Stella

Undergravel filter plus standpipe to the surface. Options: Stick the siphon tube down the standpipe. If you have two standpipes, stick a hose down the other (may take two people) If you have a drain in the bottom of your tank just drain that. Of course you can't access the area so gunk still build up somewhat. Gravel vac 8)

I forgot to cite the paper: If you want a copy of the .pdf just email me.

I came across this interesting paragraph in book 'Lake Taupo' (1983) co-ordinated by D.J. Forsyth and C. Howard-Williams: Unfortunately this story is not referenced, and McDowall (1990) thinks they were there earlier. Not sure how they could move from one side of the lake to the opposite without freezing to death, sounds like two releases to me. Just.... random history that may interest someone

And here are the introduced fish: Brown trout Rainbow trout Brook char Mackinaw Atlantic salmon Chinook salmon Sockeye salmon Perch Tench Rudd Orfe Brown bullhead catfish Goldfish Koi carp Guppy Gambusia Sailfin molly Swordtail Caudo The first half of the list were introduced for angling or coarse fishing. The second half came in as aquarium fish.

A paper has just been made avaliable updating the threat classifications of freshwater fish in New Zealand. I have written out the main categories below. Many species have qualifying codes, such as 'data poor' or 'conservation dependant' etc, which give a bit more resolution, but I haven't included them here. Note: The 'taxonomically indeterminate' section is where species have not been described, or there is clear but unresolved genetic groupings going on. The latter includes the north and south groups of upland bullies and dwarf galaxias. (I have starred the species that I have covered in my book. Quite pleased to see that none of them had moved to the threatened list and require a full last-minute removal from the book!) Extinct Grayling Nationally Critical Lowland longjaw galaxias Canterbury mudfish Nationally Endangered Dusky galaxias Eldon’s galaxias Nationally Vulnerable Roundhead galaxias Bignose galaxias Upland longjaw galaxias *Northland mudfish Declining *Longfin eels *Torrentfish Dwarf galaxias (Sth) *Giant kokopu *Koaro Gollum galaxias *Inanga *Shortjaw kokopu Lamprey *Bluegill bully *Redfin bully *Brown mudfish Relictual *Black mudfish Naturally Uncommon Dwarf inanga Tarndale bully Chatham Island mudfish *Stokell’s smelt Not Threatened Yelloweyed mullet *Shortfin eel Flathead galaxias *Banded kokopu Alpine galaxias Canterbury galaxias *Cran’s bully *Upland bully (sth island) *Common bully *Giant bully Grey mullet Estuarine triplefin *Common smelt Black flounder Taxonomically Indeterminate Nationally Critical Lowland longjaw galaxias (Waitaki River) Teviot galaxias (Teviot River) Nationally Endangered Alpine galaxias (Manuherikia River) Nationally Vulnerable Smeagol galaxias (Nevis River) Upland longjaw galaxias (Waitaki River) Clutha flathead galaxias (Clutha) Declining *Dwarf galaxias (North Island, Nelson, Marlborough) Naturally Uncommon Dune Lakes galaxias (Kai Iwi Lakes) Not threatened Southern flathead *Upland bully (North Island, west South Island)

:lol: just read through all of these! So funny :lol: OK, my additions: When you start writing a book about keeping native fish within 6 months of first seeing them. When your hobby leads to a career change and postgrad university study. When driving over a bridge, you are always checking out the stream and doing a mental evaluation of likely species present. When your freezer is mostly taken over by 3L bottles of ice for cooling tanks over summer, frozen heart meat and several dead fish for later dissection. When you read 14 pages of this thread when you should be studying for the entomology exam tomorrow :oops: d'oh!

try having fish that are supposed to be in <20 degrees.... A fan aimed at the surface will cool through evaporation. The handy thing with this is more evaporation happens when it is hot, thus more cooling power in hotter weather. Works best on tanks with a large top surface to volume ratio. Polystyrene on non-viewing walls can also help.

Wood can often 'absorb' sand or silt if it has been sitting dead in that sort of environment for a while, then it slowly comes out when you put it in your tank. A piece of wood in my tank slowly 'grows' little pockets of silt where it is migrating out.

random thought: freshwater bug guy/photographer Stephen Moore takes the most amazing underwater photos where part of the photo is looking underwater and part is looking above the surface. Apparently his trick is as technical as putting the camera in a flat-sided Click-Clack container - according to him they are very good optically, just you have to be careful not to splash the camera, and have no idea what shot you have taken. Could be something fun to try in your pond (hehe I have way too many ideas for your pond!)

no idea.... I do know they have been found FAR inland up the Manawatu River. Estaurine things can deal with a lot. Even so, PHOTOS! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Hmmm, not a bully then! Sounds like some estuarine thing, possibly: http://www.niwa.co.nz/our-science/fresh ... _triplefin or some other triplefin species. I think I have seen Livingart post pics of these sorts of gobies.

AWESOME! :bounce: Bullies - yellow fins.. could be Cran's bullies. You are in the right area for them too. Got any side-on photos? Hang on, a fin on top of the head.... do you mean it just has the normal two dorsals or something weirder? Freshwater crabs - there are native freshwater crabs but they are in Waikato and further north. Estuarine crabs can be found in freshwater. Good to hear there were lots of elvers. The eel population is in a really bad way. Sadly they will probably mostly be fished out before they have a chance to go and breed themselves. Flounder - AWESOMENESS!!!! Please give me detail of how you were catching these little guys. I have never seen them. The large snails with the short smooth cone shell, dark stripes on the shells, white mantle (interior) and a thin.... cat's eye thing.... are Melanopsis trifasciata. IIRC that means dark coloured - three stripes. These are neat little snails. Really tough shells. I had some ages back but cyanobacteria toxins killed them. Make lots of beautiful lacy egg sacs when moved to a new home, but I have no idea if the juveniles can survive in aquaria. This is an adult inanga, is this your whitebait? http://contamsites.landcareresearch.co. ... Inanga.jpg I needed to come down anyway this summer to check out the lake, really excited now!

I saw a UV bug trap used to catch adult mayflies etc which was a modded standard solar garden lamp with a UV LED. I am really keen to con someone into making me one for summer. Imagine that over your pond, Preacher, it would be CARNAGE! :lol: Also keen to take a pot of mealworms spotlighting one day to see if I can feed wild kokopu. Now that would be satisfying! Hmmm, we are just a little off topic......

She is actually pretty useless at the moment. Not used to feeding off the surface, and really dislikes getting duckweed in her mouth. I will get her trained up and take a video sometime. She has had six now, but the supply has dried up a bit. I hope to get some kind of UV lamp for collecting them over summer - free food! And hopefully she will accept cicadas this year.

(big moth #4 down the hatch!)

haha, Supasi, you did a good job! All I could add to that is midwater fish (inanga, smelt) are best caught by holding the net underneath them and lifting it up vertically - they don't see it that way. Traps can be effective but risky for the fish. Sometimes there are cheap ones at the warehouse or similar, but hand nets are great. (I have the ranch sliders open and the lights on, Maxine the giant kokopu is getting a wonderful feed of big moths tonight!)

:lol: nice one! Sounds like much of my uni work this year.

Hmmm, good question. Koura probe into the gravel with their front two walking legs (not the big nippers) looking for food - they can taste with the little nippers on the ends. Large gravel = food can fall through more easily + the koura can access it more easily. Small gravel = food can fall through less easily + the koura can not access it easily. Sand = food can't fall through (though can get hidden) + koura can find it easily (but can't dig or landscape - natural behaviours) Furthermore: Shallow gravel = koura can access most of the food but worse for undergravel filters and landscaping can expose the tank base. Deep gravel = koura can't access all the food but can do a lot more landscaping without making the tank ugly, and there are more landscaping options for you! Also really large gravel (I am talking 5cm+ here) is horrible to gravel vac. Just hit your local stream and poke around a bit for whatever gravel size you want and get some bigger stones for caves. It looks so natural when the gravel is not perfectly smooth and graded and the gravel and rocks match [/long answer] I use quite chunky deep gravel, with an undergravel filter to help speed the decomposition of waste that gets lost or gets missed by my (lazy) gravel vacuming :lol:

wow!!!

caecillian? OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Now that would be something to see! (legless amphibian)

Wonderful!! Waste not want not

Useful, thanks Yep, more sun Mine was pink when I put it is the tank but has faded back to green now. Hopefully over summer it will redden again, as the tank is next to the window. An interesting blog post about azolla and cyanobacteria: http://sciblogs.co.nz/bioblog/2010/08/0 ... symbiosis/ I would like to read the paper one day, but the terminology is somewhat offputting!

The azolla is doing pretty well in one tank, and ok in two others. Mine seems to like: high light levels still water low humidity (I think. Azolla in the tank with a closed lid is growing fast but often going mouldy) really gentle treatment (breaks easily) Oh, I meant to say with the symbiotic cyanobacteria, the cyano is nitrogen-fixing, and the fern needs more nitrogen, so it has evolved little pockets for the cyano to live in. It even grows in a way that encourages the cyano to move to the new pockets as it grows. The genome of the cyano is now very reduced because it doesn't need to look after itself. Very cool! (I have so much respect for cyano, annoying though it is)

It is native, well some species are. IIRC the ones with one root per platelet are native. I love it. Really handy as surface cover for lurking fish, and dims the light a bit. Admittedly removing it is a pain if you have other plants. I have some azolla in my tanks now - a freefloating fern with symbiotic cyanobacteria! Really cute but a bit more temperamental.

Research has shown again and again that married men live longer, healthier and do less work than single men. In contrast married women do far more work than their single sisters. Over and over the benefits are shown to be on the side of the men. Tracey DON'T DO IT!!!