Froggie

Might be a combination, I've heard of packages being left outside for a period before they're loaded on the plane. Shipping tropical fish, especially in the winter, always carries some risk. Things sometimes just happen. *shrugs* I doubt anyone was willfully trying to kill the fish.

Stealing pictures from my gallery now J? -roll- This is Dana and his big tank, dimensions 10ft x 4ft x 32": The remainder of his setup: Pictures are from here and more will be likely added when I get over there again.

I'd suggest using either super-glue or silicone to attach a suction cup, or two, directly to the back of it perhaps?

Yup, bring out the puppies and kitties and group hugs! -ham-

Yup, is a stunning example of being able to draw a distinction between disgust at poor treatment and using humor to approach the absurdity that the police will interject in a “fish betting ring” as if it was a high priority. …or it may just be a good way to belittle three moderators in one go?

I'd encourage it! Then you'd truly be an expert in law-enforcement/betta relations. That’d show us!

What post processing did you do that first picture exactly? Not that I don't like glowing neon fish.

You'd most certainly have the police laugh at you.

First I'd laugh! Then call him an idiot and kick him out.

Naah, he's a friend of mine and an excellent catfish breeder. He is the fellow that owns all those wonderful corydoras I took pictures of!

I feel like embarrassing my good friend Adam Revitt for a moment here; You see, Adam is the misguided sort. His interests have traditionally sat with catfish and feeders. He's been relatively successful with them, keeping and spawning them in various tupperware containers as required. To help steer him towards the righteous path myself and another fellow convinced him to get some cichlids. He setup a nice little tank with some Labidochromis sp. mbamba and Metriaclima estherae. This afternoon I got the most amusing description of their current state, quoted from MSN for your amusement: noodle says: hey... so one of my mbumbas kinda has a bit of a wang hanging down.. not the male noodle says: well it really isn;t a wang.. more like the poop shoot is a little swollen.. or something noodle says: and the look like a gopher with its cheeks full of nuts What could I say? Congratulations on spawning your first mouthbrooder! :rofl:

There isn't much of a story to this. I took these pictures at my friend, Adam Revitts place after a few beer. Not an especially large fish. That's target playsand as substrate. Puntius sachsii I would have liked to catch it a bit higher in the water column perhaps and it likely would have been better to move back a bit for a wider shot. It's always tricky, as when I shoot his tanks as I enviably end up holding the flash in my hand. My arm only reaches so far and it isn't much at 105mm.

Excellent videos! You sir are awesome.

Rudy der' ain't no PM in that der boxen

I haven't done any salt water, so this may be a rather basic question. What sort of facilities would I need to keep one of these? The stomatopods have interested me since I found this site awhile back. Just a peice of liverock in a tank and a constant supply of food with water changes?

Not a big shock but certainly disheartening.

Ed had asked for me to post this example on APF as well but I declined. I think that if I used the camera for more then an few minutes I could get some shots far-far superior to these. They still fall short of the maximum potential of the equipment.

Probably the wrong forum, try in general discussion and list what fish you have and their sizes. You'll get lots of feedback.

Should be awesome, I have a colony myself! Though I don't know if your plants are going to stay rooted with the way they dig.

Typically a club will sell bags for its members. I've always found you can get the best quality by simply ordering them yourself, jehmco has excellent bags. Order a few hundred and you're set!

Geophagus alitfrons certainly aren't the most active cichlid but they were moving constantly across the tank. With a reasonable shutter-speed it shouldn't matter if the fish are stationary or swimming about. Just makes it trickier to get a focus lock and setup the background for a really good shot.

Never, except for full tank shots.

Often when people comment on my pictures I hear them remark, "I wish I had an expensive camera so I could take pictures like that". I typically shake my head at this. One would be surprised of the quality that you can get out of what you already have! To illustrate this point I borrowed my girlfriends Canon Powershot A75. This is a 2 year old, mid-range digital camera of 3.2 megapixels. It is essentially identical to the A70 that was released in 2003, except for a few little features. A nice little point and shoot regardless. Val has the A70. I've only used this camera once or twice in the past, merely to take a snapshot with it on the automatic settings. I spent a few minutes familiarizing myself with the menu layout, took a quick test shot or two and then moved hopped downstairs to my 240 gallon. About 10 quick shots were taken and this is what I produced, Geophagus altifrons: How did I do it? Well I included the camera settings on the pictures using a script that read them directly from the file. However I'll explain in a bit more detail, f/3.5 - This refers to the aperture setting, or f-stop of the camera. Simply, the lower the number the more light the camera allows in [faster exposure]. The trade off is you don't get as much depth of field in the shot with a lower number. In this area a P&S has an advantage over even a $2000 DSLR! Due to the design of the sensor they allow the focus to be far deeper at the same aperture. I chose the lower setting of 3.5 as it was suitable to get the entire fish in focus in my images and allow lots of light in. If you note the rocks in the background of the first picture, I could have gone even lower. 1/160 - This is the shutter-speed used, in this case 1/160th of a second. A slower shutter allows more light in to expose the image for dark situations. I normally shoot in this range as it's suitable for freezing the motion of the fish, particularly the pectoral fins. Matrix metering - This refers to how the camera evaluates the scene, on automatic it determines the settings and in this case it is limited to controlling the flash. Other settings not shown, I set the ISO to 100, it is rating that is equivalent to speed of film in traditional photography. Higher ISOs expose quicker and are better for low-light situations but are of lower quality. I went for better quality as I had enough light. I adjusted the flash intensity down somewhat so I wouldn't blow the highlights. It's difficult to not make a fish shine with direct flash. To alleviate this problem I also diffused the flash by taping a piece of tissue over it. What did I do in post processing? I didn't do much to be honest, both pictures received slight crops and the second had a few water spots cleaned up. I also made a quick levels adjustment (to darken the blacks out), then resized and saved. What could I do better? In the future I'd add significantly more light to the tank. This would allow the fish to be better lit and the images wouldn't appear so flashed. I would also set a custom white balance so the colors were "true" to the tank conditions. In this case I used an automatic setting and they came out with a bit of a hue. It could be fixed in post processing but I left it for this example. Hope this helps!

I was asked to post up the pictures I took of Neatfreak's (Lisa's) tanks which I took last Saturday evening whilst in the lovely kingdom of King Ralph. 130 gallon: 72 bow: 45 gallon, with Crayfish (Stand made by Majestic_Aquariums): 25 gallon: Heros species, Gold Severum: Tell her what you think!

Ryan, Well, since you asked here's one of the better ones you took: The proper camera does make a big difference. You can get quite good pictures using a newer point and shoot but it’s easier with the right equipment undoubtedly. Afraid I really didn't, I tried to concentrate on that fish so I could drink beer and relax. I had already driven 6-1/2 hours at that point afterall. My shooting ability was probably at a low point. The camera is a Nikon D50. It's the budget, or entry-line, camera in their DSLR lineup. It has some disadvantages but is hard to beat for the price.