Stella

I am guessing..... Torrentfish, inanga, koaro maybe, redfin/crans/common etc bullies, crayfish, eels, who knows what else depending on nearby habitat and distance form the sea

Hmmmm, I have a BA in medieval history, used to be heavily into the reenactment thing, used to be semi-goth... Now am a motorcycling, bellydancing, native fish nut...

Just got back from Day One. We went to the farm creek and Manawatu river during the afternoon, then the Turitea Stream by massey uni at night. 'We' consists of Andrew, Pete, Peter and Ang, James, Richard and I. Caught tiny upland bullies and a few interesting crayfish at the farm creek and uplands, common bullies and TORRENTFISH in the manawatu! I have never looked in the Manawatu river before, so it was quite a success. We were just under the Ashhurst bridge. Then we came back for food and on to the Turitea Stream by Massey. I had borrowed a kickass spotlight from Massey and Peter turned up with an even bigger one. They have a seperate battery pack and really cut through the water (and the battery strap really cuts through your shoulder). Again we had some amazing success! We caught lots of large (10cm?) common, redfin and (Andrew disagrees) Cran's bullies, Peter caught a large trout (hiss!) and a small longfin eel. Three baby trout were also caught, and a massive eel, but they baby perch (hiss!) got away. At one point Pete just kept on turning up with fish, one of which was a juvenile giant kokopu! Just amazing, I had no idea they were there. It had a nasty wound on its back but hopefully will be fine (it was an slightly older injury but still raw). Tomorrow we are off to Lake Papaitonga (kokopu), Ohau River (all manner of things) and the stream by Shannon which may yeild a few interesting galaxiids. THen at night we are heading up to Kahuterawa in the Ranges. I think we have a few converts to the joys of native fish hunting

Just got back from stage one. We went to the farm creek and manawatu river. Caught upland bullies and crayfish at the farm and uplands, common bullies and TORRENTFISH in the manawatu! We had along Andrew, Pete, Peter and Ang, James, and Richard. Dinner then spotlighting in the Turitea stream next! EDIT: ok so I menat to post that in the native fish trip thread.... :oops:

That sounds good. Where did you get it from?

Wow, that is cheap! Definitely within my price range Yes, sorry, I did mean a submersible water pump.

I am after a strong pump for use in an aquarium. Something like 1000lt/hr but I want it quiet. Are they normally quiet when bought new? I have tried several ancient ones a friend had lying around, but they make a hell of a noise.

Supasi: We will probably do another one next summer Jayci: I think the limpets you have are Ferrissia. They are tiny and transparent like you describe. Apparently they are common in aquariums, arriving on plants, but are usually not noticed. I am not sure where they are from (native or not). The native limpets have black shells, even from 1mm long they are black. They grow to 11mm max. They live in fast flowing water and suck very tightly on to rocks. They are actually not a limpet but a normal spiral-shelled snail that evolved a limpet shell for in faster water. The glowing thing is cool. When disturbed they secrete a glowing mucus. The point is to distract predators with that while the snails grip their rock even tighter and tuck all their tasty bits inside. The mucus is quite thin and the glow fades reasonably quickly. Apparently some streams have such healthy populations of these snails that you leave glowing footprints if you walk across it at night! I am not having much luck keeping them. The first lot were scoffed by the bullies (I couldn't believe they were able to prise them off the rocks!) and the crabs at very least cleaned out the shells of the latest lot.

Try reading some of the Greek comedies. They are an absolute hoot but they also show just how nothing ever changes. The young people were complaining that the old people were so boring and got in the way of them doing anything. The old people complain that the youths have no respect any more etc etc etc. Same old story. Read the medieval stories, same thing all over again. At the moment the media has a fixation on youth crime. A while back it was all about kids getting bitten by dogs, when was the last time you saw an item on a kid being bitten by a dog? Do you really think suddenly kids stopped going near strange dogs? When I was 13 the idea of making kids stay in school til 18 was raised again. I wrote a letter to the prime minister (yeah yeah, precocious) saying how it would get in the way of the kids who really wanted to be there. It was great when I was 17, most of the trouble-makers had left. I don't believe boot camps are the answer. Totally fake environment and the army is not set up for that sort of thing. They learn how to work the system while they are there, little more. As someone said, where is the aftercare? Put more money into early intervention, primary schools, remedial reading, alternative-to-mainstream-schooling programs, apprenticeships, things like that struggling but highly successful What's Up helpline. It is usually so obvious who is heading off the rails at a very young age. If they feel 'stupid' at school they are not going to try, they are going to disrupt, wag, drop out. I saw real troublemakers become top students in just one class where a new (maths) idea was taught and they understood it. Suddenly their hands were up to answer every question! They felt good. Next class it was back to disruption because they didn't get it.

Hi Supasi, I don't know where else to find them. Seems there are a good few sites up around Auckland/Waikato but that is all I know. I did just now email a girl I know down here who is studying stream invertebrates and might know or know someone else I can ask. The other option if you are keen to get some, is to talk very sweetly to someone local to Oratia to send some down. I would be up for a few more and I imagine they courier fairly well (hell, you heard how I got them down here, they were in that bottle for nearly a week!). I am sure we could cover costs and trouble So what was your excuse for not coming on the native fish hunting trip friday evening and saturday, hmmm?

Halicarcinus lacustris: Native freshwater spider crab The only freshwater crab in NZ, also found in Australia and Norfolk Island. Maximum length: 10mm (shell width) Detritivores Lives in slow-flowing, sandy or silty streams and lakes. Preyed on by fish Sensitive to bright light. I got these little guys in late January from the sandy bottom of a stream in Auckland (Oratia Stream is known for having a good population). They came all the way down to Palmerston North in a Pump bottle in my backpack on my motorcycle.....! I started out with six and amazingly there are still six, nearly two months later. They have been living in a 20x20cm glass tank with a couple of large pebbles and some nitella and misc detritus. They have had very little attention. I suspect they ate the latia (native glowing limpet) and discovered recently they quite like bloodworms. Not exactly fish, but they live in water. Very rarely seen. I just took them out to photograph in a petri dish. They were not impressed. The large versions are pretty cool. If anyone is interested enough I will email you a bigger version.

That is a bummer. If you ever feel like coming down this way some other time just let me know. We can easily put you up for the night and are always up for a fish hunt

And what is the temperature like?

This may seem a funny question, but what does the water smell like? Nothing, organic, chemical, noxious?

Hi there, What a bad run! So hard starting out when it feels like you need to know everything at once. I have had fish for years and had a perfect run for the last year, then ofer the last 2.5 months I lost so many fish in weird and awful (and largely unrelated) ways. So makes you feel like packing it in. Caryl is probably right about the size of the tank. (she knows a lot about keeping goldfish and is always full of good advice ) I would really recommend finding someone in Christchurch on the forum (there are heaps) who can come over and have a look at your set up and give you some more personal advice.

Been using the same analogue ones for years... Interesting to know the price of the digital ones is so low now (all hail the almighty mr bunnings!). I would be interested to get a 7-day one. Would be great to have the lights on longer in the weekends and shorter during the week (I don't have plants).

Stella's setup is kinda sad at the moment, had a bad time of it recently, but you'll get the idea... :oops: Andrew and I just went poking about in the Mangahao stream near the Shannon hydro installation. FOund a very interesting site that looked totally unlikely (not enough hiding places) but wound up being full of redfins and a small eel. We only turned a couple of rocks so we are very much looking forward to going back with a couple of nets! Shall have to include it on the list of sites to visit. So far my list of confirmed people is thus: Me Andrew Broome Pete Sebborn Markoshark BlueandKim Richard Littin MrEd People who replied earlier and may be coming (please confirm) Foxglove Alex Tret Nooboon I have PM'ed those who are confirmed with my address. Anyone else who is interested is still very welcome to come, just let me know and I will give you my address. This should be a great weekend! I am very excited at checking out some of these sites more thoroughly, and getting to show others will be cool :bounce:

Nah, it was truly dessicated. Poor wee thing. And the one that dried was a kokopu, not a mudfish. They can last a long time out of water and still survive, but not in the crispy-fried condition.... The mudfish had the goo. I suspect it was the first stage of decomposition. Maybe a combination of ante and post mortem things. I think with the skin they start to decompose a bit differently to scaled fish. Still annoyed about them. The latest round of worries are the redfins. I didn't kill off the ich completely and now they have a really serious sprinkling. They didn't have it originally, a different species in that tank had it. I am worried it may verge on being dangerous for them. The mudfish still haven't properly got their appetite back. And the inanga are being *weird*. I am amazed about your BN, so dehydrated its EYES were sunken??? WOW

Lovely photos! The focus is just beautiful. (and the fish!!!) Can I ask how you took them? I assume you are using the flash, what sort of angle were you on and how far from the glass? Thanks. I find it easy to take photos of my bullies which sit on the bottom, but definitely not of the galaxiids swimming about.

Where do you get trout pellets from? (preferably not by the sackload...) Apparently native fish do well on them and like them (unlike other commercial foods). Would be good to try some and include it in my book.

Andrew just had a good suggestion... several fishroom people (locally and from well out of town) are descending on my place at easter for a native fish hunt (see the coldwater forum). You guys would be welcome to join us either for the trip or just the meet/greet/loiter at my place on the friday afternoon

THe peat is very fine and mobile and packs down to form a fairly flat surface. It would be good in a filter, but I suspect without the water flow it is much like a bare tank, but as the peat gets moved by the fish a lot... the bacteria on it would get disrupted all the time. No the tank does not have plants. I have given up on plants in my tanks, not enough light and (normally) too much current. Algae is my friend It is coldwater. I would say for the time it had a medium to low density. It is also very shallow (30cm high max, 90cm wide, 40 deep) so it would have a fairly good oxygen saturation. Oh, and it was first set up six months ago, and was probably 4-6 weeks without fish at the start. Apparently peat absorbs stuff as well as leeching stuff out (acid and tannin). You can't use medication with peat, same as with carbon. I wonder if it could be absorbing ammonia etc? Surely not, the killie people would know.... Still thinking aloud......

Fleas can feed off humans but only if they have to. They prefer dogs and cats. There used to be a human flea, much bigger, but I think it got extinct as (most of us ) lost our body hair.

I have an odd question. If you have a not-tiny tank (roughly 80-100 litres) with NO filtration or water movement, did between weekly and fortnightly 40% water changes, what would you expect the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings to be? I am just interested to compare with my peat substrate tank. There is no movement, no filtration and a few nice sized mudfish who eat a high-protein diet. The water has zero reading for everything. I have no idea what is going on but it seems to be working....

Cooool to you both! The more the merrier. Pete: We shall have to factor in a trip to Wet Pets at some point along the way! Mark: There are a heap of people here from Taupo, I'm sure someone will have a couch you could stay on and fish you could drool over. They might even have flush toilets and running water! ;P I believe Andrew still has a spare bed free. My couch is BlueandKim's for the weekend. This should be a great trip, I am really looking forward to it. Just as long as the koaro and redfins are over their ich by then...