Froggie

I spent a few minute yesterday evening at a relatives taking a few shots in her garden. Since it's getting late in the year I thought I'd give her a few pictures to look at over the winter. It can sometimes be a bit hard to believe it once wasn't always -40° below. This was really my first attempt at this sort of thing. I'm generally happy with how these pictures came out. I do wish I had managed to make it over earlier in the day as the shadows had already been cast over the yard.

A friend of mine, David Callele, asked me to stop by last night and take a few shots of his fish. He's got a very neat tank full of freshwater eels. These are a few snaps around feeding time, which composed of brine shrimp out of a turkey baster. The little buggers come right up and dive in for the food. Trying out a script which shares the EXIF data for the shots. Not sure if it's distracting or not. There's a handful of other shots from this session as well. Most of them were just a "tad" out of focus. Those extended mouths are hard to catch! Sean

Oh I plan to get an external flash but er... *cough* I'm a bit flat at the moment after buying the camera First up is a new lens anyhow.

Molino, I do know I can adjust the flash intensity up somewhat. I haven't tried because I was worried that it might be too intense a source and reflect off the fish, or over-expose parts. I'll try that tommorow when I get a second. Do you use an additional slave flash or just the onboard?

I've still got a ways to go as far as feeling out what settings. I'm finding a large number of my shots are coming out far too dark. Without tweaking the RAW a fair bit they're not really usable. I'd like to increase the f-stop a bit, or perhaps move to a quicker shutter speed but I'm not sure if I can. Any suggestions? I've been shooting 1/125, F/5-5.6 and ISO 400. I don't have much light on my tanks so I don't think I can shoot ISO 200.

Three more shots that I'm almost happy with: Slowly, slowly making progress.

As far as the fish photos business, I think I'll wait until I've had the camera for more then 3 days and have read the manual first! I think a few beers would generally convince me to stop by though *laughs*

I posted many of these on other forums but since not everyone is well traveled I'll put a set here as well. These pictures were taken over the last few days with my new camera, a Nikon D50. I used the kit lens (AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm) and onboard flash. No additional lighting was added to any of the tanks. Pictures arn't posted directly because there's so many of them: http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Sfryeri.jpg http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Jmarleri.jpg http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/eyeofthemotoro.jpg http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Molly.jpg http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/OBAulonocara.jpg http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Giporangensis.jpg http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Giporangensis2.jpg http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Giporangensis3.jpg http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Giporangensis4.jpg Froggie

That is not a (pure) Copadichromis female.

That is certainly not a female Copadichromis, of any species. The Copadichromis females have three dots on their sides, as well as faint verticle barring. Picture here: http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/haps/borley_F.jpg With the lateral stripes and body shape it certainly appears more likely to be a protomelas species.

I recently picked up some Triton bulbs and have been very pleased with them. They got some very good reviews at CF, http://www.cichlid-forum.com/reviews/view_...ails.php?id=403 I know that mops.ca carries them, J&L may as well. Sean

Rahim, The sand is a fine white silica blasting sand I picked up. The company that makes it is Unimin out of the US. It's nice because despite being very fine, it does not cloud at all. The grains sink very rapidly.

Those are some nice looking Rays Rudy! Here are mine: Potamotrygon motoro (fem.) and Potamotrygon reticulatus (male) Hope you don't mind the add, not trying to hijack the thread!

www.petsandponds.com has the Eheim 2213 classic on for $109.99. You could also pick up a HOT magnum for $89.99 from them. Those are Canadian prices, they're based out of Ontario and shipping is quite cheap. $5.99 I believe.

In regards to the 4ft, 33 gallon tank. All Glass-Aquariums makes them. Dimensions: 48x13x12 From: http://www.all-glass.com/products/aquariums/standard.shtml Not that you ever would see one, not many people are silly enough to buy one. I'd bet they cost just as much as a 48gal. I'm sure any store that deals with All-Glass could order one though.

This is an older picture of the inside of my 240 When I first set it up And doing a water change.

If I understand you right it's leaking where the adapter connects with the facet? Try a bit of teflon tape to stop that. Also one thing about the plastic drain/fill pieces is that over time, especially if you remove it often, the threads will strip and the plastic will deform. This will cause water to squirt all over from that joint when there's allot of pressure. Teflon tape will correct this too for a bit but once it gets too bad you'll have to replace it.

As a fry at the CCA convention in Edmonton two years ago. Don't recall whose fry though, James Ford out of Winnipeg maybe?

I borrowed a friends digital camera and spent a few minutes this evening clicking off a few shots. I haven't really gotten the hang of it yet but I feel I got reasonable pictures of the fish in mysetup. Camera: Minolta Dimage Z1 Neolamprologus pulcher: http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Npulcher.JPG Cyphotilapia sp north "burundi": http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/alphaburundi.JPG Protomelas taeniolatus: http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Ptaeniolatus.JPG Again: http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Ptaeniolatus2.JPG (notice the marks from scrapping with the ruby red) Aulonocara "Ruby Red" http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Arubyred.JPG (showing alot less red then usual after his scrap with the red empress) Aulonocara stuartgranti "chiwindi": http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/chiwindi.JPG Aulonocara baenschi "benga" and A. heuseri: http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/peacocks.JPG Aulonocara baenschi "benga": http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Abaenschi.JPG Sciaenochromis fryeri: http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Sfryeri.JPG Copadichromis azureus: http://members.shaw.ca/sborycki/Cazureus.JPG

At present? Malawi: * 1 – Aulonocara baenschi “benga” * 1 – Aulonocara hueseri * 4 – Aulonocara “Ruby Red” (fry) * 3 - Aulonocara stuartgranti "chiwindi" (fry) * 1 - Compadichromis azureus * 5 – Metriaclima estherae (fry) * 3 – Protomelas taeniolatus * 1 – Sciaenochromis fryeri (fry) Tanganyikan: * 1 – Altolamprologus compressiceps * 1 – Altolamprologus calvus * 11 – Cyphotilapia sp. north “Burundi” * 1 - Julidochromis marleri * 3 – Neolamprologus multifasciatus (fry) * 2 – Neolamprologus pulcher “daffodil” (fry) * 14 – Tropheus sp. Black “pemba” Victorian: * 9 - Mbipia lutea

They're pretty similiar, the iporangensis used to be classified as brasiliensis! Can't recall the reason for the reclassification at the moment though. A nice fish, I had some until recently. Lost them right after they spawned for the first time *sighs*

Short answer, the surface tensions of freshwater is too high.

As Ty said a Mag Drive 1800 should work well on your setup. For my 240 I use a Mag Drive 2400 with 3 returns. Petsandponds.com, based out of Ontario, has the 1800 listed for $191.99 [shipping over $200 is free if you buy something else] http://www.petsandponds.com/securestore/c7...16413372.2.html

So I borrowed a camera and managed to get a fairly reasonable shot of my 240 gallon tank. The picture is a panoramic composite of 5 shots. Amusingly, seven of my frontosa decided they didn't want to be in it and managed to avoid getting their pictures taken. It has the effect of making the tank look alot emptier then it is. It's a wooden tank of dimensions 8'x30"x20". Lit by two twin 48" flourescent shoplight fixtures. Inhabitants include: 10 - Cyptotilapia sp. north "burundi" (juviniles, largest is ~6 inches) 1 - Julidochromis marleri 1 - Altolamprologus compressiceps 1 - Altolamprologus calvus 5 - Metriaclima estherae (temporary dithers) & 12 large fry that hopped out of a basket 5 - Syndontis petricola 3 – Protomelas taeniolatus (1m/2f being bred in the tank) 3 - Aulonocara stuartgranti "chiwindi" (1m/2f being bred inthe tank) As the frontosa get larger the Malawians take a hike, until then they're nice eye candy.

I tend to make dividers out of egg-crate and PVC, similiar to this one. You can have multiple egg-crate inserts for your different tanks and one "set" of pvc sides with suction cups. It's likely far too large for a 20 gallon though.