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thanks @buck!! I am pretty chuffed with it!!

Well the tank I call my "Native Tank" is now I think officially full. The little spotted blue eyes have been doing their thing and I recently just spied another 2 newborn fry and a slightly older one. I am hoping to eventually end up with a really decent sized self maintaining school of them. Sharing the tank are Blackmore River Shrimp which seem to go through phases of heaps and lots of babies down to a few, back up to a population explosion as it warms up again. The tank is heated of course other wise they would freeze in winter, but they still seem to decline or slow in breeding during winter. Then there are the Northern Australian Chameleon Shrimp also in the tank, I don't often get to see them but when I do they are always a pleasure. The tank is now also home to a group of Darwin Algae Shrimp, and most recently some Darwin Red Nose Shrimp. In all honesty I think instead of simply calling this tank my native tank I need to call it my NT tank. But then there is the snails that are sharing the tank with all the NT beauties. Slowly but steadily I have increased the notopala snails up to now 8 which has taken many hours of regular searching in a local stretch of river watching all the time for crocs. With the notopala snails I have also found some other gems, namely a HUGE type of long black snail along the lines of MTS, but these black ones are a LOT bigger and have pretty yellow spots on their bodies. The other snail of interest is a smaller snail again similar in shape to MTS and roughly around the same size but it has very defined blunt spikes on its rather chunky shell. Some of the spotted blue eyes The huge black snail The chunky little spiky snail And my Notopala species

I'm not starting my own food line. If I had more time for it, it would be nice to do I guess, but this is only for myself. So they don't have to be perfect like these, but I would like to make food like this: Is there anybody who knows how to make these pads? Why I want this. Well I feed them all kind of stuff, but it would be handy to mix for example nettle and spinach to almost powder and create pads like this that you can keep for a year or more. I do have all kind of brands, but I thought that it would be fun to create it myself. Do I need a press machine or something? Tips are welcome!

Very nice set-up mate. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the 'big black' snail is almost certainly the same species as the smaller black snails - Stenomelania denisoniensis. They can reach up to around 5cm in total shell length. I could be wrong if it continues to grow as there is another snail Stenomelania cf. aspirans that gets to 6-10cm long (I have pics of them in some of my threads) but their shells are a bit different from the ones you have. the spiky shelled snail is almost certainly Plotia scabra. It has a distinctive shell. I can email you the paper I use to ID these snails if you PM me your address.

Still on the to do list: - black bagrounds and insulating tanks and sump - lights x 3 - uv steriliser - decide on breeding projects and add shrimp (the fun part!)

This is awesome man. Grats. Cant wait to see how it goes.

The tanks are in the car shed, with open tops so the mozzies are always laying eggs in the tanks much to all the different fishes enjoyment. The parrots feather certainly does grow long, between it and the hornwort the tanks tend to fill quickly with plant life. The spiky snails are certainly interesting, but I think easily confused with MTS if you don't see the two together and see how much spikier the shells are and squatter than the MTS. Couldn't resist putting up a rednose Actually a group of them decided with a couple of DAS that the end of the log had something especially tasty to munch on

For lighting I have decided to run with the Up Aqua U series (Planted) 3fts. I have been really pleased with their output on other systems. I currently only have two on hand but thankfully will have the others by the end of the coming week. :) I have gone for the same sump type as last time. First section for K1, then flowing into second chamber with filter pad, Marine Pure spheres, Bakki Balls, Purigen and Polyfilter once established. I had the sump custom built for me this time. I will be using a 300W Aquael Gold Heater and a 200W Petworx Heater. Return pump I have gone with a Tunze again as I have been pleased with the consistent operation of current one. I added an airstone in the K1 section for addition water movement, this way it keeps moving even when the return pump is disabled. I let the system run at 27 degrees for two weeks and have only just added some cycled K1 and Marine pure from other sump. I added two new marine pure spheres, the difference in colour is kinda startling. In this last image I have just added the chiller, we are having a premature heatwave in Victoria this weekend so wanted to get it ready. The green tubing is the chiller. I run the chiller separate to main return and just chill the sump. This way return flow to the tanks is gradual cooling and it also makes it easier to add and remove from the system without affecting everything else. Seems to work well on current rack?!?

Thanks for the encouragement ! I do have some threadfin rainbows but they are in the 4ft tank, this NT tank is only 61 x 30 x 38 cm. The log in the tank pretty much dominates the tank. The spotted blue eyes where mainly only in the tank as mosquito control, but I am also quite taken by them in their own right and so far they and the shrimp seem to co-habit very comfortably. Pacific Blue eyes I know would have made a meal of these much smaller native shrimp, where as Cherry shrimp seem to be able to out breed any predation by the pacific blue eyes. Plant wise they pretty much are native aside from the java fern that hitched a ride somewhere along the line and has attached itself to the log. In the tank there is thin leafed Val, Hornwort (from the NT) and I think Rotala Mexicana (also from the NT) and probably an introduced plant that I have always known as parrots feather (but that could be the wrong name). The hornwort grows like crazy so if the rednoses and DAS want to eat it by the bucket load it saves me having to throw it out all the time. I always hate having to throw away weed since I know the blue eyes have often laid eggs in it. Plus the jungle tangle helps the fry and shrimplets survive and find food. The native snails have all come from the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton, I have looked in some other local creeks for snails but so far have not come across any as interesting as from the Fitzroy. Apart from this next snail that I am having trouble identifying. The above snail has not separate mouth part like the notopalas, nor does it have the trapdoor flap that the notopalas and some other snails have. Since putting some other new plants in the tank with it, the snail has taken to hanging around the new plants (I don't think its eating it so far just cleaning it) where as it ignored totally the existing plants all ready in the tank. Just for you some more notopala species The collection of big black ones and this notopala that I call Bolt since he bolts all about the tank More notopala Chameleon Darwin Rednose The spiky snails and the tank

Try Oxytetracyline. Most fish shops will have it. If you have another empty tank they is cycled, you can restart this tank. Otherwise don't bother.