Stella

What are you trying to kill and why? Many fish diseases are present in the water anyway (bacteria etc) and opportunistically infect weak fish. Parasites can't live off the fish for an extended period. I have never disinfected a tank after disease, just emptied it and dried it out (usually so I can put it into storage). Using bleach etc sounds like playing with chemicals and making a whole lot of work for yourself for no actual reason.

There really is a big problem with the terminology we use with cycling. Cycling is not something that we do. Cycling is something that naturally happens The active part that we do, is either understanding and controlling it in a way that limits stress and toxicity for the fish, or not understanding it and winding up with weak, sick or dead fish. What people here are saying about patience is true. Add fish slowly, carefully. Read up as much about cycling as you can. Sure people manage to get away with 'not cycling' their tank (I certainly have). What this really means is that the tank probably cycled violently, stressing their fish, perhaps without visible signs that this was happening. If they 'didn't cycle the tank' but did add fish slowly, they were unwittingly managing the cycling process.

SGTTS, how much of the water are you changing, and how long is the interval between changes? As it is a new tank it is 'cycling' (growing the bacteria that convert toxic ammonia wastes into less toxic things). Not sure what your experience with fishkeeping is, but it might pay to read up about cycling. There are some good 'sticky' threads at the top of the freshwater or beginner forums, and do a google. This will also tell you why the water goes cloudy (bacteria bloom). Not understanding the cycling that happens in a new tank is a common disaster area for beginners. Indeed even people who have been keeping them for years (self included) could do with refresher reading on cycling. As for gravel, it doesn't need to be thick unless you have undergravel filtration or digging fish. Just a thin layer will be fine for your purposes.

I would avoid using chemical additives (like to remove chlorine or 'age' or 'condition' the water). These are known to be toxic to crayfish. Since shrimp are crustaceans too, I would avoid these chemicals with them. Seriously, I wouldn't worry too much about simulating the environment. Just make sure the water is clean, cool, well oxygenated and is growing algae and biofilms for them to eat. Use gravel from the river as substrate, and they like hiding in plants if you have some. Shrimp are so cute and really easy to look after.

In a way that you will actually learn something: Calculating the volume of a rectangular or square 3D shape (eg fish tank) is LITERALLY length TIMES width TIMES height. The first part (L x W) gives you the area, then multiplying that by the height (x H) makes it the three dimensional volume. For any other shape you still need to calculate the flat cross-sectional area. So for a cylinder you first calculate the area of the circle, then multiply it by the length. For a hexagon, work out the area of the hexagon, then multiply it by the length. Next part, volume. A litre of water weighs one kilogram (roughly, this alters slightly with temperature and salinity) Empty weight. For that you need to know the thickness of the glass, and work the square metreage of all the panes added together. Then work out the weight of each pane (there is probably a standard weight-per-square metre). Then multiply the weight per square metre by the number of square metres. (also, just google!! There are a billion pages clearly explaining this sort of maths, and calculators like LivingArt posted)

oh no, that is a shame! Just remember that they *can't* climb upside down, but they can climb up cables and pipes.

koaro are absolute NIGHTMARES! They can climb out of everything. The last one I had was put in a tank with a lip all the way around the top, lids on top of that. And the little blighter got out and dried up the first night by climbing out on a powercord that I had forgot to tape around! :evil: They are pretty amazing fish to watch in aquaria, but only get them if your tank has: 1: the most unbelievably escape-proof lid (it must go back on when your back is turned while doing maintenance) 2: the water is well cooled, under 20 degrees at most times. With cooling, a lot depends on your room (cold side of the house? permanent ventilation? Air conditioning?) but a large body of water is more stable (eg typical 4ft). I came home after a night away (so the house was all closed up) to find the tank at 27 degrees and the koaro long dead. The inanga and bullies were stressed but survived. Don't underestimate just how hot your house can get over summer. Anyway, with the cooling thing, do a search, this has been covered a billion times before for natives and others. have a look at my youtube channel (link in sig) and the latest video is a koaro climbing out of a bucket.

Given that it has been sitting outside for two years, and you don't know the previous history of the tank, have you considered getting it stripped and reassembled? Silicone does not last forever. I know that will cost more again, but in the long run will give you more peace of mind (and time to get rid of the in-laws' stuff

Whitebait tend to be active during the day, perhaps to avoid being eaten by larger native fish, who are nocturnal? Of course this means daytime-active trout hammer them, they didn't evolve to expect that. It is a difficult one with trout. As far as I am concerned they are an exotic, they have had profound effects on the behaviour and distribution of native fish. HOWEVER without the huge number of anglers beating the drum for cleaning up our waterways, the rivers and streams would be in a far worse condition than they are. Fish & Game do some amazing work at resource consent hearings - they can speak out so much more strongly than DOC, who has their hands tied by the politicians. And yet the Govt is trying to hamstring them by not allowing them to put up the angling fees - those fees help pay their good people to stand up for the rivers against the shortsighted developers. Yay for short-term unsustainable growth to the detriment to the environment on which we rely... sigh. Even so, I want to learn to smoke trout. :evil: 8) :lol: (good shot, btw!)

hmm, interesting question! And kinda tricky to answer. I think it is a case of goldfish are not a big problem in the wild (unlike koi), so people can keep their goldfish, but aren't allowed to have koi. Banning the import of goldfish makes it harder for people the sneak in fancy koi by labelling it a goldfish. I guess it just makes it easier to control the movement of the pest fish. Although coarse anglers are notorious for illegally introducing pest fish to new areas without thinking about the damage it can do to not only the ecosystems, but their own 'sport'. :evil:

Have you bred fish before? If so, what? What is the attraction to breeding a 'unique' fish?

http://www.conjobs.co.nz/content/view/2347/58/ Anyone got experience in multiple alligator management? :lol: Now excuse me while I back away from the puddle of drool likely to form around this thread

(Dreams, what are you studying? I am doing a masters in ecology on native fish habitat, no surprises there... :roll: :lol: )

:lol: if only they made trackers that small! One day... It is impressive eh! I saw a single solitary shrimp up by Massey (Palmerston North), which is something like 60km (according to rough googlemaps estimate) - a crazy long journey! Maybe she was avoiding all the juvenile behaviour at the coast Not sure how long they live.... would be interesting to know.

It has been illegal to import goldfish for years, the small ones are too hard to distinguish from koi, a noxious pest in New Zealand, hence the lack of severely mutant goldfish

Quoting from 'An Introduction to the Freshwater Crustacea of New Zealand' (1976): :lol: Fascinating book with everything you could ever want to know about the structure and biology of ostracods, isopods, cladocerans (daphnia), copepods and more! It also has the lost lovely dedication I have ever seen: awwwwwww! (How many of us can relate to that I wonder?! )

you can get automatic timers for hoses, just like the timers we use on lights. There are a couple on trademe at the moment for $45 and $60, but places like Bunnings would have them too. Saves forgetting to turn off the hose and doing a 1000% waterchange and losing all the fish like I did :oops: man, that plus your overflow setup would make life SO SWEET 8) 8) 8)

I had a kokopu with a single tumour on the inside of the lip. Smooth, not puffy like this. Eventually it got red during feeding time and started to get in the way, but then suddenly it was gone - thankfully did not spread to other fish! I wonder if somehow a single viral tumour on its mouth got rasped and spread that way, like a kid who picks warts and winds up with them all over their hands. It may be very slow growing, giving the little guy plenty more time before it starts causing problems (he looks beautifully healthy!) but Jennifer is probably right. (Donna, these photos you post of diseased/damaged animals you receive are fascinating, a really good awareness thing)

Ew, that is crazy! I wonder what it might be? Tumours in fish are usually benign and caused by a virus. Maybe he sucked a tumour on another fish and caught a whole lot? Weird weird weird.

Wow, scary! I am sorry for your loss

if you quit cars I bet you would be able to take up gambling

And there we have it folks: the cure to a fishkeeping addiction is online gambling! :lol: Finally, there is hope.

Hello and welcome back! Native shrimp need high oxygen levels. Warm water has less oxygen. Some people have been able to keep shrimp in warmer tanks - there is another thread currently running about shrimp viewtopic.php?f=41&t=48268 where FuglyDragon put them in tanks of different temperatures and like you found that 28 degrees makes a shrimp cocktail. Of course if you want shrimp as your main feature, don't heat the water at all, and watch that it doesn't get too hot over summer (think tank placement, cooling the room, then fans on constantly for evaporative cooling or icebottles). There is only one species here, but there can be slightly different patterns and colours, although these made fade in captivity (thought Fugly found one set went darker!) Remember they start as boys then change into girls as they get bigger - very clever! Some here have managed to breed them. Do a search in the archives, there are lots of threads about shrimp

CodKing seems to have vanished since shortly after the earthquake. I hope he is ok.

so, does that make it three meeting-parties in three weeks? Do you think you can cope?