Stella

Mealworms may be too big and crunchy for baby dats.

I thoroughly agree, Sunbird73. Furthermore fleas etc are not lice. Just because something is an invertebrate doesn't mean that something that kills one will kill all. Also even if the flea stuff kills headlice now, in a couple of years they will develop resistance. Ira, some kids seem less affected by them. Might be some kind of genetic fluke or behavioural stuff, like having short hair, not playing closely with other children, not having a bad source population to catch them off. And of course now the evolved pesticide resistance is so high in them that they are harder to get rid of, so some families simply give up and accept them as a fact of life for childhood. Some do what phoenix says: just shave the kids. No.2's for girls too. Maybe you just didn't have many friends to catch them off? :lol:

Interesting. Have had a little read about it and it sounds rather unknown in cause and treatment, though it does sound like it responds better when caught early. Then again this fish has been a bit funny around the head for a good few weeks without change. What would people recommend I do? I can't comment on water parameters as I don't have a test kit. I aim to change 1/3 of the water weekly, though at the moment it is 1-2 weeks between changes. I was a little bit worse over the first few months of the year, but the tank is rather lightly stocked. HaNs, I understand how hardness is needed for discus, and soft water constitutes a possible stressor for them. However these species are found in hugely varying hardnesses and acidities, so that is probably not a problem. Not sure what the hardness is, but it is tap water so probably not soft. Fishplants, I think the hole you are seeing is one of the larger sensory pores. The holes at the upper back and upper front of the eye are sensory pores, the two lower in front of the eye are the nostrils (presumably specialised sensory pores). Thanks kiwiplymouth for the link, will get reading I have had trouble with the kokopu in the same tank not eating. She basically went off her food for six months. The main diet I give them is ox heart. Recently I gave her some stream invertebrates and since then her appetite came back (including for ox heart). While correlation is not causation, I wonder if there are some nutritional deficiencies from the ox heart that might cause these things?

again, utterly stunning photos. I look forward to you getting better lighting! 6 boys and 2 girls is probably a recipe for some pretty serious territorial disputes. Keeping things 50:50 or more girls than boys is a better mix. You could see how things go, or take some boys back and get some extra girls. There is a lot of variation in personality amongst bullies, some can be quite laid back while others are seriously aggressive. I do find having several males together results in more interesting behaviours than only one male, but too many and they start looking a bit scrappy from the continual fighting.

I have no idea what this is! My male bully has had a whitishness to his head for a couple of weeks now, like a thick mucous coating or something. It is not fluffy or raised, and it hasn't changed in that time. I took some photos yesterday and noticed that the areas where his sensory pores are covered in tiny little.... balloons. I have edited the contrast in this photo to show it a little better, but it is particularly obvious along the top-front of the head and in several lines under the eyes: I also noticed some of the pores on the lateral line of my giant kokopu seemed swollen some time ago and may still be swollen. Any ideas? I am completely at a loss.

oh, and the orange stripe on the first dorsal fin (visible in photos two and three) indicate that that fish (or those fish?) is/are male Females have no coloured stripe. Some males may have the colour at some times but not others. Bullies change colour intensity a lot! (way to forget the most blatant sex-distinguishing feature :roll: )

Oooh lovely photos!! :bounce: Definitely upland bullies. And given the size and colouration I might hazard that you are in the South Island? Uplands because of the glorious orange spots on the face. Males will have a much more bulbous or stocky head profile compared to females, and often the spotting is more obvious. Being uplands, they are non-diadromous (larvae don't need to go to sea) so they can be raised in the aquarium. Feeding cones are really cheap and pretty common in pet shops. Here be a pic: http://www.thatpetplace.com/images/pres ... P50796.jpg it suctions on to the side of the tank, top level with the surface, and the worms just slowly fall through. Bloodworms, being dead, are less inclined to do this, but are easier to drop in in small amounts. I sometimes cut a bloodworm cube into smaller pieces if there aren't enough mouths or enthusiasm for the whole lot.

Well done! And nice photo!! Looking at the spots on (probably) his face, he might be an upland or Cran's. Looking forward to seeing more photos. Side-on face shots are the easiest for identifying them. Make sure you get some tank shots too 1. Too much air? Bubbles do not add oxygen to the water. They circulate the water so it all gets exposed to the surface for gas exchange. Water can only hold a certain amount of dissolved oxygen (and other gasses). This amount changes with temperature: cold water holds more oxygen than warm water. This is the main reason why natives are sensitive to high temperatures: they are evolved for water with lots of oxygen. Put them in warm water and they cannot extract enough oxygen. If your filter is moving the water all around the tank sufficiently, consider the bubbler as a pretty addition 2: Feeding Try finding some live food, though winter isn't great for that. Even go back to the stream you got them and spend some time gathering stream bugs. Whiteworms are good. Better if you use a feeding cone and only put in a few at a time until some are eating them, otherwise they get lost in the substrate. Bloodworms are also handy - they look like food and the current moves them like food. However, like with whiteworms, don't just drop the lot in, and they are not very nutritious so use it as a training food. I haven't tried liver but presumably it is ok. Someone else may have comments on this? If two fish go for it, the others should eventually learn through watching. (they two darker fish may well be males, usually they are the bold ones at feeding time, and often males go dark then) The nylon may be putting them off. Because you are controlling it they might be scared by it. New fish take a while to settle, and having to learn that something is food when it looks, smells, tastes AND behaves completely differently to usual food is hard. :bounce:

Only if the actual research has been done. Educated guesses is not enough, and people here are unlikely to be able to access the species to do the required research. hehehehe bingo! "Should"?! How is there any 'should' about introducing a foreign species to this country? I agree with Rob. Even if a genera is allowed, every single species within that genus has to be thoroughly explored for all risk factors before the genus can be allowed. And if you allow a genus, does that automatically allow any species yet to be discovered? Far too risky and does not save any effort. YES YES YES

hahahahahahaha! (which of course had me doing a google to see if there was anything dodgy associated with the word, but sadly no)

Brown algae is flat though, not furry/fluffy. It can become thick, but never filamentous.

Remember if you use any chemical algae killer (which is generally a silly idea, better to treat the cause, not the symptom) it will also kill the nitella. I think an erythromycin treatment for rampant cyanobacteria (bluegreen 'algae') also killed the nitella. (ok so it is an 'algae' killer... :oops: but it really wasn't dying with any other treatments) Characeae are not carnivorous, that is the Utricularia. Your daphnia are safe

Aw man Doug that sucks! I hope you are insured. Even so, :evil: :evil: :evil:

A good trick with cloudy gravel etc is to hook the hose into the tank and run it slightly slower than it takes you to siphon it out and dispose of the water. Cuts down on bucket carting!

Apparently the thing with tiger worms is they taste just fine UNLESS they are living in grotty conditions. Then they live up to their species name foetida

Lice very quickly develop pesticide resistance, hence people resorting to harsher chemicals, or largely untested 'natural remedies'. Because of this the safest and most reliable treatment is manual removal. Takes longer but is safer. Ultimately, if she (and family and home) are completely free of them after each treatment but she is contracting them again at school, there is nothing you can do. One thing that may slow the incidence is attempting to educate her on not getting too close to other heads (lice cannot jump and don't do much crawling) and how cute she would look with a pixie haircut

resident expert here :oops: I use fans on my tanks for evaporative cooling, and 3lt bottles of ice when things get really bad. Aeration definitely helps, as the bad effect of high temperatures is lower dissolved oxygen. Aerations doesn't directly add oxygen, but exposes more water to the surface for gas exchange. I find the fans work better on tanks with a large surface area. Small tanks heat up too fast from the warm room for the evaporative cooling to have much effect. Any pumps in a tank (including external filtration) and light add heat. Have the lights on a timer so they are only on when they are needed helps, as does raising them up a bit so the fans can blow away the heat. With native tanks it is important to think carefully about siting the tank. Cooling the tank starts with having it in a cool room, having a big enough tank to keep the temps more stable, then insulating the hell out of it THEN cooling the water itself. Doing the other steps first means less effort into the cooling, which is the difficult bit. What sort of native tank are you wanting to do? :bounce: I strongly recommend trawling through the archives here. This site has the best information so far available (my book will be published *sometime*!) on keeping natives. More specific questions are easier to answer.

Lifespan is probably unknown with giant bullies, as is much of their biology. It is also poorly known for other native fish. Based on the presumed lifespan of other bullies I would guess they would get to five years or so. How big is your giant? The fish I have had the longest is a giant kokopu. Have had her for 3.5 years I think, and she was a post-whitebait when I got her so she is maybe four now. She is only 20cm and has had a couple of stunting health issues.

Problem is they have no idea where the critters are from, what their disease status is, what their genetic status is etc etc. Keeping them costs money. Quarantining them costs money. Finding someone with appropriate permits and enclosures takes time and is not likely to happen every time. Sorting out if the critter (including unknown diseases it might carry) would be a biorisk and what sort of containment is necessary would take an awful lot of time and money. It does seriously suck for the critters though.

hmmm for me it is $60-90.... and the more expensive one is usually summer with all the fans on the tanks and ice bottles rotating through the tanks and freezer trying to cool them down... (living on my own, poor student, can't afford heating!)

an elver? (worm? piece of string?)

It is stunning! Apparently it is the light hitting tiny ice particles high up

Harmful if you are daphnia-sized. om nom nom nom!

Phoenix, are you SERIOUSLY suggesting that you own one single bucket?

I am currently at Massey University doing postgrad Ecology. Last year I did ecology undergrad papers but haven't done a full undergrad degree. The undergrad stuff is very broad. The first year is extremely broad. Later things get more focused on different areas, but still broad overviews of that. I doubt that you could do any herp-specific stuff anywhere in undergrad. Then postgrad you have a few taught papers in the first year, but having a specialisation is handy as you can angle all your assignments towards that. And of course you get to do your own research in a honours or masters degree My partner did a masters project designing a lizard monitoring system on Kapiti Island. Seriously, it is long hard slog. And possibly the lecturers are trying to kill us. BUT if you are academically inclined and passionate about biology it is really worth it. I am loving what I am learning! Next I will get to do my own research on native fish. Then I will get a job in conserving the animals I love. But tell us about YOU. What do you want to do?