Stella

Fascinating! Mine pretty much only came out at feeding time, but then they could be quite playful for a period before going back into hiding. It can be hard to get enough food into them. They take a while to learn how to take food from the water column and can be easily outcompeted by more aggressive feeders. I think they have stomach walls that don't easily 'bulge' when full (unlike your inanga!) and their huge pectoral and pelvic fins hide their little bulges rather well. Good trick using the spare spray bar, though annoying that the others learned so quick! What are you feeding them? I used to feed my bluegills separately, using a sieve to scare away the other fish. They actually learned very quickly that the sieve meant food and that me moving it was only to scare the other fish not them. They would come over to the front of the tank when they saw me approach with the sieve! Torries are not at all territorial, they do play little chasing games, but it really does look like fun rather than aggression. With the mirror.... do you mean the bully or the torrie went black???

they have an amazing sense of smell! Do you see much of your torries when they are not being fed?

Wow, very nice!! That would be lovely to sit back and watch. I have serious drift-wood envy and definitely agree with you about the virtues of tanks that are wider than tall.

d'oh, I meant M. aquaticum :facepalm: Thanks for correcting me! (I don't know much about plants, but I have the New Zealand Waterplants book on hand, and it is very handy, but the nut between the book and the keyboard is loose)

It is a type of Myriophyllum. There are several native species and the exotic (and banned) Myriophyllum robustum. They all look pretty similar unfortunately. Hopefully someone knows how to tell them apart.

how amazing! Good having the comparison photos. You have done such an amazing job!

Nice cave! I bet one lucky male bully is going to have a great time defending that! Good move sprinkling the finer gravel over the rocks, always makes things look more natural. Very nice. I keep seeing really nice sand-substrate setups and get tempted to try it, but I really don't need any more tanks! Shall just live vicariously through you guys

Good reminder, Heir! I usually forget that one. Small koura are seriously cute and will be able to be in that size aquarium and with bullies for much longer. They are detritivores so will pick away at scraps of anything. Am envious of your cool room!

Please read this. I know it is long but it explodes an awful lot of myths about salt in aquaria: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/salt.shtml Salt does not specifically 'heal' but reduces the chance of infection that hinders healing. Nor does salt reduce 'osmotic pressure' or general 'stress'. Iodised salt is fine. Anti-caking agents are fine. I recommend 1/2 tsp per litre against infections. This is using normal table salt which is 6g per teaspoon.

The first time I saw that I got a hell of a fright - thought my poor Ronnie had died! :nilly: He will likely eat it over the next week. It is important for them to resorb the calcium lost. An interesting exercise is to keep one claw each time, then you can see directly how much it is growing each time. Just keep the 'forearm' part, and make sure you get the same arm each time (an easy way to remember could be to take the right arm if your are right-handed). By taking just that part of the shell you are still leaving plenty of calcium for him, and often they leave the arms as they are so tough. After a few days he will be fully hardened again. I usually find they then start marching around the aquarium thinking that they are so The Greatest and try to take on fish or attempt escape routes that foiled them last time. Must be pretty cool to do all your growing in sudden steps.

It would probably be a bit fiddly to put finer mesh on, but would be do-able. It is essentially four oval springy wire frames covered in mesh and linked together. If I was wanting to hold smaller fish like this I would probably just put them in a spare net and rest the net frame on rocks so the fish couldn't get out.

Oh, so THAT is why you won't come spotlighting at night, worried the moths might infest it?

I saw one shrimp at massey, once. No idea what it thought it was doing there. You will have better luck closer to the coast. We are 60km inland and I think the Ohau site is 5km in. They seem to need to go to estuaries as part of their lifecycle, not too sure on the details.

A pop-up laundry hamper from the $2 shop used as a live box! Buckets of water and fish get hot in this weather, and even when it is cold the fish can quickly use up the oxygen. This way the water can flow through the mesh and you don't have to worry about the fish. It folds flat and you can twist it down to about 20cm diameter (when you buy it it is twisted down). It readily (violently) springs back to normal size. It does need stone in the bottom to hold it down, which also provides a bit of cover for the fish. The mesh isn't the most durable, but holes could be sewn up really easily. I have seen these things at the $2 shop for a while and long thought they would work for this, so they will probably be available for a long time yet. Small fish can wriggle out. I had an eel escape, and a small bully got it's head stuck (I managed to push it back without appearing to damage it). Small fish would probably cope better in buckets than big fish anyway, not going to use the oxygen so quickly.

Today a couple of friends and I did a fish hunt at the Ohau River, just south of Levin. First we had a look at the Kimberley Reserve, ad place I hadn't looked at before. It looked like great habitat, but fish were very few and far between. Then tried our usual spot just below where state highway 1 passes over Ohau. Better luck there but we were tired and didn't stay for long. We caught: Many beautiful redfin bullies A few small upland bullies (including this very gravid female) A KOARO! Most unexpected. Beautiful wee chap. Eleven shrimp (these guys came home, been several years since I had shrimp!) And two torrentfish, several small eels and a lovely big Dolomedes spider - hopefully Andrew will upload some photos of them And a bangle.... 8) Lovely to get out fishing. it has been so long - finally I feel like an actual fish-geek again! :happy1: Paying for it now though, still sick and tired out from my big day.

Yeah, I agree with what ^they said (yay, people are learning! My book is doing me out of a job :happy2: ) I have had various species in 60x30x30 tanks and generally found they are a bit small, yours is a bit bigger which is helpful, but still small. The most successful setup I had was four Cran's bullies (two male, two female). It was on my desk and they were so wonderful to watch - bullies are such active little guys. They were around 5cm body-length, which I think is an ok size for the tank, but if you get them smaller you will have longer to grow them out before you need to upgrade. There is the risk of getting a really stroppy male who makes life dificult for everyone, but I guess that risk exists in every tank. Alternatively, a koura on its own makes an entertaining pet. Could also include shrimp, although expect them to slowly get turned into lunch.

Carlos, apparently they survive the fires surprisingly well. Was it last summer there was a nasty fire through there? There was also a drought and apparently the numbers are fine. I listened to this a few days ago: http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ocw/ocw-20101118-2106-Black_Mudfish_and_Lake_Restoration-048.mp3 Mostly about black mudfish and restoration, but also mentions the northern ones and fire. Nick Ling is The mudfish guy at Waikato Uni, very interesting chap.

The graphs are different, but what do they say? So 'temperature' is 60% 'excellent' and 30% 'satisfactory' and 10% 'unsatisfactory'? That is pretty meaningless.

I can't figure out how to read those graphs! :dunno:

Yes, yes you do 8)

That is a lot of shrimp! and I love the pic of the cat's eyes! :lol: The big fish you couldn't identify is a bully of some sort. They can be confused with torrentfish when seen from above, but when you see a few more you will get used to the shapes. The other one could indeed be a juvenile galaxiid or a smelt. These guys are SO fast and very hard to catch. If they are in the midwater, I have found the trick is to hold the net flat (horizontal) and come up underneath the fish - they don't seem to notice the net so much that way. Of course if it is very shallow or the fish is sitting fairly still, the usual trick of putting the net beside the fish and shooing it in with another net works well. With using the jar for photos, also take a small towel or similar so you can dry it off, trying to take photos through a wet jar is hopeless, and tshirts are less absorbent than I thought... Looks like you had a fabulous time :)

Yes I saw that article. When I look up the symptoms of anything it always seems vaguely similar but also missing some major symptoms. I haven't been playing with potting mix... I went back to the doc yesterday, feeling much better. He said my lungs sound better, still crackling but better. Though he did send me off for a glandular fever test (interesting, 90% of people have that at some point, just most don't notice). Today however I am feeling worse again, actually wondering if I should go back on the antibiotics as the symptoms seem to be like what they were before I saw the doc the first time. Am SO tired of this! Been sick for three weeks, pretty much spent two weeks moving from bed to couch and back again. With no sick leave this is getting stressful.

Right, I really do want a tunnelweb spider as a pet on my desk. Sounds fascinating and low-maintenance. I found this thread from October last year which was slightly useful: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=44009&hilit=spider&start=90 So, is a 30x30cm cube tank ok? There is a glass lid, but thinking of making a mesh one, unless glass is useful for keeping in moisture? I assume not much is needed by way of substrate, the spider will make its own house. Maybe a little coarse soil and leaflitter? I think the ideal look would be mostly tunnel. I assume moisture is important - the odd mist with a sprayer? Any other tips? :bounce:

This is a pet?! AWESOME!! Please post details, I would love to try keeping a spider like this and will soon have an empty 30cm cube tank on my desk that could do with something in it.

Awesome! ....so it is drinking the earwig through a straw??