Faran

Wow, I need to start planning a trip over there. Those Mantis Shrimp in pics 4, 5 and 'specially 9 are wicked. Love those guys. Any idea if they were clubbers or spearers? So you go on these trips every year? I need to stop spending so much money on fish and more on vacations! By the way, thanks for the pics, much appreciated. May I take a guess at what they are? Pic 1 - Tiger Barbs (large) seen from above in wild native river Pic 2 - Pigeon Blood (a bit yellow tho) in an aquarium Pic 3 - Crab, horseshoe crabs, mantis shrimp and some well-camouflaged lobster in a market tank. Pic 4 - Mantis Shrimp and..... pass on the tiger balls... market tank Pic 5 - Paradise fish? in wild Pic 6 - Oscars or Severums... murky water means in the wild Pic 7 - Crab and horseshoe crab in market tank (from above) Pic 8 - Nicely marked lobster/cray in market tank Pic 9 - Half-beaks in the wild Pic 10 - Ahh, my favourite Mantis Shrimp Pic 11 - Asian freshwater shrimp/crays in market tank Pic 12 - Conch in market tank Pic 13 - Crab and snails in market tank Pic 14 - No clue... in wild tho! Pic 14 & 15 - Cichlids in aquariums Pic 16 - Spiney Puffer from rock pool Pic 17 - Fry in wild - Pass on what kind, but they're freshwater Pic 18 - Yummm..... Pic 19 - That strange breed found in ranforests once a year... the drunkkiwiloon

Devon, we can't help much if we don't know the exact species, so please put up a picture when people ask or it's a bit hard to help a new killie-enthusiast, which we'd love to do! Also, if you join the NZKA (talk to Alan) you'll get in the mix with Killie breeders nation-wide. Imagine just asking who has a certain species then waking up to find some eggs on your door hardly costing you more than postage and whatever you traded. Trust me, the killie enthusiasts around here are some of the greatest people around. I just hope you have lots of room for tanks! Tanks with GOOD lids, too...

Ira - $20-30! That "LFS" charged me $60 for one of them! Serves them right, I say. klay - Yes please, would dig some pix. As there's really no endemic tropical fish down here, I'd rather go to Asia on fish hunting trips, fo sho. I'm assuming that's what u do in asia, o course

Actually, it's as often bored college kids that end up getting a betta as often a young kid... and kill them just as quickly klay - Sorry I missed your earlier comment about WellyWood-JAFA. Yeah, you guys need to leave your comfy big city and "rough it" with Mrs. Clarke a little. "Rub elbows with the stars and see lots of fish tanks in WellyWood!" Better bring a GPS though... LONG drive and I know how you big city folk get confused in the Big Smoke

Girl at the LFS said it was the same thing (I told her we called them Royal Panaques in the States), she even triple-checked it and called her boss to verify. Okay then. Thanks, tho. I'm stoked.

Smooth. That wall of 10 or 12 x 400 (guess) litre display tanks is impressive. They have the one odd tank with just a lone arowana (I personally think these fish aren't really made for the aquarium) but the rest are well thought out with a great variety of fish, decorations, sloping scenes and... well, just the best aquascapes I've seen outside of "Fish Tank Telly" in NZ. Have to say, the main purpose of this trip - trying to find good Bettas around here - was a failure. People need to get these fish breeding locally before they all get killed off by over-eager 5 year olds that get them as pressies.

So today we went on my first shop crawl to Palmy and back. As we're (blueandkim) just back 3 months back into fish after a long long hiatus - 10 years for blue - we've only been to the local shops and Jansens in Mt Eden when visiting Auckland (blue's uncle and aunt are retired fishkeepers). So today, the 911 3-year anniversary; we (blue and fishy friends) visited some shops on a beautiful Sunday drive to and from Palmy. We hit stores on the way, there, and back and got some really nice fish. Other people got some nice ones as well either directly - Brichardi, Leleupi, etc. - but here's a few of the ones we added to our family today. Quite happy about the last one. You'll have to excuse the "LFS in..." tag, I don't want to name anyone directly either to promote or demote them. "Blind Mexican Cave Tetras" from LFS in Palmy - eww, u can see the little beady eye and teeth.... http://www.centralpets.com/animals/fish ... f4669.html "Emperor Tetras" from LFS in Paraparaumu - will be trying to breed these http://madhunag.tripod.com/emperortetra.html "Chocolate Striped Cat" from LFS in Palmy http://www.aquascapeonline.com/store/sc ... roduct=124 We got some other fish, but nothing really outstanding... heck, the above fish are hardly mentionable What IS mentionable was the amazing displays at a LFS in Palmy! WOW!!! Sadly enough my tanks are pretty full and I was only able to buy one fish from them (a XL Male Congo Tetra for my breeding shoal) but the well known LFS in Palmy (not a corporation) really inspired me to come home and give my tank designs some serious thought. The aquascaping was show quality even in the tanks for sale. These people really know how to take care of fish and I'd be keen to make more day-trips up to Palmy (when I can feel my wallet again) just to go and :drool: over tanks. Not sure if it's an amazing experience for the JAFAs, but if you're a WellyWood ressie and never been, definitely put it on your to-do list.

I'm not sure what camera you have or what you're trying to shoot, but my advice is to turn all lights in the room off, all lights in the tank on then hold the camera in macro or regular mode (depending on what happens with the focus) right against the glass and try it that way. Another trick if you're hacing trouble with focus is to "spotlight" the desired object with a flashlight from above. White LED torches seem to do the treat.... Good luck! Looking forward to seeing your fishy/reefy photos

I was keen to get some, then found out where they were coming from... Dinna wanna step in that there mess.

Aww, good to hear he has a new home with lots of girlfriends! In a few months you'll have some gorgeous bubba snakes swimmin around. Name a couple after us

Wow, thanks PJ. How's that snakeskin doing?

Yup, I've seen it in person. Really legendary with a very limited amount of space. I'm selling a tank that has 10 similar sized compartments in one. See http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/tanks- ... t8759.html

Thanks for that URL, herefishie, pretty handy for n00bz (like we all are at times).

Nope, couldn't find it. Tried searching for Shiuh's posts as well as "Big Red Shed". No worries though, I know Shiuh pretty well and he's a great guy and been a great help with the little sponge filter and other things I needed in a hurry. The Congos are busy gobbling down some BBS as we speak and they love love LOVE it. Wish I could get a decent pic of that....

Interesting cover page. These are my "pest snails" in my Discus tank and I was just admiring the patterns on the shell earlier.... before I smooshed him an fed him to the discus. Cool idea, but I'd love to do one on other fish as well. Basically a Dr. Axrelrod's online. And easy to correct errors as well. So can anyone go and edit anything? Would be rather miffed if someone wiped out something I spent a long time putting together... :-?

Hi, our names are Blue and Kim. Blue has MTS but Kim does NOT :lol: We've only been back into fish for 3 months after Blue took a 10 year vacation from fishkeeping. Already up to 8 tanks (only 5 currently running) we're now out of space and will be looking to buy a new house to fit more tanks Oh, I should mention that our cats love our MTS. They now have a TV in every room of the house!

LOL, Kim was just getting on me about wanting to put a cold water tank in the toilet (converted outhouse)... FREEZING in there, figure some NZ native fish would be as happy as being outside.

/me calls shiuh Thanks Alan. Don't know if it'll keep microworms circulating, but hopefully they'll get in the filter....

Actually, the tank they're in now is TINY (30x15x15cm) while I nuke the tank they were spawned in. Not even enough room for a sponge filter as well as the heater and thermometer. I have a 30ltr bucket with old water for water changes. Good point on the air stone... BBS it is!

As you can see, the fry have now absorbed the yolk sacs and developed stomachs. The tails and fins aren't really visible in the pic, but they're there! The entire front end of these fry is all business, when they go to eat you really see them open up like pac-man. As they're mid-water feeders, BBS are definitely a better food source, though Kevin (KMAC president) says that putting a bubble stone in the corner of the tank may allow for microworms to be circulated enough to be eaten. Will try a little of both and let you know! P.S. - Only took 57 shots to get this picture! Imagine if we didn't have digital cameras... that would have been a LOT of wasted film.

Thanks Alan, will try that.

K, I'm Xferring water from a large tank to a small tank for growing out some fry. The large tank needed an overhaul so I did a big clean and I'm ready to fill it up again.... but the water I've saved has meth blue and I'm not sure how to check the pH to try and match it with the new water. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Pharmacy - costs about $12 for a 25ml bottle. Pretty much the same exact stuff that the GF uses to wash her face, fo sho. Just a tip - add the oil to purified water (we usually bring it to a boil first) for longevity.

I'll second that. Just walking in that house is enough to give you the MTS bug. But the amazing thing is that these aren't just 20 tiny tanks. They range from 700 litres down to 38 litre tanks. Last count he was successfully breeding 7 different kinds of fish and all the fish are the healthiest and happiest I've seen yet. I went over to a different fishy friends' last night and was talking with her about a KMAC tank crawl. Looking forward to that! Hopefully we'll have moved out to Wainoui-"fish central"-omata so we don't get passed up as we're pretty much the only ones that live in the city these days!

I think you could have left the daphnia, just feed the tank lots of infusoria... raise/feed both at the same time, right?