Bettarazzi

Bizarre. I don't know what's going on. Will contact the help desk.

Just don't know what's going on. I can't replicate it. Maybe it's time to upgrade.

I was really organised. All tanks had a small container of food on top. All I had to do was give a demo to show how much food to put in. There were no fry. All fish happily ate dry food. And everything was there on the one rack. No the tanks don't drain into the plumbing yet. Really need to get the larger tanks connected soon. Haven't given the angel fry a water change since they hatched.

This is what the first rack looked like a couple of weeks ago. Just before I headed off to Aquarama I consolidated all the fish so that it would be easy for my partner to look after. I've not advanced much further except that I've cleared the old shelving out of the room. And I've added another little tank to this setup to house a new red dragon I bought at the VB meet.

Struggling to muster the motivation to do the next rack. I've got the second rack all cut up. Just need to find the energy to put it together.

8.1 or 7.1? That's a long way from neutral. I suspect it will be hard as well. This is not good water for bettas. African cichlids would love it. Hardness can only be removed by reverse osmosis or mixing with rainwater.

It's the fool in all of us that keeps screwing things up. :P

That's what happens when you post using your iPhone on the train. Actually looking a the time I was probably walking back to the office from lunch. Even worse! Walking and texting not my strong point.

I just use a bucket with an air stone to age water. What's the pH of your tap water? You should check the hardness as well.

No I was being you speaking to her.

I would hope they're treating it with something which is aquarium safe. You want to find a shop that uses the stuff they sell in their own tanks. Then you can be confident at least that its aquarium safe.

... and photo thief.

Did you find out the name of that fish with the 'saw' bill?

She was pretty famous before. Social media queen.

That's why I got my first smartphone. No YouTube at work. But I've since changed jobs. Now I have access to most things BUT people get narky if the see Facebook on your screen. Well done on the video Ness. I'm sure you made Kelson very happy.

Don't ban her! Having a partner who loves fish is PERFECT! But tell her if she buys a fish she also has to buy a tank... and a filter, and a heater... Don't go thinking you can put that big mouthed African cichlid in with my bettas.

Get a turkey baster from a kitchenware shop. Useful for removing poop from the barracks. El cheapo plastic ones can be as little as $2. Although the rubber bulb tends to crack. Some people prefer to get a more expensive one. But can't guarantee expensive equals long life. If you have the time and inclination you should remove poop every day when they're in small unfiltered containers. Think of it as bonding time. Top it up with the same amount of water you removed. Then you can do a larger water change once a week. It's the classic way of keeping betas in good condition. Filtered tanks tend to tire them out. But of course it's a lot more work this way. So most of us try to find some kind if compromise.

Generally you need to get someone to custom make it for you. It's a lot of work making a barracks and not many buyers so it's understandable that they wouldn't be made as regular stock. Any tank maker can make you one if you have a design in mind.

Or you might get a few people to take up African cichlids. People will try anything here. A few pictures, a couple of posts suddenly it takes off. We had a burst of killifish activity for a while.

There used to be someone out Ferntree Gully way who used to make barracks.

Wow! They've developed a black orchid vt. Is it yours?Matching female?

Well I'm thinking I can just dig through old photos :P

It's one of the last places on earth where the guppy can be found in its original form. I think they'll be keeping that spot pretty secret.

Suggest people wanting (ok wlling) to share their in-progress pics/reports should start separate threads. So old guys like me don't get confused about whose tank is whose.

Excellent. You should get yourself on the register. Would be interested in getting some when you have some spare. Apparently there is a body of water somewhere in Qld which has a population of wild guppies that were introduced before fancy guppies were developed. Prof Endler was telling me about them. It's isolated so he's pretty confident that there would not have been any crossing with modern strains. But I don't know exactly where it is. Your comment about some river in Australia reminded me that we do have a fairly authentic wild population.