Adam

I used to by 1kg at a time from my local coles or wollies bakery section. Adam

I can't give you a specific location in Sydney but try these types of shops. Garden centres, Bunnings, hardwares etc. If you live near a semi rural area then a stock feed store as well. Don't get hung up on the Barley straw if it is too hard to find as well. Any form of carbon will do. I have even just used dry cut grass. I find it best to put it in a stocking or some other net bag to control it. Also if it is an old pond clean out some of the detritus from the bottom of the pond. This black soup is were all the nutrients are cycling from to supply the algae. Usually there is a relati

I haven't taken any more photos but found these ones on my web photo host that I took a while ago. Hopefully self explanatory, if not ask. Adam 150mm Filter

3000l/hr through a normal sized pond filter is not to fast. It will work very well. Are they a sealed unit that can be pressurised? I used a pump that delivered 10,000l/hr through a 150mm PVC tube approximately 1.6m tall with 20l of bioballs. It worked very well on some very heavily stocked tanks. I obviously used a sump to put the pump in. I've given most of mine away as I have started using sand filter housings to hold my media. But I think I've got one the dogs knocked over and broke. It'll show some of the internal piping that I do so I can have my fittings up high. I'll post when

Teflon is correct. If you have to much water flow per volume of filter media you will blast the bacteria off the media. FBFs don't actually require a high flow rate for the amount of material in there. They rely on seperating the sand grains so that you have high surface area for the bacteria to grow on. More flow through the filter is not the answer to biological filtering. It is more media for bacteria to grow on. I make my own canisters out of 100mm or 150mm PVC pipe. I make them to suit the amount of media that I want them to hold. Have an inlet at the bottom and an outlet at the

All Synos are sexed the same way. Grab the fish have a look at vent. You can readily tell sexes in conditioned fish. Have a look at the articles on Sexing S. multipunctatus using this method. there are some great photos around showing the difference. Adam

I can't give you any spawning triggers but I can provide you with some of the details of the spawning "group" and number of eggs and hatching time etc. Typically they will spawn in a group upwards of 4-6 fish, just like any other egg layer. They can be sexually mature from approximately 5inches, at this size yielding around 2-300 eggs. An average female 6-10inches will produce between 800-1200 eggs. The eggs will hatch about 36 hours post spawn at 27oC. first feeding can be anything the size of an artemia nauplii about 24 hours post hatch. Under correct conditions they will be an inch or

The fish that I saw as fallax were only 8cm and sexually mature, although young. Alan I'd appreciate it if you got the chance to have a look and provide a confirmation or better id. Adam

Hi all, Had a chance while in Perth to have a look around some shops. Saw a dwarf whip marked as H. fallax. It didn't look like this species http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loric...ilori/738_f.php I know its come from Bay Fish so it would have appeared in other parts of Australia. Can anyone give me an idea as to what it is? Adam

I have had a number of large S. decorus. I started trying to feed them quite a large pellet 10-12mm in Diameter. I found that they would not eat it. They are a big fish but do not have big mouths. I found the best thing to feed S. decorus about that size is a 2mm pellet. I use high protien barra sinking pellets. I've tried them on small pieces of prawn with limited success as well. Hope that helps. Adam

The philmac fitting uses a stainless spring that is quite safe to use for both fresh and marine systems. They are a terrific product, my one complaint is that they require a reasonable amount of flow pressure for them to open and stay open. For example some of the small pumps that I have used (3000l/hr) have not been able to open the valve. The media at the bottom of the FBF is to allow it to start up with minimal problems after stoppage. The theory is that the incoming water enters a space with relatively large voids and can gain some momentum before hitting the more densly packed sand.

Well I've got the S. njassae, S. decorus, S. eupterus and S. multipunctatus. I certainly preffer my S. njassae to the other synos I have. They are in my opinion a much prettier catfish. I've got all of them in the same tank with a multitude cichlids and peppermints. I find that by far and away the decorus are the most nocturnal. the other three species are all happy to move around the tank during the day and night. I think the key is to have at least 4 synos and a good number of non-skitish cichlids or other fish. My first group of 5 S. njassae I got almost a year ago at a much smaller

I agree with everything every one has said it may be easier to either use elbows or get some flexi pipe in the right size. If you still want to bend your 40mm pipe then you can. I use the following method to do pipes upto 150mm, the heating method just varies. Fill pipe with sand and cap both ends. Use a heat gun or flame to heat pipe evenly over a couple of minutes. Gentle start to bend. The sand will assist in keeping the pipes shape if it is packed tightly. If you want to do more than one bend let it cool fully (either in air or submerse in water) then do again. Have fun. Adam

Its amazing the stories you do hear. I've kept bristles and peppermints in plastic tubs for years with no troubles. Treat it as a normal tank and care for your fish as normal. If you want to see your fish cut a hole and stick some glass or perspex in for a front pannel. Adam ps. if it holds water use it to grow something

So what did the others there say? I think I agree with you but having never hndled or seen them don't want to comment. Out of curiosity what do you use that 100mm pvc for in the pictures? Adam