Froggie

That's fine, just let them visit my stingrays for a little while. No fuss, no muss! :P

See, that always gets me into trouble!

They cost nowhere near that much! You can get a reasonable RO unit for under $200 from places like J&L Aquatics.

Blood parrots and other abominations top my list. Every single one of them should be summarily culled.

Hrm, guess I'm guilty with confusing wyckiodes with wyckii here. I blame the names and er.. alcohol!

Congrats David! Now I think we need to have a discussion about resizing your pictures prior to posting them on the web! PS: Who gets fry and who gets the parents next?

Not a fan of the ratio, I prefer a traditional crop in all cases. I would also make them a bit larger, not sure of the resolution of your camera but I find that 800 pixels wide is the most presentable format.

Especially the mean little bastards that get 3ft?

It's magic! :thumbs:

What you mean to say is the southern varients have been reclassified as Cyphotilapia gibberosa -roll- That's what I was getting at!

:well:

I enjoy and keep several of the fish mentioned in this thread, but I have to go with the leafy sea dragon as well. Never fail to captivate me when I see them in person.

If you wish to soften the water for your fish, you won't be using a "water softener" such as those sold at Home Depot. You'll want to invest in a RO unit and mix it with your tap water.

Quite cool! How long until he does that to one of the fish in the tank though?

Nope, if you disrespect the guy it has to be about his drinking abilities. Got a good story about that too! :beer:

I have just added diving and underwater photography to my "to do" list.

Not a wholly unreasonable position to take. It just shows that people need to be careful and have a decent understanding of their water conditions rather then blindly relaying on chemical treatment. I know that our water can fluctuate wildly, especially during spring-run off. Not the best time to do water changes when your source is a large river in an area with high concentrations of potash and widespread usage of agricultural fertilizers.

Interesting, what species and what are their care requirements? I've always heard they're fairly demanding and somewhat touchy.

I've always used krylon spraypaint which is designed to adhere to glass. Use either dark blue or black for the best results. One really nice effect that can be obtained is to layer it to create a gradient from a dark bottom to a bluer top. I did this on a few tanks and it’s by far my favorite. Only downside is if you don’t do it properly then it looks funny.

Practice! Once you learn what angle you need to avoid it, it'll become second nature and will no longer be a problem. I’d also strongly suggest diffusing the flash with a piece of tissue. The male in the first picture is stunning by the way.

Very nice pictures Gina, though I do have a few suggestions. The first would be, when doing a profile series on a fish like this try to limit yourself to choosing the three best pictures and instead present them in a larger format. I would suggest 800 pixels as a reasonable width, as it suits most peoples screen resolutions. I fear that some of your crops look a bit tight, or at least uneven. The intent of cropping aquatics should be twofold, to better highlight the subject and present a more pleasing composition. A bit more room can do wonders towards presenting the fish more dramatically. Also, when cropping make an attempt to keep your proportions constant! Not all of the pictures you have posted here have the same dimensions. I personally always keep the same ratio of a standard-photograph when I crop and would suggest similar. It also helps you learn how to better frame your shots in the first place so cropping becomes less necessary.

I would discard what you have in the tank currently and either get in a schedule of replacing your carbon every 2-3 weeks or simply quit using it regularly. If you're looking for specific information, I’m sure there are studies regarding activated charcoal, and its absorbent abilities in regard to organic material, which detail the period over which it begins to leech things back.

Carbon will begin to release contaminates back into the water column after a period of use and must be discarded. The subsequent build up can certainly have some negative effects. To answer the poll, I do keep some on hand but use it solely to remove medication from the water following a treatment. I think it’s unnecessary otherwise and only costs money.

The last one is excellent, I would love to have a reef tank to shoot!

From an academic standpoint? Yes, the intention does rather clearly dictate the ethical significance of the act.