Stella

I got to build mine! it is called the Genesis Freshwater Aquarium at the Tongariro National Trout Centre! :happy1: Furthermore, I didn't have to pay for it or maintain it! :happy2: However it is not in my house, or even my town :facepalm: This is the kokopu tank there: http://www.youtube.com/nznativefish and the stream tank running down the middle, with the mudfish on the left kokopu: inanga: There are 10 tanks is total, the smallest is 1.5m long 8) (my video but not my photos)

1. Do they go in as far as taupo? I live right next to the river and there are oxygen weed koura and a while bunch of little fish No. Not even the impressive climbing native fish can get past the huka falls. Fish in taupo were all put there by either maori or Europeans, and consist of smelt, koaro and common bullies. Koura were also introduced. 2. Do they need salty water to breed? I was thinking about breeding them for my turtle to eat. My understanding is that they do need salt for breeding. I don't know any more details of what, when etc. 3. I live at the start of the Waikato river. Next to the lake. It's gets quite deep and runs pretty fast in some spots. Do they thrive in this condition? Or do they prefer slow calmer waters I think there are a bunch of hydro stations on the Waikato, which would stop them from getting that far in. 4. Are they still active during winter? Or will the shrimps metabolism slow down? Probably. They wouldn't completely stop. And a coldwater indoor aquarium is always going to be warmer than a stream in winter. Hope your cold gets better quickly!

$2 shop google maps

ENVY!!! Does it have an outlet connecting (eventually) to the sea, with no barriers? That could explain a lack of other fish, as most need to go to sea for part of their lifecycle. A lot of councils are happy to provide advice and kits so you can look at the health of Lake Pond. Most stuff is aimed at streams but I am sure they would be able to help with lake stuff, especially given the appalling and steadily degrading state of most of our standing waters. It might actually be a good idea to look into this anyway, then you can do something about it to stop it becoming a problem for you. Spotlighting at night is definitely a good way of looking for fish. Take cichlidcentral up on his offer of trapping it! Sounds like fun. Councils and DOCs are super keen to help people who want to look after their natural sites, and there can be funding available for riparian fencing and planting. :bounce:

Hey, looking awesome! That branch will probably float when you fill it (you may have already found out!). Just realised I have a big pile of big stones here, which would be ideal for this tank. Also got that big bit of wood and some other sunk pieces here that you are welcome to. Going fishing tonight for more bullies and banded kokopu, just up at the uni. If anyone is interested in coming please PM me with your phone number, or just turn up and look for the torches in Bledisloe park! Probably gathering at uni at 7-7:30. Don't park in the Bledisloe carpark, that gets locked at night, but come in the uni entrance next to it, take the first left and we will be parked in the first carpark. Easy to find. My car is the white one with kokopu on it Bring gumboots and a torch. Even if your torch is weak as hell it will stop you from tripping over.

Yes I have actually seen this in several different places since you mentioned it. The deeper you go the blue winds up being just as camouflaging as brown. A blue cray in a shallow stream would probably get snapped up, but would survive nicely in a deep dark lake. By the same token at lot of extremely deep weird ocean life is red, because they look much like black at that depth, and the other critters don't have red light receptors as red is one of the first wavelengths to get fully attenuated in water.

I had one recently that was startlingly black. Unfortunately when it shed it was plain old brown. I suspect there is an element of 'blending in' going on with each shed.

wash. put. Easy People are always worried about introducing nasty greeblies etc but I am not sure what greeblies these could possibly be. Aquaria are not and never will be sterile, they abound with life that you didn't intentionally put there, and that is what makes them healthy.

You are allowed to trap them but I can't imagine it would be overly successful. Try leaving the dog at home, despite the puppy-dog eyes?

"If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know, you will never become anything, and that is your reward." (Stephen Fry supposedly quoting Oscar Wilde, but I can't find the original)

Wow, thank you for this quote! Brilliant.

Darren's Appliance Services are really good for repairs.

great that you found some!! Yes, non-pink 'dead shrimp' are vacated exoskeletons. From now until about November the temperatures down here are fine for native critters, unless your tank is on a windowsill or similar

Head towards the coast and trawl about in the weeds or grasses with a net, or spotlight the shallows at night - the glowing eyes zooming about are shrimp Try the Foxton estuary or a little inland from there.

Definitely good for native fish, nice big ground area!

She hasn't been under the bed in 12 hours! Much more relaxed, though I still need to be careful not to accidentally give her a fright. This morning we had a big play session on teh bed, and I have never seen an adult cat chase its tail with such enthusiasm! (This was after falling off my narrow windowsill and landing in the litter box.... I did my best not to laugh or the relationship might have ended then and there) Still pondering names. I really liked Eliza, but am considering the shortened version of Ely might suit her better. Or Molly, my grandma's name, I think her birthday was around now. Or something ANZAC-y: Poppy, Zac, Polli... but not really liking them. Don't know, deeply undecided.

Photos! :happy2: She came out from under the bed long enough for me to get a couple of pictures Spotty cat!

Cat flu is not fun to watch but is common in new cats. Glad she is coming right now Good idea getting an older kitten. The little ones are so scratchy, and yes, easy for kids to damage. I took my kitty home yesterday and she has spent most of the time since underneath the bed. Oh apart from a big explore last night, keeping me awake! But she found her food and litter tray, and clearly feels quite safe under the bed, so I am happy. I am sure she will settle in but will take a while. Am just letting her go at her own pace, can't rush these things. I knew I should have taken a photo as I opened the box - it might be a while before I can post anything! I will as soon as I have one though

kittens are fluffy balls of cuteness.... WITH SPINES!!! :evil: Apparently the cat came through her spaying just fine, lets hope I get her tomorrow!

Well, that might take a while... I don't have any yet, and won't get her until at least friday, depending on how she goes after the op. She is about one year old (I hate kittens), was living rough and had kittens so my friend took her in and rehomed the kittens when big enough. She may be bit of a work-in-progress but seemed to warm to her current keepers reasonably fast, so I think she will be ok. Aside from that she is slender, delicately tabby, with big green eyes and is TOTALLY going to be doted on and loved to death come the weekend :happy1: :happy2: :happy1: :nilly: :roll: :sick:

Hey Tinytawnykitten, how is Minty going? I am getting a cat this weekend, hopefully. She is being spayed today and I just can't wait to get her! :bounce:

om nom nom! sooo..... you know how they are called backswimmers? Tis because they swim on their backs That curved little prong that sticks up and points back? That is their sucker. They are in the Hemipteran family, like cicadas, leaf hoppers, aphids, shieldbugs etc and are defined by their sucking mouthparts. The others all suck plants, these guys suck other insects. The boatmen are also Hemipterans, but they suck plants. Have you heard them chirping? They sound like a cricket or cicada, and do it by rubbing a rough patch on their legs against a rough patch on their bodies (called stridulating). The sound carries amazingly well. Amazing critters really.

Hey Joe, I sent this thread to a friend of mine who is interested in aquatic mosses. He says the first three photos look like Fissidens rigidulus which is the most widespread and common Fissidens species. Your fourth picture, labelled 'another cool moss', is apparently Fissidens berteroi. My friend thinks there aren't any known sites of this plant in the South Island, so this is potentially a rather exciting find! (ok, exciting for moss geeks). He is sending this on to some moss geeks and says that DOC would be interested to know of the site as well, all these things help with protecting places. Very cool Collecting from the wild can open various cans of worms. In the case of mosses it seems there are plenty of threatened ones. Many are on the threatened list simply because we know very little about them, but they may be 'genuinely' threatened as well. Ideally you should know what you are collecting before you collect it, but because there aren't that many people interested in native aquatic mosses it can be difficult finding information to help identify the different species. Difficult!

Eftpos-type cards work really well as long as tehy are new and the edge is still sharp. I noticed these seem to have an effect over time of selecting for smaller alga that holds onto the glass tighter. But a razor blade deals to that pretty easily. I prefer the eftpos card as it is a wider edge, less time freezing my arm off!

I guess this one slipped through the net :lol: