fishy_t

There are loads of elcology jobs down here! I've been in NZ for 5 years now

Hi Kris I'm from the UK too and what Caryl said about being frustrated is true! There are not nearly as many fish available here Just wanted to say I'm doing Marine Bio too (and ecology) at Victoria Uni in Wellington so if you want to come over to Welly the Uni here would be a great place to do post grad (if you are thinking about it!)

You can find them in small streams when they are young - loads in my local which is only 1m accross!

too ture, its sad how they seem to be more interested in money than protecting our country...

Hi there, I grew up on a trout farm (not here - in Scotland) so I've done it before! The main thing like people have been saying is VERY well oxygenated water - using a bubble wall at one end of the tank will add oxygen and create a nice 'current' for the fish to swim against. It’s an idea I've seen before and works really well - but I'm not sure how well it would work in a big tank... If they are in warmer water than they are used to (ie your house now a cold river) they are very prone to whitespot and other stress related problems, but on the up side - they are VERY easy to feed!! BTW - just in case you didn't know they are not native (which the different types of whitebait are) They are on the other hand very beautiful fish! Also in every few thousand you can find one with an iridescent blue colour (caused by a mutation in the mucus they produce on their skin) - I only saw a few of these when growing up - all of which I promptly called "Bluey" and gave sanctuary to from my fathers net! It's unlikely you'll see one of these in NZ rivers as they are VERY easy to spot and don't usually live very long as they are picked off by birds when young, but you never know - one of those in a tank would rival the most impressive tropical! Hope that helps!

I think it is if you want to grow plants as they like to absorb some of the nitrogen before the filter converts it all - but as far as fish are concerned - the cleaner the water the better! (not 100% on the plants thing though - just something I herd a few years ago!)

Totally agree with you!!!! I also have no doubt that habitat destruction is by far the major cause of the problem - I just get really pissed off at the amount of people (like you said) that have NO IDEA about what whitebait actually is and what they could actually be doing by choosing to eat either a beef patty or one that contains 100 baby fish!! (BTW - I'm not getting at people who catch a few of these cool little fish to grow them up in your tanks - its a bit different to chowing down 1000 in one sitting!) And yeah - if you ask me who ever releases Trout into our rivers (and still does ever year!) should be told what they are actually doing to the ecosystem - again I don't think people get told what trout actually do to our rivers and its very sad that we (as humans) still seem to think its OK to risk causing the extinction of species just so they can go fishing on the weekend - here's an idea if you want to go fishing - how about the SEA???!!!! WOW - I know the idea is pretty far out there!!!

Thats the whole point!!! If we are already putting stress on the populations by killing them with our polution and destroying their habitat then eating the babies by the thousand isn't really a good idea if you ask me and from an ecology point of view...

sad isn't it!

Thanks - not enough people stick up for NZ fish!!!

The fact that all of our rarest fish have a whitebait stage in their life cycle is the reason I could never eat whitebait or support the catching of it for food - the giant kokopu might only make up around 1% of the run - but considering how many whitebate EACH person who catches them pull out of the ecosystem each year - I'm sure you'll agree that numbers wise that is allot of the rare fish being eaten - before they even get a chance to grow up!! I don't see how people can justify eating baby fish - It makes absolutely no sense eating any animal before it gets a chance to reproduce. And as we have destroyed most of our native fishes habitat as well as constantly introducing trout that eat them, I don't understand how anyone who loves our country and wants to let the next generation enjoy it too can kill SO MANY of its native animals at one time! Just because fish don't sing like a tui doesn't mean they aren't important!! Ok - rant over

Mine are doing well too! All 6 were fine through the post - even with no heat pad in winter!! Tough little guys!!

Yes I'm planning to give them a new tank... like I said!

Thanks guys! :oops: Just to warn you - if you are thinking of giving this sort of thing a try it is MUCH harder than you can possibly imagine and takes at least 3 times longer than you plan for!!! Yeah the fronts have plenty of room to grow! there are only 6 of them in there with my featherfin and they have 500l to live in! The tank is 1mx1m L shape, its 50cm wide and 75cm deep if that makes sence?! Thats why I wanted to make the rocks could stacking them wouldn't get very high and so it would look quite stupid in such a deep tank - although I'll have to give the fronts a new tank anyway when they grow up! Hope that answers any qeustions?!

Well done for trying! This is my attempt - my plans changed a bit but I'm happy with the results: The agae is just starting to grow so its starting to look better - the pH is 8.2 but thats what I want and I've got limestone in there anyway!

Awesome, thanks for that! it would be easier to have each tank connected to the next like your set up - but I think I will try to keep each one supplied separately as I was thinking about sticking a UV onto the system at some later point - and I've got a MASSIVE magnet drive pump to drive the system and if the whole flow is directed through each tank it would be quite turbulent!! I can imagine that it will take longer than planned - I recently made some 'rocks' from polystyrene and concrete and that took about 4 times as long as I thought it would!! Shame you don't live closer so I can see your set-up!

I give my puffer rockpool shrimps - really easy to find once you know where a good spot is and you can keep them for ages in a bucket with an airline. They live for a good 20 mins in the tank once you put them in which is plenty of time for the puffer to eat them. You can find any size from 1cm to about 6cm... and they are FREE!!

...and there's that one in the Wainui Mall too...

Hi guys, I thought I'd post a pic of him (her) and also that it turns out he's not a congo puffer - but an arrowhead puffer! (Tetraodon suvattii): The main reason I'm adding to the post is to try and track down anyone also in NZ who has another one - as this COOL fish isn't on the import list I think it would be really awesome to get two together and see if they fall for each other! Apparently its not that hard to breed these fish and it would be great to give it a go and try and increase our population!! If anyone has any leads please get in touch!!!

yeah that sounds good - I like the tap idea! Thanks for that and keep them coming guys!

Hi there guys, I'm going to be setting up a row of large ish (300 - 400l) tanks and I'm planning on running them on a big sump under the tanks (all for Tanganyikans so all need the same water anyway!) Here is an idea of what is in my head! : Does anyone who has setup or has had this sort of thing before have any comments or idea's?! I wanted to have the pickup from the tanks removing the water from near the bottom of the tanks to pick up Amonia etc and I've been given an idea on how too make sure the tanks don't syphon all of the water out if the return pump stops: Has anyone had good results from this before?! Thanks guys

Awesome stand - looks very professional! These would be perfect with the fish you've already got planned: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pets-animals/Fish/Fish/auction-64997085.htm

Oh - well if you want any more I think they are the only place in Wellington that has any...

Nice tank! Did you get your limestone from Whakatiki St in Upper Hutt??!

Cool, can't wait to see!