K-Dawg

I have previously kept Gold fish and had them for many many years before they died. When they did, I replaced them with Guppies. That was when I had a 3 foot tank.

We now have a 6 foot fish tank (6ft long, 19inches deep, 2ft tall), which has mostly Guppies. We also have a few Platys, 2 male Bristlenose and plenty of snails (who knew that 2 snails would multiply and become 2 bazillion!).

I really want to add some Gold fish. I think lovely big Gold fish would look great in such a big tank, but I'm concerned at the combination.

I've seen a lot of sites that say Gold fish can live happily with these fish, and I'm not overly concerned with the Guppies being eaten because they constantly breed, and there's plenty of room for them to keep out of each others way in such a large tank.

Do you think it would be OK to introduce two young/small Gold fish into the tank?

I'd eventually like to have 4 or 5 in there and let them grow lovely and large, but to begin with I'd add just 2 and only little ones.

I have two filters running in the tank, one at each end. Both are canister filters, one is an Aquis 1200 and one is an AquaOne 800. I also have an air rock running most of the length of the back wall.

I have the heaters set to around 22C, which I think is around 71 or 72F.

What do you think? Could this work?

If Gold fish aren't a good fit can you please suggest anything similar in size and colour that would work better?

Cutting a long story short, I have previously kept Gold fish and had them for many many years before they died. When they did, I replaced them with Guppies. That was when I had a 3 foot tank.

We now have a 6 foot fish tank which has mostly Guppies. We also have a few Platys, 2 male Bristlenose and plenty of snails (who knew that 2 snails would multiply and become 2 bazillion!).

I really want to add some Gold fish. I think lovely big Gold fish would look great in such a big tank, but I'm concerned at the combination.

I've seen a lot of sites that say Gold fish can live happily with these fish, and I'm not overly concerned with the Guppies being eaten because they constantly breed, and there's plenty of room for them to keep out of each others way in such a large tank.

Do you think it would be OK to introduce two young/small Gold fish into the tank?

I'd eventually like to have 4 or 5 in there and let them grow lovely and large, but to begin with I'd add just 2 and only little ones.

What do you think? Could this work? I currently have fake plants, should I plant live plants to help compensate for the nitrogen that will be produced from the Gold fish (they're little pooping machines from memory)

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

I realise this is the Pregnancy/Parenting section, but I'm sure there are parents out there who have had similar situations, so here goes:

My partner and I are looking at expanding our family and will need a larger car.

We need it to be large enough to fit two baby seats and two labradors and luggage etc.

We often visit my folks who live around five hours away so are thinking about a diesel over a petrol model. When we visit them we take our dogs with us.

We've been thinking a 7 seater to fit everyone in and have been leaning toward either the Ford Territory or Toyota Kluger (they seem to provide the most cargo space in the 7 seater model). Neither of us really like people movers like the Tarago etc, that's why we've been thinking about the Territory or Kluger.

Can anyone please provide feedback on these vehicles, or make suggestions of any alternates?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I realise this is the dog section, but I'm guessing that there are other dog owners out there with a similar situation, so here goes:

My partner and I are looking at expanding our family and will need a larger car.

We need it to be large enough to fit two baby seats, two labradors and luggage etc.

We often visit my folks who live around five hours away so are thinking about a diesel over a petrol model. When we visit them we take our dogs with us.

We've been thinking a 7 seater to fit everyone in and have been leaning toward either the Ford Territory or Toyota Kluger (they seem to provide the most cargo space in the 7 seater model).

Can anyone please provide feedback on these vehicles, or make suggestions of any alternates?

Thanks in advance for your help.

My partner and I are looking at expanding our family and will need a larger car.

We need it to be large enough to fit two baby seats and two labradors and luggage etc.

We often visit my folks who live around five hours away so are thinking about a diesel over a petrol model. When we visit them we take our dogs with us.

We've been thinking a 7 seater to fit everyone in and have been leaning toward either the Ford Territory or Toyota Kluger (they seem to provide the most cargo space in the 7 seater model).

Can anyone please provide feedback on these vehicles, or make suggestions of any alternates?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I have a Kikuyu lawn which stands up well to the treatment my dogs give it, but is invading my garden beds.

I've tried everything I can think of and before building up the garden beds I dug up the grass from the area beds were going to be laid, I put down weed matting, I've got a good layer of mulch and have planted what I thought was fairly well to help reduce the likelihood of invasion. However, the persistent Kikuyu still manages to find gaps in my armor and gets through and I seem to be forever having it pop up and say hello. I initially started trying to pull it out, but it came back stronger than before.

What's the best say to eradicate it from the garden beds? I'm hesitant to spray in case some of the chemical gets on the plants that are meant to be there. Can I paint a product like Zero on the leaves of the Kikuyu? Will that kill just the Kikuyu and not the surrounding plants? Is there an easier way than this to get it out of the garden beds?

Thank you in advance for your help.

My household recently discarded our 3 foot tank and replaced it with a 6 foot tank. It wasn't my choice to get such a large tank, but I caved, and I will admit that it does look really good.

In the 3 foot tank we kept guppies and they thrived. They've been transferred to the large tank and are still thriving. Through them breeding and us adding some new fish for genetic diversity we now have around 50 (at a rough guess).

The problem is that in such a large tank the guppies are so small, and from a distance they're difficult to see.

I'd really appreciate some suggestions as to what type of fish I could put in with the guppies that can actually be seen without standing right up close to the tank. Preferably medium to large, non-aggressive fish.

I know it's a difficult juggling act putting larger fish with smaller fish, but I really want something I can see in the tank. Something that isn't dwarfed by the plants and accessories and the sheer size of the tank.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

The people of Australia over the past couple of months have been hit and hit hard.

There have been massive floods throughout South West and West New South Wales There has been extensive and extreme flooding in South Queensland and North New South Wales. There has been a cyclone the likes of which Australia has not previously seen in North Queensland which has caused further flooding. There has been flooding in Victoria. There have been bush fires in the southern regions of Victoria, and currently the people of Western Australia are experiencing large bush fires.

All of these incidents have destroyed homes and businesses, and taken lives but the gutsy no worries spirit of the people living through these disasters has prevailed and the true grit of the Australian people has seen them not give up. Rather, they just keep on keeping on.

I know that there are tragedies all over the world. Parts of the USA are experiencing terrible snow storms. Other countries are experiencing flooding etc. But Australia seems to have been hit hard, all at once.

The cost, emotional, physical and financial will not be truly seem for a while. It will take weeks, months, years for these areas and the people to process, come to terms with and move onward from these disasters.

How much more can the universe throw at Aussies before we crack? Before our spirit is broken?

I guess what I'm trying to say is good on you Aussies one and all for not giving up, for fighting on and fighting back, for showing the world what we're made of and how well we stick together and get through these kinds of events.

Aussie, aussie, aussie, oi, oi, oi!

Hi everyone,

I have a long (approx 15m) narrow (approx 80-100cm) garden bed that I want to plant out. I'd like what I plant there to look good and provide privacy to my yard.

The soil where I live is quite clay, but I've put down some clay breaker and have built up the garden bed a little.

The position is along a fence (colour-bond) and gets full sun from around mid-morning.

Our winters here can be quite chilly, most mornings below zero and we often suffer from frost. Having said that, we're in spring now, so if planted soon the plants will have a good shot at getting settled before next winter. Also, our summers can be quite warm (average around the low to mid 30's with some days poking their way to +40 C.)

I like the look of photinia red robin as a hedge, with it's bright red new growth, but was wondering if how well it's likely to do in the spot I've described?

Also, does anyone have any other suggestions as to what I could plant there that will fit what I need?

Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much in advance.

I have an Acer Aspire 5740 laptop with built in DVD player. My problem is that the DVD player is region specific. I can play a DVD from any region, but have to change the region code each time I do so. There are also a limited number of times I can change the region zone before it gets locked.

Is there a way I can "unlock" the DVD player in my laptop so I can play a DVD from anywhere in the world?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I have a Chocolate Labrador (Cadbury) who is 13 months old and very intelligent...sometimes too intelligent! He's always been a handful to keep occupied and entertained and throughout his 13 months has eaten several things he shouldn't - eg, 2 lounges, 2 dining chairs, a hall table, skirting boards of my newly built house, fish tank pipes (yes, my new house flooded as my 3 foot fish tank emptied itself onto the floor), letters on the table (including bills), telephone cables and extension leads.

Today he's reached another level of destruction. I got home from work and found that one of the bedroom doors hadn't been closed properly. On first look everything looked OK, I sighed deeply and thought I'd dodged a bullet. However, on closer inspection I discovered that all was far from OK. He's eaten a lap top! The casing looks a little chewed (not too big an issue), but somehow he's figured out how to open it because when I opened it I found half the keys missing, he's polished off the cables and also chomped down a door stop and DVD cover!

Having been through his "gonna eat everything in the house" phases before I've got it all under control but was just wondering.....what's the strangest thing your dog has eaten?

I'm currently going through the process of adopting a 3 year old female Golden Retriever x Labrador, named Ally, from a rescue organisation. I already have an eight year old Golden Retriever and a 10 month old Chocolate Labrador, both of which I've had since they were pups.

Today I passed the premises inspection done by the rescue organisation, and tomorrow is the final health check for Ally. If all goes well with the final health check she can come home and meet my current dogs and if that goes well we start the two week trial period before the adoption is finalised.

Everything is going well and I'm nervously excited about the prospect of the new addition. My only concern is how I'm going to bond with her. She's very sweet natured and craves and thrives on attention and love but I've only ever had male dogs and always from puppy-hood so there's never been an issue. I'm glad to be able to give this lovely girl a good loving home but am just a little nervous.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.