Stella

I kept goldfish as a teenager but got rid of them when I went to uni. I think it was a great of five years then got the itch. Then three months after that I found native fish and ditched the goldfish again! I think that was five years ago....

Awesome! Thank you very much

Thanks so much for the support, guys! :bounce: For those in Christchurch, you will likely be the first to see it, as I will be down there a couple of days after it is printed! (and hopefully going spotlighting with the club) Hopefully I will have the price and postage sorted next week, then advance orders will be able to be sent as soon as I get it (16th Nov). Anyway, will let you know as soon as I can about price and postage

potentially, but the scale would probably be much larger than your average shrimp would travel. I am wondering if they have some kind of urge to migrate upstream. Like if you put juvenile koaro or banded kokopu in a tank like that, they will do exactly what the shrimp are doing. FuglyDragon, what is the temperature range across these tanks? A little experiment to even it up across the tanks (put a heater halfway around the circuit?) might remove the temperature variable and then we could see if it is a migration thing or a temperature thing. (I don't think anyone has done any research on temperature and whitebait migration, could be an interesting thing to do, and relevant with reduced riparian shade and water abstraction meaning lower flows and higher temperatures... hmmmmmm, whitebait + choice chambers + water from one stream + two header tanks.....)

INSPIRED!

I am going to be down in Christchurch at the end of this month for the Freshwater Sciences conference, coming down on the 20th and returning on the 1st of December. Donna has kindly offered me her couch for the first few days ( ). I will have my book with me (hot off the press!) so you will probably be the first FNZAS people to get it I would really love to meet some more of you guys and put faces to names! (and names to names, and faces to avatars....eep!) I really want go spotlighting with you while I am there, and am also really keen to check out Southern Encounters. Could the club please, please take me out spotlighting? I would love to see what you have What I am thinking is the evening of Saturday 20th for spotlighting, then Southern Encounters on Sunday (if people want to meet me before/after).

wow that is impressive!

oooh, now there are some interesting observations! I wonder if they are trying to migrate upstream? probably more likely that heading towards warmer temperatures.

DROOL!!! I would love to see a truly giant giant bully I saw a photo of a student holding a giant. It stretched from her watch strap to at least an inch past her fingers! And FAT! Go back at night with a strong torch (and a couple of nets and a camera ), they are pretty secretive, but more visible at night.

have you tried looking up Open Office? It is an open-source version of microsoft products (firefox is open source), does much of the same stuff the same and is very similar format and functions, and many things it does better (though I find their version of excel clunky) Not sure if they have a publisher version, but they probably do. Free and legit to download.

how useful are actual numbers? To get around Barrie's problem there could be boxes thus: Species Number (few/some/many) Breeding (yes/no/used to/impossible) Simple = easy = actually happens Other alternatives could be: Breeding (seriously/hobby/if the fish want to) And possibly length of time you have kept the fish for (months/year/years). But see the rule on Simple. Of course none of these should be required fields.

What about a prolapse? (I think that is the word) My giant kokopu seems to have a slightly prolapsed anus (part of the internal lining sticks outside the body) since she slowly released eggs last year in the absence of a male. If it is that, pulling on it might be a very bad thing for her.

Not sure if it is to agitate the water... Usually is to cool the water through evaporation. Works best on larger tanks with a large watersurface area. Little tanks soak up the heat too fast for evaporative cooling to be effective. It won't circulate the water much at all. That is the job of a pump or filter.

Wow, fascinating! Makes sense on some levels. Where to find enough daphnia to get the fish sick of eating them......

Oh, best way to catch them is to put a net behind one and then scare it backwards with a stick. Getting the koura out of the net is another matter entirely! :lol:

They are pretty widespread. Head out at night with a strong torch and check out your local streams. You will see all sorts of things, and hopefully a few crays!

Sounds very cunning! but yes, photos would help clarify. I caught two big moths for my giant kokopu last night. For a week I have had a UV light to attract moths, and found no moths. I give it back and that night two moths bumble in randomly through my window :roll:

I am looking at coming down to welly the weekend of 13/14 November and am keen for go spotlighting if you are avaliable Peter (and Ron and anyone else! Peter has a good spot ), also Ron we could meet up if you want to chat about your tank - so much easier in person!

Well, it has been a long time coming, but I have just got back from getting it off to the printery! :bounce: :bounce: 'The New Zealand Native Freshwater Aquarium' by Stella McQueen 8) Man, I never want to give birth. This has been a five year gestation, and finally everything is all happening at once. There will be a 'proof' copy first, for me to check, then all 250 will be ready by 16th November. Two weeks....! I haven't set the price yet, and once I have them printed I will be able to get postage options sorted, including for bulk orders if any of the clubs want to get together and save on postage. All hail the almighty Zev who has done an amazing job of the design and layout, and put up with my paranoias and picky changes I would have been lost without you! Also, thanks so much to the FNZAS and Caryl and Grant for contributing to printing costs. As a poor student this means so much to me Now I think I need a cup of tea and a lie down...

Aquila that is brilliant! Could you please repost this as a stand-alone thread in the natives section, and the moderators make it a sticky? Utterly invaluable.

Thanks for clearing that up Alan Nope, and you are not allowed to take more than 50 Daphnia per day either :lol: I have never seen more than seven koura in a night. Though the Maori fishing technique (in some parts) was to lower a thick bundle of branches (eg manuka) into a lake and lift it the next day full of them. Of course, there were more around then.

really nice! The scale was a big surprise

They are crustacea, so I doubt anyone cares. Sigh, the more I read the more confused I get about the laws regarding native fish and freshwater critters!

Worth paying for, or worth selling? Depends on your values..... They are dead easy to find. Waste of money to buy in my opinion. I think they may be tricky to ship, being very sensitive to warm temperatures and drops in oxygen, but I haven't had any experience with that.

I wasn't sure of the status of smelt in Taupo so I checked up for you. Apparently all native species (koaro, koura, common bullies) in the Taupo catchment belong to Ngati Tuwharetoa, but not the smelt, so you can take them.