bikenut

I've had a Diawa 125m for about 20 years and this year bought an Abu not sure which one but think its a 704. The Abu is a beautiful bit of gear, superbly made and finished. The Diawa is and always has been wobbly and ricketty compared to the Abu, but the Abu just doesnt work as well. Seems to need much more of a press on the line relase button to release both pick up pins, and as for the drag, well it is a drag. But in principal, they are really good for trotting, especially for folks like me who find a centrepin a bit of a chore, and find accurate casting under the trees with a pin difficult. Bikenut

Whereabouts are you fishing bbigbob? bikenut

Could anyone enlighten me please. My stepson has a small (about 6 gallon) freshwater tropical tank, containing assorted barbs, one corydoras and a rapidly growing plecostomus. My worry is that the fish have always seemed to be struggling for breath. They show no other obvious symptoms, and don't seem to be particularly in distress. We have had problems with the filters clogging with decaying plant material and I added a second internal filter a while back, which resulted in both of them clogging in the outlet side and nearly causing a wipeout while we were away last week. Fortunately our friend who was feeding them noticed and changed some water. When I returned on saturday, I put the fish in a bucket of tank water, cleaned the sand which had turned black (in the tank water) then let it settle and syphoned out the muck. Refilled the tank using the bucketful of old tankwater that the fish were in, and fresh water with Aquasafe or similar. The fish were ecstatic, loved the clean tank and water and were breathing at a rate I considered normal. Its now 4 days on and 3 of the Pentazona barbs have snuffed it, and the others are fine, but breathing fast again. OK the deaths could have been from either damage caused by the near wipeout, or perhaps an ammonia or nitrate spike as a result of the drastic cleaning, but why the rapid breathing? The tank isn't overstocked, I added an external power filter at the weekend as extra precaution against the filtration problems and the water now is belting around and I'm sure they are getting the oxygen now that perhaps they lacked before. Could it simply be the temperature too warm. We have a glass thermometer, and it shows towards the top of the "green" zone, which I always assumed was OK. Could gill flukes or some other parasite cause the sympton, they dont seem to flick themseves any more than any other fishes. I'm stumped. Thanks in advance, Bikenut

I was up at the crack of Dawn, but my wife found out.

My word, the tadpoles are growing big this yeart!

I thought that "If God Was..." was by Joan Osborne. Didn't know Alanis did a cover of it although its her style of song! There is also a version that goes "What if God smoked cannabis" also by Joan Osborne I think. Been trying to play the guitar for 40 years, but I find having no memory, no sense of rhythm and no co-ordination sadly a slight disadvantage. Can listen and appreciate though! If you like gloomy music, try The Handsome Family. Their "Weightless Again" has recently been covered by Ceris Matthews. Music to slash your wrists to. Makes Loennard Cohen sound cheerful Have fun, and I agree that a nylon strung acoustic is probably a good place to start. Bikenut

I have some music on minidisk that I want to put on CD now the minidisk player has died. Is there any way of getting them onto my PC so I can burn them to CD? Bikenut

Bum, I'll have to miss it, 2.30 is when I'm going to the dentist. Bikenut

Mines creently "Isn't life Strange' by the Moody Blues Bikenut

Halle Berry, in those black undies in Swordfish. Or singer/actress Natalie Umbrella for her eyes and lips. Debbie Harry, Kate Bush, Raquel Welch as already mentioned. My Fiancee when I met her, not now though unfortunately. Nora Batty.

Yes Tony, we came to much the same conclusions, but how on earth does the fish eject them (if at all) as some were quite sizeable, and numbering about 10 in total.

Had a weekend in North Wales trout fishing on a day ticket lake. My mate gutted the fish we caught and one of them had its belly full of pebbles which he said he had never seen before, (and he's gutted a few fish in his time!) Any ideas why this might be?, the other fish were full of pellets. Thanks, Bikenut

30th June 1954 Bikenut

There is a TV presenter by the name of Kate Humble. Perhaps she could hold the secret of where you could find the worms you seek. Bikenut

Did the motorcycle test, scored 33 0n part 1 and 32 on part 2. I PASSED YIPPEE. Bikenut