MrPlakat

Sorry about the lateness, night shift does it to ya Video pt 1 Video pt 2 When I finally do have the time I'll make a proper review

lol sorry mate it's been sitting in my fish room doing nothing, sydney chills has got me putting all my free time into insulating my fishroom (garage) and still trying to kill off a black spot infection in my barracks. I'll post pics tomorrow of it and I'll find the promo video and link it here:lol:

welcome to the board PH! A friend of Plakat's is a friend of mine lol :lol:

If you want to see bettas, they are always at night markets in Bangkok & Pattaya, you'll have to ask locals for where the aquarium stores are, they are usually un-noticed with very little signage or colourful displays. A local Thai or aquarium may be able to help you find betta shows in the area. You won't be able to bring back betta pellets or other foods/meds, customs will seize them but you'll be fine to bring back some Betta Posters & Kra Buey's (Betta scoops). Best to go with the silk pouch model as the traditional dried banana leaf versions leak very fast. You can find betta VCD's at the markets but they won't have eng subtitles and the quality is grainy. As for betta farms there are quite a few small ones scattered in Bangkok suburbia, the aquarium staff may be able to point you in the right direction but it's best you offer the breeder a small tip if they let you visit. Large farms are in outskirt areas like Nakhon Pathom, Ratchaburi, Samut Sakhon and Chonburi. I know Nakhon P & Samut S have large annual fish shows. Good Luck and do enjoy, I'm sure you'll have the time of your life :lol:

Thats's an awesome mac tank mate!! oooh I so want one :lol:

Drop Dead Gorgeous! He's a stunner! :drool:

Congrats on taking that pair home Sarah, they were stunning! Can't wait to see what you get from them :D

Hi Tom! Great to hear your back into bettas, and also fantastic to see an uprise in Sydney breeders

I got a flickr account to help me organise and show pics better. I took some new snaps today, I'll show a few of my favs and leave the link to the full sets at the bottom, This Red Dragon HMPK is in the spawning tank at the moment This Giant Red Cambo HMPK boy has a great spread but he bit his tail before I got him I'll spawn him in the future soon. I got this girl yesterday from Auburn Aquariums ( Thx Yan!! ) It was marked as a Black Orchid but I'm not sure? The blue on the fins is just the background showing through the clear pattern. Maybe black lace CT? She's black and clear, no blue. Hope you enjoy all the pics below: http://www.flickr.com/photos/muayplasydney/sets/ Sean aka MrPlakat

Wow too cool! You won't miss me, I'll be the guy who won't stop staring at the fighters:drool: BTW my name is Sean

Gobsmacked! Looks like it's gonna be quite a grand fish room Sarah, keep the pics coming You could turn this into a profession or a TV show "Better Homes & Fish Rooms"

Thx for your comments guys! The silencer box is a 5L styro shipper, I placed a teatowel on the base folded several times and placed the air pump on top so no box vibration and no movement from the pump. Had it for 5 years with no hick ups. Oh also I don't seal the lid, it's just propped on loosely so if heat or air pressure ever builds up it can self release. Davo I'll be at the next meeting, I'm eager to see your setup, expect a gazillion questions Les I truly love wild plakats/3-4-5 star fighter types and all fancy/show round tail PK's. Unfortunately I'm like alot of others, I can't resist a bargain or unique opportunities to own a beautiful betta. Since returning to bettas I've actually found it much harder to source a good standard PK than 7 years ago, there seems to be more HMPK and Delta PK's available locally at very competitive prices. Currently I own: 3 x Giant HMPK brothers (Blue with red loss on and off) 1 x Giant HMPK boy (Cambodian) 1 x Giant HMPK boy (Wild Colour) 1 x Giant SuperDelta female (MG/Bi-Colour, Butterfly) 1 x Giant HMPK female (Pineapple Butterly) 1 x HMPK female (Blue) 1 x MG PK male (Black, Yellow, Blue) 1 x DT PK female (Wild Colour) 1 x Red Dragon HMPK boy (Silver scales) As you can see I'm swamped with HMPK's lol but I don't mind it since the caudel on the PK's are smaller and it can compliment the betta's swimming agility. I strictly stay away from Veil Tails, Crown Tails & Delta's or pretty much anything with over expression of finage. Hi Sarah, got some good pics today with a proper digi camera, I'll set up a flickr account tomorrow and post them all up, in the meantime I posted some pics of 4 giants HERE a while back Shadoh the 1ft light on the 3ft tank was on top of the barracks for a week before I switched over to a office desk light with an 11w UV bulb/mini tube so either way, only thing is the desk light has a massive transformer on the plug which can heat up quite a bit when on for real long periods, I'd suggest a 1ft light from a pet warehouse/online which is what I'll do in the coming weeks after I sort the manual labor tasks out I'll update pics in time once I'm at or near full completion, thx again all! Sean

wow fantastic colours, great buy Sarah! I'm around Auburn tomorrow, might pop in and try my luck Good luck with the spawn too, can't wait to see the pics :D

Hi Guys, I wanted to show some pics of my fish room so far, it's pretty simple and I'm still rushing it before winter in Sydney kicks in, so any advice or suggestions would be appreciated So far it's a 3ft split tank for breeding, a 12 cell barrack and a 5 shelfer holding some empty tanks and a few giants. On the right is a cabinet that used to house a 2ft tank, it was sold a while ago but I'll replace it this weekend and I still have the hood and light for it hooray!! The 5 Shelfer Betta shrine at the top, some plakats and empty tanks, and black worms at the bottom. This will be replaced on the weekend with a steel 5 shelfer from bunnings which can then house all my giants in the 1ft tanks and reserve the bottom for the worms & cultures. leaving about 2-3 shelves free for new stock/holding juves. There's an elite 802 dual outlet air pump in the stryofoam(silencer) box, the 2 airways are connected to 2 x 4-way outlets, so far I'm only using 3 outlets for the worm tub, 40L resevoir and a pen plax on a split female tank so plenty of extra juice for other projects. I have a loose idea about using the timber shelf as a chasis for a barracks system having rows of large plastic "pla houses" like the one with the green top in the pic, sump & pump at the bottom...just an idea since it couldn't be done with glass for obvious weight bearing reasons. THE GOLDEN PLAKAT My magic golden plakat, he sits on top of the makeshift shrine with various betta stamps lol, works for me The Barracks Big thanks to Adam for letting me take this aqua one barracks off his hands. He'd already replaced the steel taps with plastic taps, I took things a little further by adding tube outlets to stop breaking the water surface, removed the top decal and placed a small uv light on top. Theres a wide pipe running along the top of the cells enabling shade for all and it's great for temporarily growing java moss. There's a neat mini sump area in the bottom that had some pads, I threw in a small bag of aqua clear ammonia remover and have the heater on a timer for cold nights when winter creeps in. The Breeding Tank PIC 1 I thought I would get back into gudgeons and try my hand at apisto cichlids so I bought a canister and ended up deciding to stick to bettas and more so plakats. I have a brand new 3 ft light on the right but the tank is missing a lid and I don't know where I can get glass cut cheap since st george aquariums closed. (any suggestions Sydney?), The 1 ft light is perfect, the 3 ft is dual tube with a moon light so I'll experiment with that when I replace the tank lid. The food/med box is propped open to shield a 12 port power board behind it from splashes during cleaning. PIC 2 I couldn't return the canister so I had to mod it. I put a tap on the outlet, left it at 1/3 open. Extended the spray bar and stuffed java moss over the spray holes. The water now glides down the walls and is met by some drift wood and dense planting underneath plus weeds on top. The pour on the far left is consistent without breaking the surface. I figure the benefit of the canister will be reaped when growing out fry? Pic 3 I put a glass divider in the tank years ago for other breeds, now the left side is for spawning and the right for the female pre spawning. Dense planting in the back as mentioned before leaving a clear open view for potential bubble nest in the front. I have had success with and without 1 stryofoam cup but decided to see if 2 will make any difference? Pic 4 Once the fry are free swimming they can easily cross over. By the time they show colour and sex I can use the split to segregate fry by quality or size without cross over (as in crossing through the tiny gaps on the split pane) Hope you guys enjoyed the pics, all suggestions or advice are welcomed! Regards, Sean