Stella

Seriously, no you don't. Work out what is wrong with your tank first, sort it, let things settle down, wait a few more weeks, THEN think about some more fish. I'm not being mean, just saving you and the fish from more stresses/deaths.

Any symptoms before the fish died? How is he crayfish going? You have given use extremely little information, which makes it hard to suggest anything. The vast majority of aquarium problems, especially with new tanks, are about cycling and water quality. Definitely get your water tested, but I recommend scooping out a jar of water to test, doing a water change and THEN test it.

I remain dubious. The requirements of spawning adults, larvae and fry of diadromous species, especially galaxiids, are pretty specialised. I know they were doing hormone-injection stuff with eels, but the larvae kept dying at 14 days.

:lol: So true! Learn about water quality, cycling, species requirements and we should be mostly sorted

Whoops, you asked some questions somewhere about the ponga fronds.... No big trick to it, just chuck one in. They stay green for a few months then very slowly turn brown. Any bits sticking up will die off unattractively. Bits under the water will stay structurally sound for 6-12 months, depending on how rough you are at maintenance times. Even when they disintegrate I leave the bits in as organic substrate, which then blends the new leaf in with the old. I have heard of people having possible issues with other sorts of ferns. I have only used tree ferns (I can't tell the species apart). I definitely find the females are more timid than males. I had a common female who became just as bold as a male when she was the only bully in the tank, not sure if that was an individual character thing or not. Changes in male hierarchies are interesting to watch. I had a very dominant Cran's male and smaller common male. Then the common seemed to decide he was hungrier and quickly becaem larger and unseated the Cran's! Whitebait are an interesting one. Obviously taking juveniles of any species is better as it is less of a loss to the population. However whitebait can be dodgy and prone to dying (they are undergoing massive physiological changes as it is without being chucked in a tank with less than ideal temp and water quality). Also, you don't (easily) know what species you are getting. Interesting to do though, as long as you have the room. Their lifecycle (get that McDowall book out goddamnit! ) Inanga is the most common. They spawn in esturaries on the high autumn tides and die. The larvae go to sea and come back in spring. The others (koaro, banded/giant/shortjaw kokopu) stay inland and spawn during autumn floods at the edges of the floodwater. The eggs are stranded for a couple of weeks then stimulated to hatch by the next flood. The larvae are washed to sea and return in spring. Will see what I can do on the torrentfish, my photos are a little inaccessible at the moment. Some (not front on) are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefish/Torrentfish#

I keep getting confused with the laws. I think illegal to sell and definitely illegal to release anywhere. Give them away or create a pond like Preacher

Wow! That tank looks awesome!! Interesting angular rocks. I have only used rounded river stones before, so that is a neat contrast. Loving those south island uplands The vertical streak through the middle, is that a bubbler or a trick of the light? The front-on pic is great. I have a few of torrentfish front-on. With their angled front fins and weird shape they wind up looking like little stars

Yeah, interesting paper that! It is likely that lakes with outlets to the sea comprise of both types. As I recall the lakes in that paper were not particularly far from the sea.

Awesome! Congratulations! Did you read that paper on raising inanga fry in captivity? That went into salinity stuff.

yup, them and uplands. With any luck (depending on what your other fish are) you could get successful breeding in you pond.

All of the above plus: Chlorine removes and other water additives can be toxic. Is it stiff? Legs outstretched but in a naturalish posture, and stiff? Sign of massive stress.

Aw man, that sucks, Barrie! And so many others having a rough time of it too (Zev: )

Wow, that is coming along so well! I think your bully is a little male Cran's The orange stripe in the dorsal is so prominent. My partner's father is in Stokes Valley and each time I have been down I keep thinking to get in touch with you to go spotlighting, but we have usually had too many other things on (and winter isn't so great for spotlighting). Definitely when things warm up a bit I really want to see your Silverstream site :bounce:

Yay another person with natives! (we have a whole natives section of the forum here) Welcome.

wow, how cool! How about some updated photos of your pond too? Neat set up you have there.

Nice Make sure you post more photos as the plants establish! Interesting bits of wood, just found somewhere? One thing with aquascaping is that twos of things tend to look a little contrived, threes and odd numbers look a lot more natural. With your wood, having two upright like that can look contrived, but the same two, with one upright and the other lying down, could look a lot more natural because it makes them different from each other.

Nice! Tell us more! What sort of stream did you go to? How big were the fish? Many fish? etc etc Any PHOTOS?! :bounce:

Well, that sounds good then They should grow fast. Speed may depend somewhat on species. The temperature might be slowing growth a bit, I found my little ones slowed over winter. DON'T warm the tank or anything, just let nature take it's course, they are interesting at all stages. At 5-6cm they can be rather tricky to identify, but if you can get some decent photos I may be able to give a good guess

I have heard it argued that firebellied newts could survive and reproduce in (parts of) the wild in NZ. Just make sure any cages outside are doubly secure as anything inside. We don't need any more exotics establishing here. The terrarium sizes you give don't sound particularly big. Would downsizing that terrarium really achieve much saved space, or just require more maintenance? Also, if they are not fully grown yet, you might want to consider adult size vs terrarium size.

From memory: 120cm long x 50 deep x 40 wide. If she grows much more she will need somewhere bigger. Apparently large wild ones (~40cm) are known to live in pools the same size as the tank, barely wide enough to turn around but of course they get pretty substantial hourly waterchanges...

Also: How big are they now? And what are you feeding them? Tank maintenance will also have an effect on growth. Kokopu need to eat LOTS, so more waterchanges required to keep the water healthy.

Very nice. Well done!

The only think I know if it that you are only allowed to harvest 50 freshwater crustacea per day. The point is to cover crayfish. Technically it also covers daphnia Will be interesting to see what your MAF person says. Either way, the trader will probably pack a heap into a small container and they will arrive dead from hypoxia.

Thanks, Nymox, but I don't know how well such things would post. I am happy to keep poking around in streams and finding things randomly. It gets me out there and keeps things interesting Last night I watched for about 20 minutes: Saw boatmen mating (man they go for ages!) And one boatman trying to hit on another (didn't work) Saw a huge daphnia swim away from a predation attempt, like Beaker on the Muppets! Almost head the "memememe!" Most of the previous day's daphnia have been eaten Turns out I have two damselfly larvae Was watching some things mosying around the plants, could be a huge ostracod or a bivalve-like cladoceran... Some of the backswimmers have bright red mites on their thoraxes Not sure where the small ramshorn snail came from Note to self: USB microscope!

What is the natural lifespan of the various species mentioned here? What are you going to do with these extra fish when you get your tropical tank?? If that is a long-term dream, what is going to happen to these extra fish when the goldfish go into the pond? Think long-term, not impulse.