Stella

I am going to the NZ Freshwater Sciences conference at the end of November in Christchurch. I have booked my flights to allow a bit of extra time for meeting people and seeing things. I am coming down on the afternoon of Saturday 20th November, returning Wednesday 1st December. Am thinking of doing aquarium-people stuff the first weekend, and science-people stuff the last weekend. I want to go to Southern Encounters on the Sunday, and was thinking we could have a little meet-up there or nearby that day? I would also love to be taken spotlighting or similar if weather permits (I really want to see southern upland bullies!!) I am also looking for somewhere(s) to stay for the first few days. I am staying with my partner's aunt for the rest. I am quite happy with a couch or whatever, and will be gone most of the time (weekdays and most evenings) and mostly fed at the conference. Am house-trained. Not scared of earthquakes. Christchurch is a huge place and I will be on foot, so I do need to be slightly picky. The conference is at Chateau On The Park (west side of Hagley Park), and am quite happy to walk half an hour or use bus (with directions). Looking forward to meeting some of you! :bounce:

hehe, they do grow fast at that stage! You must be feeding him well. Chances are it is an inanga, so will only get to 10cm (usually) and live 1-3 years (usually). Actually if you want to go nuts and try to identify him, try the appendix of this paper: http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/science-and-technical/SFC206.pdf Particularly page 42 onwards. It is mostly for dead fish, but useful ....if you want to go blind

hehe awesome! When I had my Cran's one boy got lucky with both girls twice each (I think there is some pheromone action going on after one spawns, the other spawned within days each time). Then the other male got lucky with both. Man, the first guy was PISSED. He was the stroppiest little sod for days, really laying into the girls. Eventually I put a mirror up against the glass. He forgot about the girls, changed colour dramatically (pale with black fins) and went nuts at the mirror! Much fun for me to watch 8) (He probably would have laid into anyone else, but they were the only fish in the tank. I think a lot of inter-male aggression gets aimed at the girls if there aren't spare males. Then again more males can possibly lead to more aggression. It is a balancing act.) What are you feeding your babies? Do you have them in with the parents or separate?

Is that a choice? The answer is obvious 8) You don't need fast-flow for bullies, most of them are better with no flow or normal filter flow. Fast flow = torrentfish, bluegill bullies and shortjaws. The need for cooling depends on how much the room heats up, the size of the tank (bigger is better), heat from pumps (ie fast-flow) and species (the above species are more sensitive) Am quite happy to help you out with this

Knightmarc - the orange-stripe dude looks like a male Cran's. Not sure about the little one. Could be a variety of things. Do you have any close-up pictures, or can you crop down that photo? Otherwise very nice :bounce:

Yeah, under 20 degrees is good. Mine can get up to 25 degrees over summer, but anything over 20 and the fish (and I) are stressing. Yes, big water volume = less fluctuation = good. Also a larger surface area tends to work better when using fans for evaporative cooling. Focus first on stopping the warm from getting into the tank. Then there is less warm to need to get out of the tank Have the tank in the coolest room of the house. Leave the windows open during the day if you have security stays or are home. Leave the curtains closed during the day in summer if you can. Large volume of water. Have the lights on a timer, and on only when needed. Raise the light off the lids so heat can escape into the room. Insulate the back/sides. Remember submerged pumps put their heat directly into the water. A chiller or air conditioning does make life easier, but I only need fans and ice with my current setup. The big problem with heat and natives is warm water = less oxygen. Natives tend to have a high oxygen requirement because they evolved in an environment with high oxygen. Air pumps can really help, or other pumps that create a lot of water movement and surface turbulence. It really helps if the tank is well maintained. I know someone who does not cool his tanks, but he does 50% waterchanges twice weekly over summer. If the water is good quality the fish are healthy, so they can deal with a bit more stress from increased temperatures. Chronic high temps or fluctuation as well as poorly maintained tanks is a recipe for disaster. I hope that doesn't put you off! I don't think natives are any harder than any other fish to keep successfully, just they have different requirements to the species that most people are used to.

awww they are wee ones! Both look like redfin females to me. Note the diagonal face stripes. (only the males have red fins) If you intend to add other bullies make sure they are of a similar size, otherwise little ones get 'bullied'. And don't have more males than females, for similar reasons (not that they pair or anything, but the boys beat each other up). With your girls that size I would avoid getting a cray, otherwise they will become lunch. Temperature stuff depends a lot on the volume of the tank, and the water-surface:volume ratio. A Large volume fluctuates less, and a large water surface area makes using fans for evaporative cooling more effective. Keep an eye on the girls over the next few weeks for whitespot, and quarantine any later captures for 3-4 weeks before putting them in the tank. Interesting shrimp - very dark! I wonder if it will change over time or retain that?

Happy birthday Zev! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: What are you daughters baking you?

I don't really know if the bioload question can be answered, but the do have a very high requirement for oxygen - remember warm water = less oxygen, so you want much lower stocking levels than you would expect.

You don't need a permit to keep natives, but as Waterlogged says, make sure you understand the threat rankings. Do a search for Preacher's posts about his neat natives pond. He keeps finding all sorts of interesting things going on in there Note: natives AREN'T colourful or showy, but definitely different

Listing removed. Thanks Pinkfish for posting 8)

Have you tried any property managers? It costs a bit more to get into a managed property (usually one week's rent) but I find they really look after you. My current landlord is useless at fixing stuff, so it is good having the manager is there as an intermediary Good luck. Having to move sucks, but I have always found it leads to something better

If anyone does happen to have a pond full of koi left over from when they were legal and are now feeling a bit embarrassed about, I understand that DOC will help you eradicate them and pay for it. Of course try to sell/spread them and they will come down on you like a ton of bricks.

Latia neritoides

Nice! The cray looks awesome I think the bottom two photos is a common bully - you see those two or three black 'whiskers' under the eye? The others look like Cran's. Again, very healthy looking. I guess you don't really feed them? Nice creating your own little ecosystem from scratch

Mine seemed to have hatched today or yesterday. (poor doomed little guys) How are yours? Probably hatched by now, but maybe slower with the temperature?

OK, I am officially blind. I can't see the eel! If you get any close-ish side-on photos of the bullies I might be able to identify them for you. I hope that heater is unplugged and just there for decoration? Have you done any research on those triplefins? I have no idea how long they can do freshwater. They are probably ok but not sure if they can cope longterm. If you can't find anything in the archives maybe try posting on the marine section of this forum. Looking good

hey that looks very nice! Your rockwork is interesting. Can you post a photo showing most of the tank to see how you have landscaped it? Those triplefins are cute Amazing how the general 'goby' look is just SO similar across familes, continents etc. If you are familiar with any sort of bully (or goby!) try looking up north American darters Loving the snails. Have they laid you any lacy egg sacs yet? Not sure what that plant is. Could be a type of nitella but isn't very branchy. Or is it more like a grass? My book is so very nearly printed I am so excited! It will hopefully be done by mid-november, possibly early december at the latest. I actually have no idea about the legal deal with taking flounder for aquaria. They are managed fishery, with a minimum length of (I think) 25cm. I really need to get talking to people to find out. (They are not in the book, partly because I have not seen one. Was intending to have them in a second edition eventually, but I need to find the legal status) As for photos, once I took 400 and deleted all but 50, and only had a handful of good ones from that! Bullies are good - they sit still!

Very true, everyone has to start somewhere.

Very nice! Your shrimp is indeed pregnant. Your inanga is indeed an inanga. Your common bullies look more like Cran's to me. The head profile seems wrong for commons. I vote Cran's female due to the dent behind the eyes (Cran's feature), blunt head and uncoloured fins (male feature). This is good though - we know you have a male Cran's, and being non-diadromous.... Cranslets! How long ago did you last put shrimp in there? Interesting that she is carrying. All looking very healthy

It may be useful to know the full name: Valisneria

I don't know how they got these things out, but certainly for trout they brought them out as eggs, bypassing the shipping problems and leaving all their diseases behind. Though for these fish they probably could have chucked them in a sack and stored them in the hold. They seem rather difficult to kill from what I hear.

unless you want to kill it, very very illegal. To quote R.M. McDowall (THE native fish guy) "was introduced in 1877 for reasons no one can really fathom."

Someone thought the little rounded face of one looked like gollum (you can guess when this species was discovered!). Then later they did genetic work and found that the 'gollums' in one area had been genetically isolated for long enough to consider it something different. Thus smeagol. I do love it when people have fun with these names! A recent favourite is mojoceratops 8) Most of the guppy-type things have very restricted ranges, either way up north or in geothermal areas. However the gambusia (mosquitofish/plague guppy/damnbusia) is not restricted like that and is spreading far too well. I know it is as far south as Manawatu, not sure how much further.