Stella

I MAY BE WRONG but I think if you kill them immediately it is ok to use they as dead food. Like putting them in a bucket of ice water.

I use normal light fittings and normal tubes, much MUCH cheaper than 'aquarium' ones. THough bear in mind mine are merely for illumination. I probably would use 'proper' tubes if I wanted plants.

Five tanks, all native fish, though after the run of bad luck recently I expect any or all to spontaneously self-destruct at any moment. Get in while you still can! :roll: (People with only one little tank, don't be put off by others with heaps or huge tanks! The more the merrier!)

What say someone organises a tank crawl? Just a one off event, start a thread, set a date, generate interest, organise an itinerary. It would be a great way to meet some local people! Bags not me, I am organising a native fish hunt at easter. I want to see what Shadowfax's tanks are looking like now!

ow, my sympathies! Did the glass break or just stab you?

((quivering in a corner))

I just realised I have a fold-out futon couch-bed thing, fairly comfortable, if someone would like to stay here. A good option if the cost of staying over two nights is putting you off coming. Andrew has also offered his lawn for camping.

Because I suspect a lot of people wouldn't regularly peruse the coldwater forum, I wish to draw your attention to the native fish hunting trip we are doing in the Manawatu/Horowhenua areas at Easter. The Itinerary is thus: FRIDAY 21st March People descend on Palmerston North. Gathering at my place as you get here aiming for mid afternoon, look at my fish, meet, mingle and wait for others to arrive. Go to the farm creek to see just how degraded a habitat can be but still have fish. Do dinner together somehow, wait for it to get dark then go spotlighting up the Turitea stream. Hopefully today, if we are lucky, we will see: redfins, uplands, commons, crays, inanga, eels. SATURDAY 22nd March A friend is hopefully going to drop a trap in a swampy part of the Lake Papaitonga forest to catch kokopu the pervious night... We could either go to the lake first or go to the Ohau River, not sure yet. Check the trap at Papaitonga, possibly also try using a stop net on one of the swampy creeks if the trap hasn't got anything. At Ohau we will use the whitebait net and hand nets, was very successful last time, this river is very alive! Depending on timing etc we could find dinner on the way back or take some sort of picnic up to the Kahuterawa Stream. Wait for it to get dark then go spotlighting and hopefully catch a few interesting things. Hopefully today we will see: torrentfish, inanga, smelt, redfins, uplands, eels, crays, giant/banded kokopu, and if we are very lucky we will see koaro and shortjaw kokopu! SUNDAY 23rd March People depart, having seen some wonderful sights, caught some interesting fish, learned a lot and generally become more rounded and wiser individuals And you get the rest of the long weekend for other things. MORE DETAILS HERE: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/1-vt28 ... sc&start=0 Please reply in that thread, would get confusing having two running concurrently.

Hi Caryl, That is a real shame you can't come up, I was looking forward to meeting you! Depending on interest we might plan another one for early next summer or similar with a bit more notice. Me coming to the conference is reasonably definite, it is going to cost more than I want to think about but should be good. Yes I do need to join a club, it was going to be the wairarapa one, but then they went into recess! So again, who is coming? Definite? Hoping to wrangle it? Maybe? What would you need to have your arm twisted? Do you need a ride?

and last night a mudfish was found dead... No idea why again. It could have been dead for 24 hours (it was stiff and rubbery). It had patches of a thick mucus-like goo over its body. I was able to wipe this off fairly easily with a paper towel (um... so I could preserve the fish....). Bearing in mind that mudfish have skin not scales (like loaches?), could this have been the start of decay or could it have been a fungal/bacterial thing before death? Well, it could have been that anyway, we can never rule that out, but I have no idea if this is a normal feature of a scaleless fish starting to decay. (Thanks for all your support guys! You do rock. Shame about not getting into heaven but I think that was pretty definite already! )

well, the blue part is just the glass right? That will not affect the heat. The voltage is the same... I am not good with understanding that side of electricity.... but I suspect a higher watt bulb, which (if it was clear) would produce more light and more heat. They probably make it a higher watt to get through the blue glass. I don't know what corys are, what is it about the blue light that brought them out? Or is it a pseudo-moonlight thing?

yeah, I just bought a portable heat pump to keep my native fish cold in summer. I got home today and the lounge was 27 degrees and the office/fishroom was 16... Sweeeeet! Not looking forward to the first powerbill.

Any sort of filter, water pump or airstone will create some sort of current or flow. The amount depends on how strong the pump (to use just one word to cover all options) is. A really strong air pump can stir up the water more than a weak filter, and vice versa. The surface agitation is not a huge part of aeration. The most important thing is the water being moved around so it all gets near the surface where the gas exchange happens. The surface agitation helps to prevent scum building up on the surface, which hampers gas exchange. Think lungs. Your heart (the pump) needs to move blood (water) around your body (tank) so it all gets to the lungs (surface) so oxygen can enter and carbon dioxide can exit. If there is poor circulation there won't be much dissolved oxygen. If there is surface scum (think a smoker's lungs!) there will be less surface for the oxygen to dissolve through. That may not have been what you were after... If you think there is too much agitation but plenty of filtration there are ways to dampen the flow from a filter. Aim the outlet at the wall, at a rock, at (strong) plants, put on a long spray bar (so you are not just turning it into a set of strong jets) or tell your fish to stop being such wusses!

I suspect it would be mid-afternoon-ish at my place... to give people the time to make it here in a leisurely fashion, check in with accommodation etc. The plan for that day is to meet, look at my fish, go to the farm creek, do dinner somehow and go up to the turitea stream when it gets dark for some spotlighting. Andrew, you know the sites, what sort of timing makes sense to you?

Yet Yeah, that Peppertree place looks good, could be even more social if you all wind up staying in the same place, and it makes it easier to do any carpooling. I am really looking forward to this trip! :bounce: So, who is a definite?

Wow, thank you! The AA site didn't list any backpackers in palmy. I should have tried looking further :oops:

ACCOMMODATION I have been having a bit of a look on the AA site for places people could stay. The camp ground does cabins, could be the cheapest way to go, range $35-70 for two people, but you need to provide your own bedding and towels. I have emailed them for more details, will post when they arrive. http://www.jasons.com/New-Zealand/Palme ... liday-Park For cheaper motel style accommodation, this one has units for up to three and five people: http://www.acaciacourtmotel.co.nz/index.html and this one can do up to six: http://www.mid-city.co.nz/ Bear in mind that I have never been to any of them before...

Hi Repto, The point of the trip is to explore various habitats and see what we can spotlight and catch. A learning expedition. Some may want to take some home, should they be wishing to keep natives, but mostly it is a catch-and-release thing. I am after some upland bullies myself, and will have a tank set up for quarantine should anyone (Blueandkim ) require a temporary holding place. With the kokopu, I agree that taking kokopu from the Manawatu area is a bad idea, they are locally rare or threatened here. The lake we are going to is somewhat south (below Levin). Looking at the distribution maps for banded and giants, that area and further south is thick with dots indicating populations. I know of this spot because I know someone who caught a fish there (with his hands I think!) which he suspected was a kokopu. We went down and had a look, saw fish but could not ID them, that is why I am not sure if they are bandeds or giants as the distribution maps overlap. This is why I am keen to actually catch some and find out what they are (releasing immediately). I would agree in that I would discourage people from taking kokopu from this lake, particularly non-juveniles. Whitebait season is the most ethical time to take galaxiids, for a multitude of reasons. I would strongly discourage people from taking kokopu anyway unless they had a good idea of how to look after native fish to begin with. (Oh legally you can take and keep all native fish, there are various instances where you can't, mostly about where from) I have four small 'captive bred' giants. They are cool fish.

Hi Phillz Your native tank photos in the members tank section were the first pics I saw of native tanks, shortly after I got into keeping natives. I am now writing a book on the topic.... Sadly the links broke shortly after that. What natives did you have?

Didn't people use vodka for that? I know people here have used vodka for increasing the good bacterial load.... The alcohol is a very accessible food for the good bacteria or something. Doesn't affect anything else. I can't remember the dosage, possibly dose until the tank looks blurry! :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: I would love to feed my fish trout, would be a wonderful way of turning things on their heads: those horrible exotic water possums eat native fish :evil: I have just started feeding my fish heart meat. They do love it and it is a really cheap and easy way to fill them up. I am getting a little worried by these suggestions that it is a bad idea. I did cut off the fat, but it is interesting about them not being able to process it in cooler temperatures (my fish ought to be below 20 degrees). If fish meat is better than mammalian why is that not suggested everywhere as a good food for fish??

Ok, Andrew and I had bit of a nut out last night and came up with this: FRIDAY 21st March People descend on Palmerston North. Gathering at my place as you get here, look at my fish, meet, mingle and wait for others to arrive. Go to the farm creek (I passed another one just now which may or may not be interesting, I will check it out) Do dinner together somehow, wait for it to get dark then go spotlighting up the Turitea stream. Hopefully today, if we are lucky, we will see: redfins, uplands, commons, crays, inanga, eels. SATURDAY 22nd March Hopefully I will have convinced a friend to drop a trap in a swampy part of the Lake Papaitonga forest to catch kokopu last night... We could either go to the lake first or go to the Ohau River, not sure yet. Check the trap at Papaitonga, possibly also try using a stop net on one of the swampy creeks if the trap hasn't got anything. At Ohau we will use the whitebait net and hand nets, was very successful last time, this river is very alive! Depending on timing etc we could find dinner on the way back or take some sort of picnic up to the Kahuterawa Stream. Wait for it to get dark then go spotlighting and hopefully catch a few interesting things. Hopefully today we will see: torrentfish, inanga, smelt, redfins, uplands, eels, crays, giant/banded kokopu, and if we are very lucky we will see koaro and shortjaw kokopu! SUNDAY 23rd March People depart, having seen some wonderful sights, caught some interesting fish, learned a lot and generally become more rounded and wiser individuals :lol: And you get the rest of the long weekend for other things. Accommodation I will have a quick look around shortly for accommodation near my end of town. Bearing in mind I have no personal experience of any of them... Stuff to Bring For your own comfort and ability to participate fully, I strongly recommend people bring: A strong torch each (check batteries!) Non-leaky tall gumboots (waders if you have them) Rubber-soled beach shoes (good for the day trips, saves falling over or slicing feet on submerged glass) Wide-mouthed hand nets, butterfly nets etc Sunscreen

Hi Stella

HaNs, that would be cool I know of some really good spots around here for different species and habitats. I got one of those standard wire mesh small rubbish bins just now to turn into a fish trap, would be interesting to try it out, I can think of two interesting places to leave it while we go hunting elsewhere. Spots I think could be interesting and varied for an easter weekend trip: a certain degraded farm creek - 2 feet wide, few inches deep, cattle crossing...: upland bullies, crayfish, bugs, shows what can live in unlikely places kahuterawa - native bush area, large rocky stream: spotlighting possibly or day trip for redfins, both eels, uplands, koaro, inanga, short jawed kokopu, probably many others. Ohau river - braided river: torrentfish, redfins, uplands, commons, smelt, inanga, koaro Turitea stream - gravel stream, good canopy - spotlighting (nothing visible during the day) various bullies, smelt, inanga, torrentfish, eels. Lake Papaitonga - swampy forest: kokopu Please note I make no promises on species we might find! I merely have seen them there before or know they are there through other means. While the same species are listed over and over, the habitats are all pretty different. Lake Papaitonga is very close to the Ohau river. Turitea stream is on the way to Kahuterawa. How does that sound?

Hmmmmmm. Just did a quick survey...... Lake Taupo and the general vicinity have THREE species of native fish. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, three. Common bullies, smelt and koaro. Ok so the koaro are pretty cool. But three total is pretty sad. It seems the Huka Falls is a pretty poor fish pass Compare that to the Ohau river trip Andrew, Pete and I did in January: Smelt, inanga, torrentfish, longfin eels, redfin bullies, upland bullies. And I know there are supposed to be koaro there too. OK, we will do a trip at easter definitely, but may need a rethink on the site. (I will come up for a visit sometime Hans!)