Stella

Canon A710 IS Usually with the flash off otherwise I get photos of blurry tails... Sigh, I *used* to have a wonderful photo of a bully encircled by a reflection of the lens-surround with the name of the camera on it, but my hard drive died on sunday and I hadn't backed it up

I had been thinking I should create a list of emails of people who are interesting in getting a copy, so I can let them know when it is finished. I have created it now and you are the first entry So do you currently have any native fish?

Hi Wilson. Apparently mudfish are good in the aquarium. Because they live in such difficult conditions they are fairly hardy. Thing is many of their habitats are so fragile now and the populations are all in gradual decline it would just be wrong to encourage people to take them as private pets. I am writing about the five bully species and the three commonest whitebait fish: inanga, koaro and banded kokopu. Also crayfish and a few notes on things like eels, shimp, mussels etc. The book is coming along really well. 24000 words and it really just at the stage of being edited over and over and getting others to read it too. Still a while off being printed, but getting there! Very exciting :bounce:

I have actually been asked by some people I know at Massey University to breed some brown mudfish Am in the process of setting up the tank. Pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefish/Mudfish Have got more wood in there now, need to take more photos. No fish yet, but the traps have recently arrived and hopefully we will go fishing soon. Tis very exciting! They are very hard to breed in captivity, there has been a number of attempts. I do suspect that one problem is it is all scientists trying to do it, not fishie people with breeding experience so they get massive mortality rates. I think I can get the environment suitable for them and a friend has a lot of experience with raising fry, so hopefully it will happen. I am writing a book on keeping natives in aquariums but am leaving out mudfish and various others because they are less common/rare. Personally I would discourage people from taking them for aquaria, I certainly wouldn't be having them if it wasn't for this project. While it is good learning how to breed them in captivity, the most important thing is saving their habitats. If they have decent sized habitats then they will be fine, it is people murdering wetlands that is endangering them. It is so good to see this event on the news - I can't believe the number of people who asked if I saw it!

I have no idea what a convict or a knife is when it comes to fish, but that topic creates some interesting mental pictures!

Yeah, the usual 'farmed' worm is the tiger worm, which nothing eats. I need garden worms. Recently the Green party had something on and were doing a worm farm display. I wanted to go down and hassle their nasty inedible introduced worms

It is indeed for the mudfish Apparently mudfish are often found to be full or earthworms when the water returns to their habitat, they usually spawn at this time too. I am just figuring htat they are probably great for getting some good growth and spawning condition on them. Mealworms might be good. Never tried them but they would be a nice meaty size. What do you feed them? Do you cut off the heads as some recommend? Haven't heard of waxmoth. So what natives *do* you have?

Ok, this kinda sounds like a dumb question, but I need ideas on how to culture earthworms as a live food... I live in an apartment with a shared yard, so a compost heap or soaked sacking under a tree is kinda out. Is it possible to do it in a container without it REEKING like a freshly-turned compost heap?

Repair your net, catch the fishies and release them into a decent stream, tis lots of fun and great for the feeling of good karma Keep an eye on them, whitebait often come in with whitespot.

Hi Alex, Yes DoC = Department of Conservation Where is what physically? The fish show is in Hamilton over Labour Weekend... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/nation ... 15149.html

Right, who here is in to natives who will be at the fish show (apart from me)? Charles Mitchell (the whitebait guy) is going to be there, I believe doing a display. As is DoC.

Hi Livingart, I am the one doing the peat substrate but it is for the same project (hi Natasha! We did a short salt dip on the weekend (one minute in 1lt water with 1tbsp salt) and there were no signs of distress - the fish seemed stupidly placid and unconcerned! I have used salt a number of times with my galaxiids (same family) and in some pretty serious doses against raging infections but always as a quick bath >1 minute. Mudfish do not have a marine whitebait stage but their ancestors did, so they are ok with salt. With injuries.... all the fins have a white edge evenly all the way around, so I doubt it is injury. The substrate does look fairly unforgiving but I would expect if worse on the lower fins if it started from injury. Natasha said to me today that a fishie person she knows is suggesting Malafix. I did a quick look on the internet and it sounds promising. When I saw the fish on saturday it seemed to be in the really early stages, so hopefully it won't be too hard to treat.

How to not fill your tank with miscellaneous crud while feeding live food: I have a really fine cup-shaped wire strainer thing for a small coffee whatsit (great description, huh? Not a coffee person) seen them at The Warehouse. Whenever I get live food I tip them into the strainer, then rinse to get the mucky water out, then tip into the tank. If there are a lot of 'floaties' I submerge it in another container of water to let the floaties float away keeping my bugs at the bottom. If there are lots of 'sinkies' I hang the strainer in the tank and let the bugs swim out leaving the sinkies behinds. Doesn't pay to do this in advance. I murdered thousands of daphnia a few weeks ago Do it right before you add them to the tank and be gentle. Have the strainer in a container of water so they aren't all shoved against the wire when you rinse them.

I had a photobucket album but I found it awkward and ugly. I just went back and looked at my old one and there was a horrid flashing ad distracting me I find Picasa easier and better looking, and I can put big long captions with each photo. To be honest I didn't explore photobucket much before I got picasa, but that is because I didn't like it much. Useful 'holding pen' but I wanted more Though Picasa doesn't do video yet.

Well I have tried. I sat there and started organising a nice post to the members tanks section. I used the 'add an attachment' part to add a photo, assuming it would let me add another one once that was uploaded. It didn't. Seems you can only upload one photo that way. As said before I have tried the normal way using an external link in a normal post, but my photo would sometimes be there and sometimes be a broken link, then back again. I have tried asking (several times now) if there is something about Picasa that means I can't link with here, but the mods haven't answered. For people not used to the forums there is a lot to learn and a huge body of ever-changing rules to get used to. I hope Mal, the original poster, is not put off posting now

Jolliolli: I think you post then the moderator approves it. I am trying to figure out how you attach the pics before you post it for approval. Where are the moderators anyway, I thought they were omnipresent? Mark: Thanks, the mudfish thing is happening... slowly. I have a tank now, which is half set up, just awaiting customs to clear the traps so we can get going. I saw my first mudfish a fortnight ago!! Ok so it was already in captivity at massey, but it was a live mudfish. Looks disturbingly like the photos.... The peat substrate is coming along nicely. Just need more wood and *fish*!! Setup photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefish/Mudfish

I need some help with posting photos in the member's tanks area. It mentions doing attachments and a certain amount of space allowed, but I am not quite sure how to do more than one attachment. I have my photos stored on Picasa but the first time I put a photo in a message it worked intermittently. Do you know if Picasa does actually work with this site? Thanks

You need a surprising amount of ice to keep a tank cool. For my two foot tank (60x30x30ish) I was using three to four 3-litre bottles of ice and struggling to keep up. This was the middle of summer and trying to keep it down under 20 degrees for native fish. I was always paranoid about dropping the wet bottles and the freezer never worked fast enough. Then I went away for the weekend and lost all my koaro!!! 29 degrees at 11pm, despite getting the temp as low as I could and pulling the curtains before I left. Then I got a chiller. Now I use a fan. Yes it evaporates lots of water into my house, but it is more effective, less noisy and I think cheaper.

Just did a google and found the article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/sto ... d=10465877 I love Dr O'Brien's comment that "It can survive when a lot of other fish would go belly-up". Ironically the mudfish DOES go belly-up when it is out of water. They lie on their backs as they can absorb more oxygen through their stomachs and it is mroe direct to their vital organs. (I so want to lower the water level when I get my mudfish and see them lying on their backs! (mudfish live in wetlands which often dry over summer and have adapted to survive out of water when necessary. They can survive for 2-4 months out of water in damp hollows under trees etc depending on the age and condition of the fish and surrounding area) I saw my first mudfish on Sunday! Fairly plain fish, looked just like the photos, unsurprisingly... still very exciting! :bounce: I have no idea who would be the rarest native fish.... I would hazard a guess at the shortjawed kokopu or other galaxias species with limited ranges..... I want to find out now!

Hi Alan, My peat is coming along nicely. After six 80% waterchanges in two days I can now see a nice settled thick layer on the bottom - just what I wanted I think after another week of daily waterchanges it should be just right. I am SO pleased I found a total hands-off approach to waterchanges and am learning to live with a hose stretched through the house and a layer of peat dust on the bottom of the shower.... My next question is about filtration. With such a mobile substrate, and a fish that is rarely found in flowing water, I have no idea what to do about this. I am actually beginning to wonder if I can get away with hot having filtration (ducks!) because I have to do weekly waterchanges on my other tanks anyway and I am figuring it will be pretty easy to do. (I can imagine the 'domestic' from putting peat in the coffee grinder would be a hundred times worse, particularly if it was not thoroughly washed after - bleaurgh!!) *** Edited to add photos of tank: http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefish/Mudfish

Hi AquaMan, Interesting about the jumping, especially that you have seen them actively taking bugs by jumping clear! I have only ever really seen (wild) ones picking insects from the surface and never been looking in the right direction at the right time at night when I have heard the splashes. Inanga are supposed to be the worst climbers of the galaxiids, definite 'must go upstream NOW!' instinct, but are supposed to be hampered by fairly short drops. Would be interested to see a photo of your waterfall and how high they were getting!

Ah. It very much depends on the type, but I have come to accept algae into my life At the very least, a liberal sprinkling of non-invasive algaes on the stones help it look more established and natural. And it makes cleaning easier! I have a nice long hair algae that is encouraged in my tank. Not on the glass, but definitely on the rocks. It anchors really firmly and seems to resist other algaes. It forms lovely flowing carpets on the bigger rocks and I clean and 'trim' it by stroking it in one direction with a piece of soft cloth. I don't have a good photo up yet, but there is some in the background of this photo http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefis ... 8665406482 (I am changing and enlarging my native fish galleries Cool, am very flattered Sounds good :bounce:

Hi Hans, Are you telling me you haven't been spotlighting yet??? It is so fun. Pick a small stream with good tree cover and marginal vegetation, take your strongest torch and most leak-proof gummies and go hunting! Am happy to show you my tanks and/or take you spotlighting if you want to come down this way some time. I know where to find uplands, redfins, Cran's, commons, inanga and of course crays. So why are you changing the plants and gravel?

As an update, I now have the tank for it from massey, positioned and filled it up last ngiht and added the 20lt bucket of wet peat. Note: Do not pour the last few litres from the bucket, your wall will get covered in black splashes.... D'oh! It separated out fairly readily, so this morning I scooped off the floating stuff and changed most of the water which was a pretty serious shade of black. I think about half sunk, which is what was expected. I know further soaking and boiling will make more sink, so I will keep the floaties for future use. I think I could do another waterchange now. It is less black but still not a hope of seeing a neon tetra pressed up against the glass...! Am going out on sunday with the girl who instigated this project to check out a wetland. Should be interesting.

Hi Aquaman, Am interested to know how your inanga jumped.... It is a raised pond and it jumped out over the edge? Sometimes at the stream I like to go spotlighting for native fish in you hear splashes from the inanga. I am never really sure what they are doing, and I haven't seen one leap but they do hit the surface a lot. If it was a straight-sided pond, or similarly steep, I could imagine one throwing a fit, zipping all over the pond, shooting up the side and accidentally finding itself on the wrong side. Stella