pics, as Emma's been asking

[helen nightingale]

sorry for the bad quality and the dirty glass. the camera really picted up where i missed patches glass scrubbing. i think i forgot to take the camera off lorry photo settings



this used to be a very tatty stationery company delivery lorry. now its nearly ready for transporting a vintage racing car

[Emma Turner]

Your loaches look FABULOUS, Hels. I really like the B. striata with the strange markings.

Emma

[helen nightingale]

thanks, Emma. he's getting braver now, so i will have to have a proper photo session soon. still lots of practise is needed! next time i will have to try and get the food to fall away from the scratched bit of the tank, too

[Barracuda518]

Very nice pictures. What kind of car is going in the truck?

[Keith Wolcott]

Beautiful tank. I also really like that Striata with the mathematical markings!

[chefkeith]

I like the tank too. They must love all that driftwood.

[Spankenstyne]

Nice pics, i love the tank setup.

[Mad Duff]

Lovely tank Helen, the unusually marked Striata looks great

[helen nightingale]

thanks for all your kind comments

the bogwood near the yoyo in the 1st picture is top spot for the bigger loaches, so plenty of scuffling, if they all want to loach around under it, and the bit with the round hole in is where they all hang out together. its a bit dark for getting photos of them in there though.

i had never thought of the striata having mathematical markings Keith. it seems like mathematicians have a certain type of brain that can see maths in all sorts of things. do the markings tell a mathematical story?

the lorry is for a rolls royce car. it was a one-off build, from all rolls royce parts, built by somebody cos he could, rather than built by the company. in think the first race it completed was only last year, as whenit was first built it either kept crashing or stopping. my camera is used for lorry project pictures far more than fish tanks at the moment i think him in charge will have to have an early birthday present.

[Keith Wolcott]

Helen- No mathematical story, but if you have ever heard of Seifert fibering and foliations of manifolds (concerning the study of 3 dimensional spaces), then the normal markings on a Striata look like a Seifert fibering and the unusual pattern that you have on your exceptional Striata is more like a foliation. When I finally get some Striata, I hope I get lucky enough to get such interesting markings.

All of your fish look very healthy and well fed.

[helen nightingale]

Keith i havent heard of Seifert fibering and foliations of manifolds, but it will give me something to google on a wet and boring bank holiday . school maths was rubbish, but i enjoyed stats, and the weirdness of quantum mechanics intrigues me, so it will probably be more interesting than churning through job websites

the key to finding striata with interesting markings is being a geek. spend ages staring into shop tanks, accept you look like a weirdo, and look at all the fish from both sides, very carefully. for an instanly recogniseable fish, striata have an amazing amount of variation in patterns

the bigger fish are looking quite plump as i have one striata that is very shy. they get plenty of food so the little one gets some too. they particularly like hikari sinking carnivore pellets, and they will pick up a pellet, swim off with it and drop it in a private corner, then go back and tell me they are poor starving little loaches

[LoachOrgy]

nice loaches and i like the rasboras as well!

[Graeme Robson]

Superb tank Helen. I love the B Striata!

[Tinman]

That is a beautiful tank Helen.

[The.Dark.One]

Nice photo's of some stunning loaches!

Is that an almorhae in the first pic, or a weird patterned rostrata adult?

I would really appreciate the usage of some photo's of that fish and the weird patterned striata for my almost finished article on botias if that's possible? The article currently is running at 18 A4 pages of text and still have 2 or 3 species to go!