Hey, cousin.
I gotto run to get groceries, but will be back later to check the thread.
Greetz
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I still drive my Corolla, but yours looks way' waaaaaay, better.
BIG thumbs up.
Lovely interior, i love it!

Please check your mailbox, you got a PM.
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Hey,

I wanted a couple of new SDs ,but finding an SD, least of all a decent size, is hard.
Soooo, i see this ad in the paper, offering a discount of 50% on all fish for sale!!!!

20130223_171938_zpsf5c4537d.jpg

I get called by my wife, calling me, :"There's some SD's for sale, and they look special!".
I run down the stairs, and see the ad, and indeed, it looks like some sort of mettynis.

Next i call the shop and ask if the fish in the pic is actually an SD?
"one moment, i'll put you on hold." is what i heard 3 times, until i had the guy that posted the ad in the paper.
I ask him what kinda SD the fish in the ad were, and IF they were really SD's........

Silence........
The guy answers: "Well, uhm, I don't know"
i asked again.
And the guy says:"I just took a picture of the internet and placed it in the ad, so i really don't know...".


That baffled me, and i ask him, :"So you don't even have that fish, nor will you have them, but still you advertise with it?"
Yes, he told me.

I explained shortly what i thought of this practice, bit my lip and hung up.
Now what the hell is wrong with these people?
I know money making is needed, but this is mean, and very bad ethics imo.

Aggreed?

Anywayz, maybe the King of Metynnis can help me at least ID what fish this is?
Was Dimmy right, that it is one of the SD family?
Thanx!
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Hey, Noddy here.
Hope ya'll doing fine.
This weekend my friend Prim died of a heart attack, after getting a bit better, but still his time was up.
Thank you all for praying for and thinking of Prim.
26 years of close frindship brings you in a lot of different places and i am thankfull to have had him as a friend..
Prim ,rest in peace!
And if you need more to pray for it's mom and dad ,that they will be able to cope with this impossible thing to rationalise.

And thanx all, for giving me time to do wat is needed most at the time.

One Love!


trust.jpg
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Yeah, i finally got a phone that makes good pictures ans vids, but now i gotto redo the whole thing, for YouTube can't handle my HD vids.

I saw my At-At's and At-Rt's make a turn and head over to the YT-Office.....
that is gonna be MAYHEM!!!
OK, so the vid will come, but here's some pics to show the quality of the Note2.

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And just for fun, me passed out ,but with my Bulls guarding me!
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Death will even hit back harder.
My friend Prim, who's been my friend for 25 years is in the hospital in a coma, and i just heard that they are gonna pull the plug on friday....

My tears don't stop, and i'm going to the hospital now.
Brother, i hope you rest in peace.

Thanx for protecting me for so long!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdB-8eLEW8g

One Love, Brother!
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Thanx for bringing me inspiration and taking my mind off the troubles that rule in my life...

This one's for you!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1ucilmFyIQ&feature=youtu.be
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Happy B-day, my friend!

I hope you have a good day with the people you love.
I wish you lots of love, wisdom, strenght and protection from harm!

Peace, Bro!
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Me and Dimmy were asked by my sister in law to entertain the kids at a Childrens day called "The King's Kids" , and so we did.
Dimmy can make balloon animals and does make-up to make them look like tigers, ladybugs and whatsoever, and i do juggle and i love to spit fire.

She made a video of it and i edited it a bit, and this is what came out.
Funny thing was, that i was called the Dragon-man, after i did my thing.
Plus i actually saw myself do it for the first time, i never had it on tape, nor is spitting fire something you practice in front of a mirror, right?


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Hey, there, my fish-loving friends.
Today the weekend started, and i decided to spend the evening with a wc on my 180Gl...

I still had to go into town with Dimmy and the kids, so i only cleaned up all the things that were on top of the tank before we went.
I have my 4x4 Monstertruck r.c. on top of the tank, and buckets with all the things i may need in case of an emergency and for feeding my fish, plus a massive box of styrofoam, to put my fish in, in case of the worst emergency.
I hope i never have to use that box...

We got back at 9PM and i put the kids into bed at 10PM, after reading them a dragon-story . That's when i started....

Well, it turned into a total clean-up of the tank in one go.
I usually thoroughly clean my prefilter, and leave the waterchange for the next day.
my pre-filter is filled, from the bottom to the top, with cubic scrubbies around the outlet, a grill on top of that, than an estimated 25 Liter bucket filled with blue filterfoam, topped of with a 2"thick fine foam pad.
On top of the foampad is green filterfloss, and a layer of white cottonwool.
In the corner i have 1.25" tube to prevent any overflowing tanks, when the prefilter should clog suddenly...never happens, though...

I cleaned my pre-filter, added some scrubbies in the deepest part, put the grill back in, filled the whole chamber with the blue floss, and replaced the 2 top layers.

I thought my tank was smelling funny lately, and not in a good way, but no fish were missing, nor did I have any food remains in the tank...
Then i found out why my cabinet smelled like hell.
A big box of dried shrimp i forgot i had, had fallen over and was stinking bad.
So i vacuumed the cabinet, and cleaned that out, the first time in 5 years.

As i was busy, i decided to open my sound-proof-pond-airator-box, for 2 tubes were obstructed and the other 2 were giving very little bubbles.

I found out that the sound-dampening foam had disintegrated, and filled the inlet of my airator with foam-particles.
Cleaned that,rebuild the box with new foam and have 4 major bubblers again.
Just gotto buy 2 new bubble stones tommorrow.

Cleaned the driftwood and fake plants with the hose and then started with the gravelvac.
Moved all the rocks and driftwood,(well, not the biggest one,duh...), and ended up doing a VERY large waterchange.

Cleaned all the lids, and scratched all the calcium from the lids, for they stop quite a bit of light entering the tank.
During the day that's no problem, but at nighttime,it takes away a big part of the magic.
Did the inside of the windows and cross braces.
Placed all the Blue leds on top and pointing the LED spots at the background again, so the background get's highlighted.

Now....at 3.30AM I am finished.
Then the moment comes, when you turn off all roomlights,
and see that my tank looks like a fairytale again!

I guess this is just a "no specific point-thread", just realized that if you spread all the usual maintenance, you find that it's no hard work and takes only little time.
But if you do ALL of the maintenance in a row, it can take many,many hours.
But I'm pleased, and since my camera is working again, i'll post some pics of how the tank looks now in the morning.
One thing for sure, it will look clean as can be!!!

Now i'm just gonna enjoy the view for a bit , before i go to bed...
That is, if i'm fast enough, or the kids will have woken up, before my tired head hits the pillow.
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Let me explain, as we have members all over the world, who live in different timezones.
So for example Nina W is in South Africa and i am in Holland, but our time is about the same.
But with USA members, it's getting confusing and with Filipino members it's getting even more complicated.

Now wouldt it be possible to integrate the different timezones, in for example our friendslist?
I do not mean a graph of cities Like: NY-usa =C.E.T time- 6 hours. if you get what i mean.

I know where my friend live, if i look at the map, but i found this site, and was wondering if it wouldt be possible to add those times to the map?

wereldtijden.net/

Maybe i'm the only one interrested, Boss, never mind the question then, but i saw more members confused with at what time other members live.

Dunno if there are more people who'd like a feature like that, and if it's possible at all.
So let me know what you think?
And Penn, let me know if it is possible, without it being too much of a hassle. for it's only a fun feature, nothing important.

But fun is good, right?
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I finally made some time to make a new video of my Oscar tank.
Not much has changed, Hope has become larger than Bolle, finally, and appears to keep adding on weight.
The Pleco's didn't show, for it was a bright and sunny day ,when i shot this vid.
You cam see for yourself, when the Gar and Oscars swim close to the surface, you see the sun reflecting on them.

I hope you enjoy!


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As we found out our new bull-terrier likes to watch the catfish and loaches in their tank!
The oscars still make her bark


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As i posted in another of our threads, i did more research, not only on the difference between these Gars, but also on the researchers.
I claimed, that it was possible to distinguish between the"spotted Gar" and the "Florida Gar".
But this night i visited another graveyard of science, and I'm quoting some stuff said.
The biggest point , like the Experts and Examiners said for years, of difference was that :

'the Florida and spotted gars are distinguishable from each other primarily by the snout length. The distance from the front of the eye to the back of the gill cover is less than 2/3 the length of the snout in the Florida gar, while it is more than 2/3 of the length in the spotted gar. The Florida gar lacks bony scales on the throat.'

This is what i was toaght, so i stuck to that statement.
Now it appears that this evedence makes no sense in aquariumfish!!!
One of the Academics, examining Gars states :

I'm sorry to say is rubbish with hobby sized fish..It might work for larger adults in the wild but it has little to no use in the ID of captive fish. The only 100% concrete manner to ID these fish is to know the location where they or the breeding stock they came from originated. even when examining known fish with known locality data attached the whole 2/3rd thing was useless for ID purposes..The bony plates can only be observed when you cut out the opercular cover so obviously this is not such a good way tho ID you fish if you want it alive..

There is no way to positively verify however without genetic analysis.
There are no clear external differences. General proportions tend to be intermediate in Nature and these proportions fall in range of natural variation for both the spotted and Florida..

There is some evidence that some of the 'Florida gars' being imported from farms in Asia are in fact hybrids with spotteds.

As said.. there is no clear information about this presumed hybrid and what is known is based on anecdotal evidence and observation of fish within the hobby. There is also the presumed natural hybrids that exist in the Northern and western part of the natural range of Lepisosteus platyrhincus where it overlaps with L. oculatus.

So, i have to change some things in my thinking.
Again, after years,proclaiming one thing, science can't judge, so I cannot either by outward appearance.
Especialy when there are rumours, that they may be crossbred, or have crossbred themselves.

So, if anyone comes, to ask if he has a Spotted or a Florida Gar, all i can say is:I DON'T KNOW, it might even be a hybrid.
And if killing the Gar to check the opercular cover, might be the only way to find out, We'll say Ït looks like a Florida, but the Spotted looks the same.
It may even be a hybrid.
Science, don't you love it?

One day the earth is flat, and the next it's round...
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