A:  Keep your waterlilies and lotus plants away from your waterfall.  They prefer still water.  Delete the duckweed, water lettuce, and echinodorus.  Each of them will totally carpet your pond's surface within a month.  Limit your lily/lotus population to two max.  One would be better.  Each will easly carpet half your pond.  If you add cattails, they will take over all the soil area of your pond.  Amano shrimp are large enough to eradicate your cherry shrimp.  Go with one or the other.  Then go for most of the rest of the whole enchilada.  LA
PS  Your small fish will be hard to see but incredibly happy.  Set your waterfall at the rate you prefer to watch.  There will be no temperature differential because of your waterfall and shallow depth.

LA
Eggs --  the ones they didn't eat.

A:  When your fry died, they wrecked their water quality.  Go to your local Dollar Store and invest $5 in five flat "shoe boxes."  This will enable you to put the eggs in one-inch deep water.  The boxes stack, so they don't need much space.  Start your fry on thawed baby brine shrimp.  Add a large snail for clean up.  Change their water at least weekly.  LA

A:  Sorry I didn't answer your email last night.  I was out wassailing.  First things first.  I don't know that "shoe box" is the official name in the U.S. (or California).  They're a clear plastic 12L x 8W x 4H box with a lid (so they're stackable).  Sterlite makes them.  They hold about 1.5 gallons.  They're perfect for instant baby tanks.  You change the water by carefully pouring it into your sink and replacing the dirty water with water from your main tank or other aged water.
Second, scrape the eggs as soon as they harden enough that your razor blade does not squish them.  Hungry females develop a taste for fresh caviar.
Third, at about a week, add an airstone.  You need to break up the scum that otherwise forms on top of still water.  The scum can clog your baby corys' developing labyrinths.  LA

A:  Shallow containers work better than two-gallon (really 2.5-gallon) bowls.  You (the eggs, really) want a shallow container.  Here in Des Moines, we have the Dollar General Store, the Family Dollar Store, and the Dollar Tree.  We used to have a couple 99 cent stores but the competition was too tough.  Go to one of your California Three Dollar Stores and look in the plastics aisle.  You want a shallow container.  They're easy to pour out of carefully, because your corys will go to the bottom.  Do not totally empty the shoe box.  Get rid of 90 to 95% of the water.  The corys will stay in the remainder.  To keep her from eating the eggs, put her (ditto the males) in her own shoe box until her eggs harden enough to be razored off.
I can't tell you why your first hatching tank went bad.  I can tell you that shallow containers work better.  LA

A:  It is not a good idea to heat water with a heating pad.  Don't worry about the temperature.  Many cory breeders add trays of ice cubes to trigger their corys to spawn.  The worst a low temp will do is slow the hatching process.  Cory eggs should be hard enough to scrape in 24 hours.  Pour old water out carefully.  The fry are quite easy to not pour out.  If you're still super-concerned (which it sounds like you are), pour the old water into another container before disposing of it.  Start aging new water in your extra plastic containers now.  LA

A:  Do not feed your babies while they are still larvae living off their yolk sacs.  They can't eat until they develop their mouths.  Feed them very, very lightly when they become free swimming.  Temperature influences the number of days this will take.  You can tell they are eating the baby brine shrimp because their bellies turn orange.  Add the snail after they've been swimming and eating a couple weeks.  They will avoid the snail.  LA          

A:  I did not know that.  I'll add your info to the dandelion page.  LA

A:  Kako si, dude and sawatdee krab.  Treat your baby calotes like any other small lizard.  Keep him warm -- not a problem in Thailand.  Give him small insects.  Dust the crickets in calcium/vitamin D.  Don't worry about him eating too much.  LA

A:  The quantity he eats will depend upon the size of your insects.  Try to make sure he eats at least two per day.  Calotes are good eaters.  He will soon start eating more.  LA

A:  I added your comments to my Uro page.  Thanks.  LA

A:  Send me a couple.  I'll add them to your comments.  LA

A:  Hey, gnattylt.  You'll get a better return if you quit using your University of Florida email address.  Also, you had eight typos in your letter.  I'm debating whether to forward this to your Dean of Students or your English Department.  LA
PS  The Nigerians write better letters.

A:  Mystery snail.  LA

Casandra, Lake Stevens, WA, December 26, 2008

Hi! First, I want to tell you I really enjoyed your section on Newts. It's the best I've found on the web since I got my first newt in Feb 08.

I'm just a little curious about tank cleaning though. Since I've had my newt I've cleaned the tank ONCE. And that was because I had to (I was moving) and that was in the beginning of May. It has now been 8 months since I've "cleaned" the tank. My now, 2 newts, 2 frogs, 2 fish, and various plant life are very happy and healthy... The water is clear and I make sure to clean the filter every time it starts to sound a little rough. So my question is, is it "safe" to clean my tank? I'm afraid it might upset the balance of the water or something ??? Pretty much I'm afraid that'll I'll clean the tank and someone will die  Do you know if it's best for me to just leave it alone?

Sincerely,

A:  I hope you're at least changing a portion of their water every week or two.  All that food that you feed them gets converted into contaminants in one form or another.  Partial water changes keep the contaminants from building up.  Regular partial water changes mean you don't need to do a total tear down.  LA
PS -- unless you have a sudden die off.

A:  The above map indicates mud puppies are threatened in Iowa anad Indiana.  This means we can't sell them and you can't buy them.  Maybe later.  LA

A:  They cost $10.  We don't ship.  LA

A:  Well, it's BOB's page, but I pretty much agree with BOB.  I would have to say that all the commercial ferret foods are better than making your own.  Making your own is a giant leap into yesteryear.  You may not have been around back when we sold "wild" ferrets.  These guys and gals were breedable.  But they sure were not as mellow as the neutered Marshall ferrets.  Also, you could tell there was a non-descented "wild" ferret in the house as soon as you walked in the door. You had to wash your hands if you petted one -- much less let one wrap around your neck.  As far as I'm concerned, Marshall ferrets, foods, and products were a giant improvemement in the ferret hobby.  I'll add your comments to BOB's ferret page if he says okay.  LA

Cindee McDonald, December 27, 2008
Hello Larry, I posted the comment above obviously March '06 and thought that I would update you. Our id shark died last night. We don't know what happened to him. Found him upside down in the tank, put medicine in there and he went crazy and cut himself up, it was horrible. We had to euthanize him. Thought I would send you a picture of him. He was 16 years old, 27" long and weighed 15lbs! Thanks,
 

CM
16 years old
 

CM
27" long 15 lbs.
 

CM

My husband holding him

A:  Some people would say remodeling your house to make your fish comfortable borders on the extreme.  But I say welcome to the neighborhood.  Very impressive paroon.  LA
PS  I added your pics and info to my pangassius page.
 

LA

A:  Some female bettas will flare (and fight).  And occasionally a young male will come in as a female (but not often).  To make sure you have a female, look for the tiny white breeding tube between her pelvic fins.  LA

A:  The Texas and the green terror would get beat up first.  Then the oscar.  Much depends upon the age, sex, and size of the tank mates -- even their diets and the aquascaping.  Pairs are the worst trouble makers.  Tank size and temperature also enter into the equation.  I dislike suggesting good mixers to other people.  LA
PS  Stay awesome, dude.

A:  Firemouths are bluffers -- not fighters.  Take them out or they will die.  Or put them all in a 55.  LA

LA
Puntius denisonii.

A:  Your fish sound okay.  I suspect you'll want to add more of the "roseline sharks" as you go.  But I have never mixed many of the shrimp.  I don't know how most of them interact.  I don't think the wrestling half-beaks would bother them.  LA

A:  There's no such thing as an exact perfect number --  but at least five.  However, these guys are fairly pricy.  You may want to add just a couple per week.  They seem to be a trouble-free fish.  LA

A:  My long-range diagnostic skills indicate the lumps could be:
eggs;
rocks;
tumors; or
undigested food.
However "agnostic" means not knowing.  And "di" means twice as much.  So, the only way to really know is to cut the rascal open and find out.  LA

A:  Relax.  Lay off those energy drinks.  It's usually best to look into those questions you ask before you buy a fish.  But I understand how you can fall in like at first glance with such a cool fish.  BKGs will take many weird postures during the day (and probably night).  If another fish laid on its side for an hour, you'd probably flush it.  Your BKG not so much.  If you give him a cave or clear plastic "ghost house," he'll go into it and quit standing on his head in an attempt to find a secure place to hide and reside.  To feed him, you will move his food to the top of his tank, then release it.  Repeat if necessary.  Relax again.  At first he'll want frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp.  Later, he'll expand his gustatory preferences.  And yes, they do like small fish.  LA

A:  Albino means the absence of black pigment usually accompanied by pink eyes (but not the conjunctivitis pink eyes).  A word for the absence of orange probably exists, but I haven't stumbled upon it yet.  The little guy's probably just slow developing for his age. 
Your sharks should mellow out with time also.
Because your Raphael sports a suit of armor, I doubt a synodontis of any species could harm him.  Synos usually get along with most other catfish except other synos.  LA

A:  Technically, anything with a carbon atom in it is "organic" including the entire piece of wood and the hand you hold it in.  The bleach oxidizes the excess organics (mostly lignins) that would feed the fungus growth on your wood.  When you removed the bark, you probably made more organics available.  Give your wood another two-day soak in the bleach water.  Dry it a couple days then add it to your tank.  The bleach soak will also radically reduce the humic and tannic acids that would otherwise color your water brown.  Bleach will also decrease the palatability of your wood to plecos by reducing the lignins.  LA

A:  For ram tips, I'd send you to our Ram Page Rams    LA

Sturat Rees, December 31, 2008
I think I may have another species of Java fern. It grows well in gravel and has large leaves that grow to 40cm long ! I know that it's not an Amazon sword plant. I'll include a picture of my aquarium with young ferns so you can tell me if you have already seen this type of fern. It is much greener and nicer than the versions on your webpage =D

SR

A:  Same species.  Yours are just prettier than mine.  Thanks for rubbing it in.  Nice looking crop.  LA