Stella

They can move stones as big, if not twice as big, as their bodies. Koura rock. It is lovely seeing you so excited about your new toy! I so need to get me one. My last one died two years ago.

The handy thing with native tanks is they are super-cheap to set up. Free fish, gravel, wood etc, all from a stream. Leaf litter is a great way to go - it looks so natural! The koura will nibble away at it too. I am sure he will find the shrimp tab overnight. He may be too busy marauding at the moment. Some water movement is useful, but unless you are keeping fastwater fish, movement from an airstone or filter is plenty for general water circulation. Koura and most bullies seem to do better with little real flow.

You must have some pretty tame dreams then Agree with the :facepalm: regarding ram+heater+koura.... P44 WHAT are you thinking? Tut. Also I hope that is a south-facing window. This time of year even a little direct sunlight can heat things up fast. If it is south-facing, being by a window can be good for air movement for cooling. Remember koura can be dangerous to the health and longevity of small bullies. Not sure what size yours are. At least the tank is a lovely mess of hiding places for them all. Love the bits of wood! Much promise there. Sooooooo...... you are aware of what crayfish do to plants, right? :lol: 8) Aside from those fairly major things to iron out, welcome to the dark side

Yeah, cool water is key. It is possible to do it without a chiller but you need to be careful. Also being in Auckland puts you at a disadvantage, being warmer to begin with. Ways and means (preferably as many as possible) in order of importance: Start by putting the tank in the coldest room of the house. Have good ventilation (my window is open 24/7 on security stays). Have as large a tank as possible (large volume is more stable). Have the lights on timers so they are on for the minimum required time. Have the lights lifted above the lids allowing heat to escape. Avoid aquarium hoods that retain heat (while bearing in mind that these fish are escape artists) Use icebottles when necessary. Weekly waterchanges at least (less chance of pathogens or toxins building up) Ok that sounds like a daunting lot.... I believe that any major group of fish is probably about as hard as any other to look after properly. As long as you understand what they need (and give it to them) you will be right. Tropical fish are easy for most people simply because that is what the hobby industry is geared towards. Natives aren't hard to keep, just a different mindset

True, but largely dependent on the the room and how it is used. The lack of lid could be having various other effects - heat rises, some cooling through evaporation, not trapping heat from the light etc. I doubt that water circulation on its own would have much effect, but it is useful for other effects - increases effect of evaporative cooling using fans, reduces thermal layering, increases oxygenation/reduces stagnation.

How would that help?

my work here is done 8)

or just make me green with envy Nice photos, looks like a great trip! Now that you have seen it during the daytime, try going back at night with a torch - you will be amazed at how much life is in there! Particularly look in the shallows, especially the beachy area in photo 3 (yeah, I know this stream well ) there will be heaps of bullies sitting on the substrate, and at this time you will probably also see some smelt - small thin mid-water fish, very very fast. Maybe even some whitebait, probably the odd eel and cray. I suspect there will be a conversion soon.....

Have a rummage through the natives section, there are heaps of discussions about tank set up etc etc as well as lots of photos of people's tanks. A 250L tank sounds like a great start - they definitely need their space, particularly ground area (few natives are mid-water swimming, most spend much on their time on or near the substrate). As for decor, start checking out your local streams. The great thing with a native tank is getting to create a lovely natural habitat. Get to know how your streams work, what is in them, then decide what sort of habitat you would like to show and what species you like. I have one tank modelled off a forest stream - it is dark and woody, with large stones and gravel and very mild flow. An old tank was a riffle with very fast flowing water, very clean and large stones and lots of light. The truly great thing about recreating native habitat: no faffing about with plants! :happy1: And *cough* I have just published a book all about keeping native fish

Welcome to the forums, Josh! Yay another natives keeper! Can so relate about the summer temperatures... sigh

A 'startup' tank would probably be hopeless for native fish, those kits are more designed for tropical fish. The best thing you can do is learn about things first. Have a good look through the natives archives here, check out your stream at night and get a feel for the fish and what they need. If you do decide to go for it, I have just published a book on keeping native fish (including kokopu) which covers the different species, how and where to find them, and great detail on how to look after them. A must-read Check out this video taken a few years ago of my kokopu at feeding time, crazy fish! http://www.youtube.com/nznativefish#p/u/13/sy81vQ97zLo (admittedly I wouldn't keep that many together again, I got them as whitebait and they were just starting to mature and get.... vigorous. They would have these crazy fights where two would start circling with their jaws open then attack each other, their skin would be shredded and hanging off in streamers! Eventually a bystander would call time. By the next day they looked completely unscathed. Amazingly robust animals) So... is the cat ok? 8)

That is BIZARRE, Bikbok! Insanely unfair. :an!gry A friend of mine has real dyslexia. I say 'real' because most people think they have dyslexia if they make the odd spelling mistake. Trying to read anything this guy wrote, or to hear him attempt reading out loud is an abrupt education in what dyslexia really is. The terrible thing is because of this at school he was put in the class for the mentally challenged.... poor kid. Finally his dyslexia was picked up by someone marking (I think) his school cert science exam, who realised he was totally onto it but couldn't communicate on paper to save himself. I hate to think what would have happened to him psychologically if that hadn't happened. He now has a MSc in Chemistry. Good on you for having your son tested to figure out his various things and supporting him so much.

wow, yeah, a lovely little banded kokopu. Your cat must have been feeling very pleased with itself!! They are easy to look after, as long as you can provide what they need - mostly *cold* water, lots of room and few tankmates to fight/eat when they mature. Search the archives here for more info if you are interested Best to take them as juveniles though, they adjust to captivity better. I won't take any galaxiid approaching 10cm from the wild. Try taking a good strong torch to a local stream tonight, check out the shallows and backwaters where the water is slow or still and there is lots of wood or undercut banks. They are a treat to see in the wild :bounce:

Thanks On the positive side, it is all rather artistic to die as a poor unknown young student. &c:ry No doubt forgotten for a few years before my genius is realised and everyone's copies of my book are suddenly worth a fortune! :lol: (er, I am not quite that full of myself.... and hopefully I won't die. Am following the doctor's orders, with the additional cure of watching all 24 episodes of Jeeves and Wooster to cheer me up!)

:lol: awesome! Amazing what fish can manage to swallow. Though not so great for the bully. (I am so loving hearing these little bits of how people are finding my book, really makes my day! ) Insect - I have never done that before, would be really interesting! You should take a whole lot of readings in a short reach and report back (disturbingly vivid analogy....! :sick: )

Yeah baby! :happy1: Great way of thinking about it

aw thank you :love: Well, I am bored with being exhausted and unable to do anything but there is a pic of Nitella in your inbox

Kinda, I guess it depends on what you are doing. When it comes to school qualifications, each one is just a way of getting onto the next one. After your first job or two probably no one will care what you did at school. And after your seventh job no one will care about the first. My good friend and 'career mentor' tells me what what I major in and what marks I get will probably never matter in the real world. Every person competing with me for jobs in the future will also have a MSc in ecology/biology/environmentalstuff. The degree is just a tick on a form. The thing that will get me the job is all the OTHER relevant stuff I do and how well I may fit in with them. That said, it is usually pretty easy for interviewers to tell the slackers from the hard-workers without seeing their marks/credits.

aw cuteness! :love: At that size, you are probably right If you got them near the coast or in a lake it might be questionable, and being up there the only non-diadromous bullies you have are Cran's (or land-locked commons). I suspect these guys might be a bit more tolerant of temperature than some other species, or indeed of their own species when older. They hang out in the shallows (they are so wee they would bet washed away otherwise) and those areas can heat up quite a bit.

blueether - yes, all ants/bees/wasp species do the same trick. So seriously weird! I had to do a 10,000 word essay on reproduction in ants last year, it did my head in! (ants/bees/wasps are all part of one big happy family called Hymenoptera, which means 'skin-wing', after their transparent wings.) Bees are just amazing! My dad used to have a couple of hives. Managed to make the whole family phobic (shudder) but I still find them fascinating. If you are interested in social insects, try looking up our native batflies - weirdest fly in existence!

I have pneumonia. Had it for two weeks, spent the last seven days in bed. :sick: Went to the doctor, he gave me antibiotics and said to come back in a week, to see IF I am getting better!! No change so far, possibly feeling slightly worse. My friends are keeping me stocked with food, though I have little appetite. It is just BORING and exhausting. Even reading is tiring. I have SO much I need to be doing! And I am not entitled to sick leave (short term job). :nilly: bleat, moan, whinge. I need a hug :tears:

They look kinda like snail eggs to me... especially the ones on the glass. But presumably you have come across snail eggs before? And they would be better described as a jelly than a cauliflower/coral. Can you describe them in more detail?

Yeah, not all native stick insect reproduce by parthenogenesis (roughly 'virgin birth', no males required). I think some species do it if there are no males around, and some species almost never produce any males so do it parthenogenetically as a rule. Occasionally things go wrong with egg production and a 'virgin' can create a male, but this is rare. (Insects don't do the X and Y chromosome for sex assignment like us, they have various other ways of doing it. For ants/wasps/bees etc, fertilised eggs with two sets of chromosomes (one from mum, one from dad) make female offspring, while unfertilised eggs (just one set of chromosomes from mum) create boys. This means a male can have daughters but not sons, but he can have grandsons.... :nilly: )

ah results time! So many nerves but ultimately you pretty much know how hard you worked and what you deserve to get. I got two A-'s and an A for my postgrad ecology papers this year. Still got two I need to finish up. Any other uni people following this, how did you go?

WOW, very cool! Am surprised the snake would put up with that, must really affect bouyancy and drag. (as for all the 'aminules are so nice to each other' bollocks... :sick: :roll: )