Has anyone heard any news about orana park, southern encounter or the kiwi house?

Heard from someone that works there that the aquarium is "gone" but not completely sure. Hope for the best. Not sure about Orana.

that is sad antwan &c:ry

From Orana's facebook: "has no structural damage following the earthquake. All animals are fine. We will be closed today"

And the kiwis from the Aquarium have safely gone to Orana.

Heard from someone that works there that the aquarium is "gone" but not completely sure.

Oh no! I saw that aquarium in November and was very impressed. I can imagine there would have been some pretty major 'tsunamis' inside...

:tears:

We got the kiwi out thanks to daves bravery once again, he also got the canterbury mudfish out to travis and is currently trying to keep the life support going but it may be a lost cause. I was cleaning an aquarium at the entrance when it hit and was knee deep in water evacuating people in the first few minutes before the first aftershook. we lost several tanks at first and many fish were on the floor but we were helpless to save most of them. the dome ontop of the building collapsed inward on the left hand side and more came down after the first aftershock. Im pretty proud that all the staff got everyone out without major injury considering the amount of water and broken acrylic/glass everywhere. As the phones are obviously playing up atm i cant really update on if we will survive this but realistically i cant see us being open in that building anytime soon if at all and unless power is restored and the building stablised its not gonna look good for the remaining fish as i doubt they will let us back on site but im sure dave is giving it his best as they couldnt stop him before. As for me i lost 14 tanks including my beloved 1200ltr and all but 3 fish so prty much my entire fishroom.

p.s anyone hiring a Aquarist :-(

absolutely gutting for you

glad no one was hurt

job well done by staff in harrowing circumstances

UPDATE: Kiwi out, Mudfish out, Tuatara and Gekos out and hes gonna try for the turtles and frogs next but it sounds like the buildings not well. I wish i could get hold of him maybe the two of us could try and get some stingrays out but thats prolly a bit unrealistic

oh dear, that is no good!

Need any native freshwater fish rehomed? Though the permits to move them to the North Island might be involved.

Mudfish have been released to travis wetlands which is where they were gonna go anyway in a few months. Im unsure if he managed to get any other fish out but if he does they will likely get released.

Dave phoned me today. Hes getting the 6 turtles out and at least 4 are coming here... not sure where yet...

It sounds pretty grim..... he's still getting a few natives out as he can, but the building is not safe and is difficult to spend much time in there other then to get the generators going. Hes probably going to need to rehome some natives that are too big to release into the wild population...sorry I dont remember the name...started with k I think. Brains not very functional still. :tears:

DAMN i was in the aquarium in the weekend got heaps of pictures and videos of the place, and all the natives were really cool

that is a real bumer :tears:

Giant Kokopu?

You have a pond, don't you Donna? (ignore that, I am just kidding...)

That is a good point though Zev, they would be fine in a pond, provided it was cool and shady (and the pond still holds water...)

It's fairly big, but it's probably full of snappy turtles, though!

I wasn't meaning specifically Donna's... though I could imagine a giant kokopu holding its own against a snappy turtle!

yes kokupu. Would they be ok in my pond down the back? It had mud and liquifaction go in it, but its cleared today. It can get pretty warm on the top of pond, but bottom stays cold. Has blanket weed amongst all the O2 weed and a water lilly, lots of snails and mossie lavae. I know nothing about them so would that be OK? He could bring them when turts come tonite? Its in full sun tho, but could put the wooden outside table over it to provide shade?

yes, that pond would probably be fine. For the time being I imagine there is plenty of food (terrestrial and aquatic) for them to fend for themselves for a while. They may well start eating your meaty turtle food.

(May need a trap to fish them out again!)

:love:

Please contact them and let them know Donna. The petrol stations around here have run out of fuel and I don't have much left.

oh god this sounds perfect ill see if i can get him.

I sent him a few texts aswell as planting a message on his facebook so even with the text delays he should get it Donna.

Cheers

Justin

Excellent! Hopefully they do OK out there ...... haha, I was just about to say its next to a tap and should I do a small water change, DOH! :facepalm:

I'm thinking I need to move the big fibreglass pond from outside into garage to take on the influx of large female turtles. So if anyone over next day or two has some time and muscles let me know. Its just getting too cold to put them straight into ponds and have them safe when they have come from 26 deg temps etc. Tho it may come to that yet. The fake grass has been removed from that pond so its no-where near as heavy as used to be, but still needs about 4 people...not me... to move it.

I have a chiller here somewhere.

So upsetting for your loss. I had visited in January and was also impressed by all the fish tanks and animals. Hope you will be able to re-open a similar setup somewhere in the future

I wish I could help...