Hello,

I'm a young budding ecologist and I've recently discovered that its legal to keep native freshwater fish. I have just set up a self-sustaining native microfauna aquarium and it is flourishing with potamopyrgus and paratya shrimp. I'm thinking of setting up a native fish aquarium of about 70L and wouldn't mind some advice on that. I live in Oratia, Auckland so does anyone know what lives around here (I've found common bullies, Koura, shrimp but nothing else in Oratia stream)?

A good start carloctopus is here 

 

A lot of estuarine habitats are degraded nowadays but because they are flushed daily can still offer up a diverse range of flora and fauna

especially the closer you get to the sea, keep looking.

Thank you for the advice but I am hoping to create a native freshwater setup.

Sorry I misunderstood.

 A good write up is here on native feshwater 

 

https://aquariumworld.nz/databases/2-new-zealand-native/

Thank you

Hi and welcome. Someone else with lots of excellent advice would be Stella McQueen. She has written several books about native fish keeping but I don't think she is on these forums anymore. She can be found on Facebook though under her own name and New Zealand Native Fish.

Her book on Native fish aquariums was what got me thinking about starting a native aquarium hobby. I had a small tank with tropical fish, but my lack of interest in them meant I wasn't keeping completely on top of their maintenance. When I was flicking through the book, I saw the opportunity to make an easy-maintenance microfauna tank, so I stripped the aquarium of it's mechanics and set it up with aquatic plants, snails and shrimp. The 70L tank I am considering would house a few bullies and koura. I would like to add some greenery that can withstand the shredding of the koura, so does anyone know about any local spots to gather Koura-resistant plants?

Sorry I can't help you with local spots.