Froggie

Gee! I wonder who'd be responsible for that sort of thing? :well:

I thought it was pretty clear that I didn't really consider it a betta? Yes, it's obviously a long-finned Albino Oscar.

I know the feeling. The best method I've found, assuming you have the working room, is to lift the flash above the tank a few inches. You could try down powering and adding more diffusion but I haven't found it to be as satisfactory for those fish that are really right up near the surface.

That'd have been my choice as well. The way I work the glass I find my 105mm unwieldy for larger fish. I fear that I may end up investing in the Nikon 60mm macro just to have that sharpness available for larger aquatics. This hobby is too damned expensive, especially if you’re as anal as I am.

What lens did you use to shoot this series anyhow?

Well if there really were any jobs other then wedding or portrait photography, and it paid reasonably, maybe I'd consider it. Until then, er.. I take pictures of peoples fish for the occasional :beer:

Let me be the first to welcome this sort of unique discourse to the aquarium hobby. I'm just waiting for the first emo-teen to complain about his mother making him do a water change.

That's overkill and a half! I typically would shoot f/11 to f/14 for fish this size. Remember the sharpness does drop off on most lenses as you stop down. It also allows you to rely a bit less on the flash, which is always a good thing.

Definately. I wonder if you didn't lose the stripes when you did your levels adjustment afterwards though?

Good shots Nelson. I'm impressed with the full tank shot. It shows the fish very well and you managed to expose everything without blowing the substrate too much. The fish shots are decent, if not a not a bit bland. Sharpness is also acceptable, though they both look a bit soft to my eyes. Did you apply some USM after resizing? You did blow the white on the vertical band of the Cyphotilapia and in the stripe on the dorsal of the Aulonocara though. If it’s any consolation I usually do the same when I try to shoot my own “sp north”. Best way to deal with it is to underexpose a third stop and bringing it back up in post. I'd like to see a bit better control of the background elements. It may be a personal preference but I find the detail distracting, as it's neither uniform nor natural for these species. What did you shoot for these? f/14? Also, I've found that 800 pixels wide is about the best width for posting pictures. That's what Ed has had as the standard on APF. You posting these over there as well? If not you ought to.

My camera is a Nikon D50, entry-level DSLR. The quality of my work, outside of aquatics, really isn’t that great. If you look at any decent photographer, my stuff gets blown away. I have a long-long way to go.

Here, just stepped out for a minute and took a quick shot:

It's an abomination, sure, but an extremely attractive one: http://danisaacs.com/movies/ariel.mov Biggest damned betta I ever saw! -roll-

Definitely much better! I actually feel a bit unworthy to be posting on the same forum as you, given your amazing prowess. I went ahead and smashed my camera and lenses into little bits of plastic, metal and glass. It’s the only way I can feel any good about myself! :cry:

David had me over last night to drink beer and try to get a few macro shots of his Paratilapia polleni "large spot" fry. Like most newly hatched fry, these guys are tiny. The first two shots are crops and the last shot includes the dimensions of the "image" so you can get a feel for just how small they are.

It's an exceedingly nice day out so I took a chance to head outside after I got home this afternoon. I spent a few minutes crawling around the grass in my backyard looking for critters. As it’s really just warming up here, so I didn’t find much. Thought I'd share these three regardless: Ladybug: Itty-Bitty Spider: All shots were 1:1 and the Ladybug was slightly cropped further. I realise the second one is a bit out of focus but er.. it was windy -01-

Luckily it wipes off the glass and decor extremely easily with a soft cloth. I'd rather deal with diatoms then those hard green dots of algae that appear on the glass.

I would assume that the powerhead is pulling in air, is it near the surface?

Dehumidifiers work well and owning one, or some sort of air-exchange system, becomes essential as your overall volume climbs up. I'm very thankful for mine in the fishroom.

I'd suggest we bring the fry over to meet the Polypterus? -roll-

That Copadichromis borleyi is unreal, what capture location is it from?

Today I got a pair of Polypterus endlicheri endlicheri that I had ordered into Winnipeg about a month back. These guys are quite small, about 3-1/2” and as slender as a pencil. I look forward to seeing them grow towards the 2ft mark! Special thanks to some guy for holding them for me.

No one! That's where the OB Aulonocara comes from.

Insulating the room and installing a small natural-gas heater would probably be the most sensible way. Do you really have enough tanks to make it viable though? I can't see it being particularly advantageous unless you're running at least 1000 gallons. If you’re looking to conserve electricity a better method might be to invest in a small linear-piston pump and move your tanks to sponges and eliminate the power filters.

Not yet, though I know where I can get an exceptionally cruel mantilla ray that would happily manage it. Last I checked the price on it could be described as "almost free" since it refuses to live cordially with any other species. It’s sort of hard to dedicate a 300 gallon tank to one lone fish.