Recent content by Lateral Line

I always had a group in my big community tanks. I'd kept them, almost without a break, (the species - not the individual specimens...), for 30+ years. Great looking, undemanding, peaceful.

I was never a big killie keeper, was a cyprinid specialist. I did have Epiplatys annulatus going for a few years in my biggest tank in the living room. Great looking little fish, lived happily with my small barbs, rasboras and danios. Found their site. I have no idea where the place their show...

A large building not far from my house had a slate roof. It was demolished to make room for a larger building on the site. I collected masses of slate for use in my living room tanks, siliconed into walls for substrate level modifiers etc. good stuff. Would just comment that where broken, the...

In 1997, I met a Danish girl in a car park in Santiago, Chilè, Nice, I thought. We traveled together for a couple of months through Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador until we reached her "end point" in Quito and had to fly home to Denmark. I flew to the Galapagos Islands for a few weeks, then back to my...

I have never understood why colourless examples of colourful fish sell.

Colin's question, above, is key. A wipeout overnight, is not really indicative of disease or parasite action. A stuck thermostat could raise the temperature to lethal levels depending on the power of the heater, but would be fairly obvious when you arrived in the morning. I think I'd be looking...

I'm a regular rectangular tank chap, always have been. What I wonder is the ease of access to the substrate when, inevitably, you want to plant something or remove something else. I guess you have plans for these eventualities.

Shop bought frozen quiche lorraine, customised with chopped sausage slices, red peppers and chilli sauce. Girl is at fitness this evening, so quick, easy and tasty junk. It has been above zero C today, spring is well on its way.

Swimming pool filter sand was also my eventual substrate of choice. I'd done gravel for decades, but wanted to get more into planted.

Interesting taxonomy too They were all "Barbus xxxx" when I started.

It's difficult - isn't it!

I beg to differ Gary. The fins on the regular examples of fish evolved over a very long period of time to the optimum size and shape for their function. Perhaps millions of years, trial and error. The long fins effect the hydrodynamics of the fishes movement, basically increasing drag, and...

As with others, artificially bred long fin varieties are, for want of another term, criminal.

This will not help with sourcing speakers, but this link is to the FBAS and the FBAS speakers list which may give you ideas for topics. Some of the subjects are rather broad or vague I'm afraid. <edit> Sorry, I should have made it clear, the FBAS is the "Federation of British Aquarist Societies".

>>> pH 8.5 Your pH seems awfully high for heteromorpha to thrive, you might want to think about lowering that. They might survive for a while, but certainly not thrive.