klaymann

Shilo , luv your descriptions ... myself I kept about a dozen freshwater crays in a six footer with gobies/cockabullies and some inunga(spelling)?.. found that you have to have massive amounts of hiding places as with night fall they move around alot and can and do attack other crays and take over their places .... do definatly prefer cool water ( trop out ) ... and keeping other cold water species with them that is not native is not on dudes!! ....

Like keeping pufferfish ( see post on thread) I buzz on cool fish ,brackish, butterfly fish and leaf fish are my fav's ... with my time keeping butterfly fish , they like still water or they will hang around in the corners otherwise . had six 4" fish and as to their feeding apart from dropping live bugs on the surface and watching them respond to the ripples caused by the bugs struggle , the tank usually had about 30 odd neons ... noticed with night light on ( actinic) they would dive and gulp the bloody neons .. never have read about this before but jezz amazing to watch ... noticed a courting type of behaviour but nothing eventuated .... maybe next time.... sorry but moved on to reef tanks but would like to get a cool 6ft amazon system going too.

I wouldn't be so hard on the puffers .. have kept numerous species in my time and if you keep brackish ones , figure 8 , spotted/leopard or the morphs, if they get cloudy eyes add more salt ,.......... have kept spotted ( fluviatilis ) in full salt water and they show their best there .. as for freshwater ..( somphongsi) are shy but good community fish ... ...............( brevirostre ) forget it , they even hate their own kind ! ... Brazillian are good comunity but it pays to keep them with small finned fish...... and back in the good old bad days ( along time ago ) the Miurus is just a nazi ( individual species tank only) .. will take on the stomach of fish 4 times it's size .. but that was along time ago ... ahhhhh memories... anyway as long as you know what you have or want , you shouldn't have a prob.. 8)

Snowman , you in the auto trade too? .. try Morton bay bugs in Brisbane , they are to die for .. mmmmmmm !

I wouldn't say crayfish cost nothing .. you ever filled up dive tanks plus gas for the boat + car then travel time ... boat time + dive time and if your lucky you get a few good crays .. the price you pay in seafood shops aren't that bad, even thou the crays in these shops are bloody small and we don't even think about bringing them up to the boat... the price you pay is being down there hunting but in my case most of the time just buzzing out at the sealife down there ... crays are just the bonus. 8) 8)

Check out Reefs overflows on his "mother" of a tank , have used this system on clients tanks and works brillantly with bugga all sound and no drainage....

Interesting how this thread changed tact once age was discovered 8) Think the young fella has a business streak brewing ... but should be 100 glass shrimp ( babys of course for that money) .. or 50 large , then i'd be interested in buying rather than collecting ... ever seen what banded and cleaner shrimp do to these .. omg .. slaughter makes the holocaust seen trivial ..... hmmmmmmm ! @ snowman .. excuse my reef terminology ignorance but "GBA" ? @Chimera .. would you accept $5.50 plus a bag of twisties ? .. you can keep the dentures tho ..

Speaking of Nudibranches ... found 2x 1" long white ones with orange highlights ... so fasinated with them being there left them to devour my speckled leather.... dooh ! after that thought better of them and put them into my live rock tank ...... haven't seen them for awhile .... hmmm , wonder why.. ..... hope you guys don't kill the hitchiker crabs ? ...

Klaymann goes and puts his camera on charge............

Read the post regarding these starfish pests ... does anyone have harlequin shrimps over here that would take care of the problem.? .... got these guys over running one of my tanks .. luckily its a soft coral garden reef tank ... but still ... ! ?

Chikan .. do you use micron filters for the NSW ? .

Interesting that he mentions u/g filters ... being a supporter of these for basic salt water tanks ( read not reef ) ... I won't use them in a cray system due to nitrates etc ... cant keep seaweeds to take care of these as I have found that crays shred them ( food sup or boredom?) ... :-?

Deeveus .. I would be careful with introducing fish to your cray tank .. have seen fish and crays get on well for over a year but suddenly cray turns into " demon cray" and kills all the other inhabitants ( evil or just mature sexual aggression) ?? Crays do hunt at night .. you can hear them stompin' around in the dark and lo an' behold in the morning one fish is sushi.. :-?

As far as I know the temp range for Crays should be between 11 and 18 degrees ... the Cray tanks I looked after for clients all had chillers except one 6 footer in an old villa .. at 23 degrees they don't far well and often got fungus or died .. color wasnt the best either.. but thats only what I've seen..

Can get a 12mm glass tank made for Mantis .. if they ever pop up... only be about 3x2x2 so extra strength with the small length ....think this be strong enough to withstand hammer mantis ? .. shouldn't be a prob with piecer mantis thou , but who knows.......... soooooooooooooooo if anyone is lucky/unlucky to have one , let me know pleeeeeeeeease

like say wha........

Nah .. I relate to the "being in deep shit' ... sounds more fitting .......

Hey B.A , if you find it's a mantis shrimp , would luv to take it off your hands ... what ever the cost .. would make a bloody good addition to my collection of " interesting" shrimps ............ klay..

I know of a spot in Tauranga where there is both long/short nose... if your going to catch your own I can give the location ... just reply with your email ..

Regarding livestock that is legal to keep ... a crowd up in Silverdale sell small Paua 1- 2" live ( cocktail paua for the japs ) for about $3 each.. good for algae grazing (need chiller to survive along time...dont think they can live at cold room temp)..+ down at westhaven there is a place that sell Crayfish and Packhorse Crays live .... + off Kent St Newmarket an Asian seafood shop sells live crays plus if your lucky the muddies ( Morton bay bug type crays) think we call them slipper crabs over here.?... As for the West Coast, that is the best place to collect the Anenome ( i call them Bearded Anenome) very large and good colors..greens , violet , pink, orange ,olive green , etc , pays to have a long thumb nail to slowly prise them off thier base without damage ) cant know what damage you do with metal instruments) .. and at Piha at low tide, find the overhanging rocks and you can find under them the blood red Anenomes ( fingernail treatment again) .. but beware they travel all over the tank and really need bloody cold water to keep the color .... have found a species of large shrimp 3"+ down in Tauranga living around the island past the mount that are blue/red stripped and live in the wave wash area of rock pools .. bloody hard to catch but "say jesus these are impressive inverts" I have abit of info on cool east coast inverts and fish collection points(BOP mainly) to collect NZ species but 80% require scuba collecting..... hope this helps. cheers Klay.

yes , agree with skuzza .had one of my six(black) brittle stars attack( very slowly) a spotted leather and a umbrella over the space of a couple of weeks ... seemed more hungry than the others or decided softys for him............. bugga.

I have kept numerous nz saltwater tanks when living down in tauranga .. not here to tell you all what you should be doing as I was only having fun , but thru my time with these tanks ya' all might get alittle insite from what I found out.. first tank .. 3ft 160 ltr ... sand base .. massive amount live rock and seaweeds (from te kaha, best collection site in the bay).. sponges ( kept under ledges) .. numerous crabs ,shrimps , + "other baby inverts" .......... Fish , baby marble fish ,clingfish , various tripplefins.. baby mao mao's , baby leatherjackets , ... kept for 2 years ... leatherjackets have to be fed often to stop grazing on everything ... fine seaweeds thrive .. slimy seaweeds are a no go .... green 50/50 ....MH good + fluros.. adding cucumbers helps with the sand cleaning ....... filteration was u/g filter , base of 1" crushed shell,mesh on top and 2" coarse sand .. weekly change of 40 ltrs ... oh , and a cute little carbon filled box filter ... second tank ... 80 ltr ... marine rock base .. baby octopus ... very cute .. easy to look after ..... need good canister for them third tank ...300 ltr .. large octopus(3ft extended arm to arm)..sand base u/g filter .. carbon/bio filled canister .... most interesting to keep , have major personallity... slaughtered paddle crabs by the dozen ....but once a week have a major crap .. so massive water changes needed. released after 6 months . sigh! forth tank ... 150 ltr deep ... thin sand base .. massive amount live rock/weed.. shrimps ... seahorses + 2 sp pipefish .. green longnose/black shortnose.. as well as feeding brine & baby glass shrimp.. frozen mysis for the ones that will eat it... pays to replace the live rock every couple of weeks to restock with pod's off the rocks... seahorses spent most of the time peckin' at the rocks.. fifth but not final ... 90 ltr .. canister .. u/g .. 8" ling .. (think cod family) .. not friendly ... fed on sprats and baby mao mao( not from first tank) released after 8 months as grew really fast.. have had time keeping stargazers , baby moki , squid... but like prevoius postings , keeping snapper and pelargic species is not the best I know people hate u/g filters but had two identical 2 fts set up .. sand rock etc as a experiment.. one with u/g filter ... always kept the tank cleaner mega times more than not having one. by the way .. all tanks where kept in the basement of an old brick house ... brrrr. anyway thats my 2 / 50 cents worth .. may not be of any use but these are my findings.. cheers Klay.