For those of you who may be curious to know about the person behind jtonline, here is a little bit of info.  My name is Julian (aka Jules), I am a heterosexual male and I was born in June 1966.  My family consists of mum & dad, two older brothers and an older sister.

A few hours after my birth, I was taken into hospital for an operation, having been diagnosed as having spina bifida.  Spina bifida means ‘split spine’. The backbone usually provides a protective tube of bones with the nerves (spinal cord) running down the middle.  In spina bifida, the bones do not close round the spinal cord and the nerves can bulge out on the unborn baby’s back and become damaged.

I’m fortunate in that I basically have some dexterity problems and no paralysis.  For more info., check out http://www.asbah.org  ASBAH is the leading UK registered charity providing information and advice about spina bifida and hydrocephalus to individuals, families and carers.

My family and I moved from Surrey to North Yorkshire in the 1970’s.  After leaving comprehensive school, I worked for Austin Reed, then Harry Hall, followed by a few years training at York ITeC, which led to a job with the CLA.  In 1988 I moved to a village in rural Herefordshire with my parents, and in May of that year I got a job with an IBM business partner and worked my way up to Administration Manager.  In 2003 I moved a further 20 miles or so and bought myself a two bedroom flat.  A year later I changed career and obtained my current position as a Customer Associate with a leading U.K. electrical retailer.

I’ve been surfing the Web on and off since April 1997.  I became Virgin Net’s first voluntary Discussions Forum Moderator in July ‘98 and continued that until March ‘02 - I then ran my own forums for a while.  I have published various versions of the jtonline.info website over the years, and a couple of sites for local businesses in my spare time.

My interests include tropical freshwater fishkeeping, my Seat Ibiza, computers & the Internet, gadgets,  photography (although I’d like to be better at it), watching TV & listening to a variety of music.

Went to Maidenhead Aquatics again today and bought a couple more Corydoras sterbai and to go with them a couple of Corydoras julii because the Corys like to be in little groups.  All the sand substrate has taken on a nibbled look now as they have been sifting through it for food.

They don’t seem to care much for the Variety Wafers sinking food, but the Odessa Barbs love those.  The Corys do seem to like the frozen food and the TetraPrima granules though so they are getting some food.

I bought some more plants too, in order to add some more shady hiding places for the fish.  The sand doesn’t offer much for the young roots to hang on to, so I added weight strips to stop the plants from floating to the surface.

Since last posting about White Spot, I have replaced the Black Phantom Tetras I lost, with Red Phantom Tetras.  I also now have a shoal of Cardinal Tetras and some Odessa Barbs and the last three Sterba’s Corydoras in the fish shop.

I have added some more real plants too, although some of them may not last too long because the Barbs are already eating them.  Once the shop has some more Corys I’ll buy three more because they like to live in groups.

Worcester racecourse (about an hour from here by car) was one of the many local areas badly flooded by rain recently.  Now thousands of fish stranded by the flood water are being stunned with electricity as part of efforts to rescue them. 

The Environment Agency has said that the oxygen levels have been dropping out of the water quickly so the fish would die if they were not helped now. Electricity is passed through the water before the fish are collected in nets and tanks to be stored until they can be put back in the water later.

Meanwhile, the council is using a Worcester firm that specialises in air pollution, to spray a neutralising mist over the flood water to get rid of the smell of drains (and the odd dead fish no doubt).

I recently added 6 x Rhomboocellatus Barb and 6 x Black Phantom Tetra to my tank of 6 x Zebra Danios.

I noticed on Monday evening the new fish had white ’salt like’ spots on them.  Yesterday I was at Silverstone but I did manage to purchase a bottle of King British WS3 treatment on the way back home.  By the time I arrived home (midnight), the Barbs & Tetras had died.

I have removed the dead fish and carried out a large water change.  I’ve added a dose of King British WS3 treatment and will continue the medication for another 10 days.

The orginal Danios are all swimming about quite happily. Water conditions have remained at zero ammonia and zero nitrite and the temp is currently 27c.