lives (colonises) in the segments and as the filter media is pushed around by the flow it knocks into each other which causes the dead bacteria to drop of and new young healthy bacteria to grow. The examples I have seen bot using air and a water pump take up to two weeks to start working properly because the filter media gains weight with the bacterial growth, so at the start it will just float around the top of the water. Oase which is a german company have started making their own type of filter material sort of similar to K1. In my opinion it is better because the surface area is greater because of the design. The advantages are that it works much more efficiently than traditional filtration. This is due to three main things. Surface area, dead bacteria being removed promoting younger healthier and more hungry aerobic bacteria and water flow through the filter media in much better again than traditional bio- media. Oase in fact have designed what they call a profi-module that uses this exact principle. Even though this is a module the principle is the same. I have seen sumps with this set up and they normally run compartments with this or K1 and also use other filter media courser down to fine which acts as a water polisher. hope this helps a explain it a bit, Helix 1 filter media Profimodule

Not sure if you guys already know: egg size and number of eggs of species indicate the early life history. Very large and few eggs indicated direct or abbreviated development ie. zoeal stages in the egg. Very small eggs mean lots of zoeal stages spent in the water column. These are hard to rear to juveniles. Often zoeal stages 4-6 are the most sensitive and will die if salinity and food are not appropriate.

Hehehe those white tees are super rare too.

These are f3/f4 with some twb gene pinto.

They really are nice shrimp mate, I can't wait to get some. Great shots too. Are they still as competitive for food as when you first got them?

The one you are asking about Ben, came from Behanna creek near Gordonvale, it came from the zone that is dry in the dry season and under water in the wet, about 6 months of each. Heavy shade. There is another piece of that plant in Melbourne with a member here. there is also a small version of that with lots more leaves near Kuranda There is lots of plants that fit in that group, time to play with them is the issue OH and not enough tanks YET Bob PS lots of fern types like the one you have

Some shots and videos from our latest trip to Barney - May 2015. This time we went during the day which enabled me to get a better understanding of how the pools are laid out and the habitats within the area. Water parameters in the top pool were: pH: Approx. 6.5 GH: 80 ppm KH: 80 ppm TDS 113 Temp. 24*C This is a short video showing the top pool. The spring originates under the trees to the right. The pool flows out the bottom to the left side into a series of pools. Underwater shots of the substrate The red on the rocks seems to be some type of diatom or another algae. it does not grow where there is no light (e.g. on the bottom of the rocks). The rocks are mostly pieces of basalt (I've read geology reports which indicate this area of the Atherton Tablelands is primarily basalt), but you can also see small bits of quartz and possibly granite amongst the basalt. I'm guessing these have been brought up out of the spring as I didn't see any quartz or granite in the soil in the area surrounding the springs. Does anybody happen to know which trees are surrounding the springs? I know they are a species of Ficus (Fig tree) but not sure which one.