Kleinz

They are tricky to come by, and a bit sporadic.

I breed ptyochromis hippo point salmon and astatotilapia aeneocolor yellow belly alberts ( not strictly a Victorian, I think).

 Apart from latifasciata, I have seen enterochromis paropius, a peaceful and very pretty fish. There are some python island pundamilia nyereri about, as well as haplochromis sp.44 "thickskin. Also some haplochromis thereuterion and a few lithocromis types if you can track them down. Egyptian mouthbrooders ( pseudocrenilabrus multicolor) might even qualify.

These and others are floating about at sponsor stores and in breeders'collections, but not a great many. Have seen them at Aquotix, Vebas, Rob's, Morley, Midland . The main point is if you have more than one species of Victorian, don't keep them in the same tank (unless it's an all male display), as the females resemble each other pretty closely and the fry are pretty much indistinguishable.

It's arguable that Brazil already has the world's largest freshwater aquarium. It's called the Amazon.

Spruik much, guys?

You talk about extra charges? The minimum charge for an Uber is higher than a cab, and taxis do not have surge pricing. Sure, there is a three buck charge after midnight Friday and Saturday in a taxi. That's not unreasonable, and a pittance, really. In place of this Uber have what's called "surge pricing".

At about the same time as you pay an extra couple of bucks in a cab, Uber  charges 1.5 times, 2.4x, 5x,  right up to 7 times the normal fare, depending on  how busy it is, who is manipulating their system, and the price of eggs in China.  An uber out to the far burbs can easily cost $300. And has. Aside a couple of bucks, the taxi price is reliably the same. Uber's pretty sneaky, though.

So really, it's true to say an Uber is sometimes cheaper than a cab, and sometimes it will cost much, much more. Also being a completely illegal service, you have no recourse if anything at all should go wrong.

The "wait times" I also call bull on. You can go stand on a corner on a Friday or Saturday night in Northbridge and see a sea of taxis from which you can choose. Then you will see a bunch of hipsters standing around ignoring those while tracking their Uber car's approach on their smartphone so they can be one of the cool kids.

Then they get into a froth and find a forum to gush on. Ohh. It's so convenient! Ohh it's so cheap and clean! They drive you in a car! It has four wheels and everything! And the drivers are so polite, just like they are in Bali ! Ooh it only costs two dollars to get to Sorrento and I get a free martini and a handjob!... Please.

Spare me the crap about how a taxi will never pick someone up from a street corner. They do that about five thousand times a night in Perth.

We all want to pay less for everything all the time, but remember that you are now sending your money out of the loop to Google and Morgan Stanley and some guy that doesn't pay tax either and probably is working here illegally on a tourist visa. Long term this will come round and bite you too.

Boo! Hiss!

Hey! What if cane toads ate them? 

Hah. I walked into a LFS to trade in some fish today and someone had brought in some gold and some black occies. The gold ones are mine now. I'm pretty happy with that trade

Was at Aquotix yesterday and Mattia gesticulated excitedly at some of their fish.   I took photos and I post them here.    

Pseudotropheus sp williamsi north makonde.  These are the mustard yellow guys with blue lips.

Cryptoheros sajica "T-bar cichlid"

Phenacogrammus interruptus "congo tetra"

aulonocara somethingorother "dragonblood peacock"  

labidochromis caeruleus "Nkali"

astatotilapia aeneocolor "yellow belly albert"

naevochromis chrysogaster

Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor "dwarf Egyptian mouthbrooder"

Eclectochromis Ornatus Masenje

And the lovely lamprologus ocellatus ''Gold''

Anyone worried it will be cold tonight, don't worry; the hall has heaters but we never need them on auction nights. All those people make it quite warm inside.

See you there!

Righto. Here is the lot list for the auction so you can print it out yourselves.

 May15auctionFinallots.pdf   41.38KB   64 downloads

No. I do not believe in execution for drug offenses, if at all. I have known drug users and I have seen some die of them. That does not alter my opinion.

I think that what they did is a bit irrelevant to the outcome, though.

This issue was milked for the political winner that it was by the Australian and Indonesian governments both. It was the gift that kept on giving.  They both managed this well and got decent bumps in the approval polls out of it. That the outcome was execution was always going to be the case and I doubt that either lost sleep over that part.

Abbott and Bishop got to look important and presidential making a fuss about someone they did not give a rat's arse over and it helped distract from the series of disasters and incompetence at home. It's as good a distraction as playing the terrorist card and sending troops/planes to the middle east.

A newly minted Widodo got to increase his support by firmly resisting pressure from rich countries who are seen over there as patronising and bullying. The theatre of their transfer to the prison island said it all. Four naval ships. Armoured vehicles. Commandos. For what?  In case someone tried something? Please.  That was just an exercise in Indonesian national pride. It will have played very well on TV. As good as the ANZAC crap we have been rehashing endlessly for the last weeks.

I think the Federal Police have some responsibility here, as they shopped those guys. I would like to know whose decision that was. I would like to know what they or the Australian government got in return. I am certain they got something.

I'd really like to know why noone further up the supply chain was caught or charged. Surely this would have been a golden opportunity to do something other than stop a few bottom level mules and enforcer thugs. No?

Lastly, given the amount of consular assistance and pressure the Australian government has expended on these guys, who are (or perhaps were) essentially scum and thugs, why do they not exert similar pressure to try and help guys like Julian Assange, who performed some serious public service to us all, and is not yet charged with a crime. He has languished a prisoner  in a small room in London for some years now and must live with the distinct likelihood that he will end up in an American prison for decades at the least and might well be subject to torture by that regime, should he get there.

I want to know why they aren't helping that guy.

I love it when you contact them asking the dimensions and they say "it's 3 or 4 foot long" and if you ask them to actually measure it they get shitty.

The main raffle prize will be an Aleas AE 1381 canister filter from Steve at our sponsors Avid Aquaria.

You all have until Friday evening to get  your lots in, those who have not...

IDK... The aquarium hobby seems to be surprisingly chock full of people with axes to grind. Every group has members who left another group because they can't stand someone in it, or how it is run, or because someone answered them in an unsatisfactory manner, be it unfriendly, or teasing or unhelpful, or just voiced an opinion which was at odds with their own view. It's all so serious. As if we don't have enough drama in our lives.

People go and make their own groups because they can run them better, or person "X" will not be there. They go off to found the "true church", where all is better  and everyone is friendly and helpful and no sarcasm will ever ever be used..

Other groups form, with their own cliques and politics and the hobby fragments and churns. This effect can be seen in any school playground and is not in and of itself a bad thing; it just is. There is always a certain amount of churn, and often people who forsake this site for whatever reason find their way back after a couple of years. Some stick around but post on their other hobbies as they don't even keep fish anymore.

There are plenty of punters who like to ghost the forums and make pronouncements or funny posts or just troll, and that is fine. The internet is a playground and that is what makes it fun.

The main difference is this: The PCS is the only group I am aware of that holds regular meetings.

It has always been my observation that whatever people are like on the internet, they are all perfectly nice and friendly people in the flesh, and that the forum/facebook page is a poor substitute for a PCS meeting. In person people are usually both more friendly and more adult. In this the Society has it over the myriad facebook pages and the like and anyone who judges and discards the PCS based only on the website is missing out on the better part of the club.

Maybe my view is getting old fashioned, but that's just my 10c.

He did say guess. No need to get the ruler out