Stella

Oh Carpet, which art on floorboards, Hallowed by Thy pile Thy laying done Thy vacuuming won, on stairs as it is on floors. Bear us this our daily tread, And forgive us these our aquarium spills, as we forgive those who spill against us. Lead us not into lino, But deliver us from fleas. For the floors are Thy domain, the boards and the underlay, For ever and ever. Amen.

someone suggested on a similar thread to cover the tank well (but not perfectly...) and put an airpump in there. The air pump provides pressure so even if your cover leaks, it can only leak outward, not into the tank. Of course the pump needs to be OUTSIDE the house with a really long bit of airline tubing into the tank. You would leave the cover on until you are completely sure everything is settled an the house is well aired out. Technically you could leave it on for a couple of weeks no problem (fish can usually go a couple of weeks without food) so there would be no urgency in taking it off. I would look at getting some kind of carpet powder or commercial cleaning, don't like the idea of all those chemicals in the air and falling down on everything... The fleas would only be in the carpet.

My kokopu are supposedly nocturnal, but they come out when the light comes on. It is on 7-8am then 1-10pm. During the day when the light is off they are under the rockery. My torrentfish have a similar light arrangement. They supposedly leave the torrents in the evening and feed over the night in the quiet pools. I think mine are more active when I feed them in the morning than in the evening. I think part of what aquarium fish do is an instinctive part of each fish, but part is what they learn in the aquarium. If someone only ever feeds their fish in the morning, and maintenance is more likely to happen in the evening, they will probably go to the surface expecting food in the morning, but not when the owner goes to the tank later in the day.

yeah, but it is fun to update them now and then

Damn you are photogenic! 8) This is me on boxing day.

Ryan, do you happen to have a phosphate kit? My tanks have awful brown algae issues.... long established.

You know your tanks better than us, if you are already worried that it might add too much load.... well, it suggests to me that it might add too much load...

I am getting really tempted to get a bath mitt for that purpose. There are always such awkward places and a mitt might be just the thing.

Hi Yarimochi, Cool, another native fish person! I may be about to embarrass myself, but I don't recall having run into you before in the various natives threads... What else do you have in your native tank?

Yes. No question. I also work very hard trying to keep them as best I can, and get very upset if things go wrong. I am writing a book on keeping native fish as there is very little out there about how to do it. The ethics have been a major part and the book is full of how to do it legally and ethically (eg juveniles only etc). The concept of the book itself has been an ethical internal debate: presumably it will encourage others to take fish from the wild. Not a particularly desirable thing. However people are doing it anyway, but without a decent reference on how to look after them properly. This means every single native fish keeper is doing it by trial and error. (You tropical people are lucky!) Recently I lost three of my five mudfish becasue the information was not available (or known??) that malchite and formalin kills them (probably). Once the book is published others who read the book will not have to go through what my fish and I just went through. It remains a minefield and I still debate with myself (and others!). One of the big reasons in favour of encouraging people to keep natives is that for so long they have been out of sight and out of mind so people are simply not aware that we have all these fish in gradual decline due to habitat destruction. Make them more immediate and the wider picture comes into people's conciousness.

a very interestng test to see what fish like would be to take a looong tank, like an eight foot, and have different options along it with a semi barrier between each one (so the fish make definite choices). I had some bluegill bullies in a tank that had rocks and gravel at one end and bare at the other. I didn't have enough gravel to cover the bottom so I just made it good at one end. They spent most of their time in the rocky end but one would often come out and play in the bare end. Saying fish are fine in a bare tank is meaningless unless there is comparison. What happens if you put something in a previously bare tank (like a big net, plant, flowerpot etc). Do they change their behaviour at all? Do they change where they hang out? A fish can be healthy but totally unstimulated and you couldn't really tell. My fish all definitely interact with their environment in a fairly major way. I couldn't keep them in bare tanks.

hmmm... yes dunno if they could get their hands on them! I hope you won

like anything, they just spread from wherever they lived first and came on whatever carried them. Like snails coming in on plants, they probably came in that way. As a hydra can grow from a bit of hydra it wouldn't be hard.

Take a torch and some coloured cellophane or similar. Shine the torch on the wall (preferably at night with the light out!) It makes some light. Shine the same torch through the coloured cellophane the same distance from the wall. Much less light and it is the colour of the cellophane. The same thing is happening with your lightbulb. The glass is blue so the light emitted is blue. Because the blue glass filters the light, less light gets through, so you need a brighter lightbulb (higher wattage) to emit a similar amount of light as a clear bulb. Does that make sense? A higher watt light makes more light and more heat. Chances are the differences in heat produced by a 25 watt light compared to a 15 watt light is minimal. I also have issues with trying to keep my tank cool and lights are a problem. I keep mine propped up so there is a bit of airflow underneath. I have a fan on one tank which cools it by evaporation and also blows away some of the heat.

the picture at the bottom is pretty good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_%28genus%29 Also some interesting info. It was named after the Hydra which was a Greek many-headed dog or serpent or both or something... They are actually pretty cool.

nice photos! I can so see the triffid reference The plant is a sub-alpine native, called a Fierce Spaniard and is from the Aciphylla family.

Been doing some research and thinking. Apparently formalin increases the mucus coating, including on the gills which can lead to asphyxiation. I suspect this plus internal poisoning killed the mudfish (three out of five). The remaining two have been doing a mudfish version of air-gulping since being taken out of the meds, just under a week ago. Possibly their gills have been damaged or it just takes a long time for the mucus to dissipate. They are slowly looking a little better. Not out of the woods yet. I keep seeing people saying to use the meds at half dose for loaches. The thing is, if half-dose was a reliable way of treating ich, why does full dose exist? Becc4: Ich is only killable during the (invisible) free swimming stage, not when it is visible on the fish. The visible stage is indestructible. This is why it is so important to keep treating for a while after the visible parasites have fallen off. If a fish actually has ich, doing a brief bath in meds will not do anything. I shall have to look into this Wunder Tonic next, thanks.

I believe copper kills hydra. Extremely effectively. Will also kill snails etc. Have a look on the net, there should be details on what to use and how much

Interesting. I have often wondered about sunscreen when going native fish hunting during the day. I automatically slip-slop-slap then notice the oil slick floating away when I stick my arm in the water.... Can't be good for the fish.

Two of my mudfish have died. Technically they are Massey University mudfish and I feel so bad I haven't yet told them about the second one... Not sure if any others have died.... Ok, I ask about loaches because like mudfish they have no scales and are apparently very sensitive to malachite and formalin. I suspect this is what killed the muddies. Please can someone tell me what happens to loaches if they are malchite and formalined? I know some say to use half-dose on loaches. What other meds are recommended for loaches instead of mal/form? A friend used Melafix successfully against ich on mudfish. Would you use this on loaches? I really appreciate any info people can give on this topic!

Yeah I wouldn't mind doing it in a day trip, tis a nice ride up there. Also less arsing around with accommodation. I would also be up for an overnight trip if others were. Go on, someone pick a date! Not too far away, motorcycles aren't as fun in winter...

cooool! That looks like a giant kokopu! I may just have to go up there soon.... Ok, who here wants to plan a road trip to the aquarium? Just pick a date and I will be there!

cooooool! I kept bag worms as a kid, loved them. And occasionally had a spider but usually released them soon after. I would so love to have native land snails, but it is not exactly legal.

It is a shame that there is barely any representation of (freshwater) native fish at the NATIONAL AQUARIUM OF NEW ZEALAND. The name is so wrong. What few natives they do show are certainly not shown off to their best. I always maintain that if they did some impressive displays people would think they are cool. Like with anything, do a poor display and people aren't interested. People are always going to rave about the big displays, show something poorly and they won't rave, money goes back in to the displays that draw the people... go figure. (They do actually know their stuff on natives, they were keen to take me giant bully hunting when I next came to Napier.) Did you say there were two native fish tanks, not counting the eel one? When I was there last (hmmm, late last summer?) There was the one just before the kiwi enclosure and that was all. There were inanga, two 5-6" banded kokopu and a gold eel who had eaten their (few) bullies and sole torrentfish (who should have been in a bright fast flowing tank). I would be interested to know what changes there have been. I would soooo love to set up an actual native aquarium.

Are you the one who said a while back that the inanga were jumping/climbing up the waterfalls? I haven't seen pictures of inanga in a pond before, thanks