Stella

The fish I like more equally that the others would have to be my Giant Kokopu, Maxine. I have had her for three years now, and she has been through two house moves and a fairly major disease that killed off five other kokopu and from which she took six months to come right. Apart from her general awesomeness, I have invested a lot of stressing out about her and I would be so incredibly gutted if anything happened to her.

ooh interesting project! I love the biotope concept. Why is the leaf litter *under* the sand?

Supasi, they are definitely around, not everywhere but not overly uncommon either. Some in Hamilton too (randomly directed nudge) Smidey, can you get a pic of the Whangarei one please?

Thanks Hans, well recieved. Can any one else help me out with this?

ooh fascinating, thanks Jennifer!! A parasite within a parasite. "Little bugs have littler bugs, Upon their backs to bite 'em. And the littler bugs have littler bugs, And so ad infinitum."

LOL really? :lol: This is the second forum (on a totally different topic) where people thought my name was a relevant pseudonym! I don't have to do anything to go incognito 8)

I am needing photos of different signs and symbols on drains (particularly street drains) trying to encourage people to think about what goes down them and the freshwater life it affects. Some towns have metal fish, or plaques, or stenciled pictures. We are looking to try and get something happening here and want examples from other places. If there is something like this in your town could you please take a photo and email it to [email protected] The photo doesn't have to be enormous, but preferably not blurry camera-phone ones. Please include the name of your town in your email and then post the town name here so people know what what been done. Thanks heaps! :-)

Yes, all fish should be quarantined. Pet shops have a huge throughput of fish from all sorts of places, mixed in the same tanks. Some wild-caught, some captive-bred all highly stressed from transport and new tanks, then your new tank. Some diseases are ones you can eradicate in the quarantine stage if they show up, and thus the disease will not affect your other fish. Other diseases are in the water anyway and opportunistically attack a stressed and weakened fish. Even if the fish come from a friend with a spotless 'disease-free' there may be something lurking unseen or opportunistic. Personally I don't medicate automatically (all my fish come from the wild) but am careful with looking after the conditions and trying to keep the stress down. Some species I will based on previous experience.

mine comes before my surname...

AWWW! Cute cute cute :bounce: How long would you say they were?

mmm pinus radiata!

Ah, good to hear how things are coming along. It must be hard watching them cause so much collateral damage, but you are right - with the exotics and particularly the smothering blackberry gone, the natives will flourish, and in a year's time the new plantings will look awesome You should pick a spot you can find again and take photos every few months so you can watch what you are achieving! As it is you have saved the wetland from certain drainage! (good luck with Mr Algae...)

aw you will be sad to see them go I imagine!! Nice to hear your koura is doing so well What do you feed her mostly? Spoon, the mossie larvae won't last long with these two there!

Oh wow, neat spot! I wonder if the stream going nowhere means any detritus is retained so heaps of food, and because the water soaks away but it being constantly replaced it stays nice and fresh for them. Interesting.

aw man, I am too busy today and trying to do too many things too quickly!!! I mean babies too big for the EGGSHELLS. They had grown since and simply wouldn't fit back in. :oops: :oops:

Got my own words mixed up, yes the title should say 'altricial'.... :oops:

I have been learning about dinosaurs this year (part of a uni paper) and a strange thought struck me while watching a doco last week. Firstly some terminology: Precocial young: able to run around and feed themselves (eg ducklings) Altricial young: very underdeveloped, blind etc (blackbird babies etc) They have fossils of dinosaur nests with eggshells and babies too big to fit inside the nest, strongly suggesting that the parent feed the nestlings, like birds (who are actually dinosaurs). ONLY altricial juveniles recieve this sort of parental support. Precocial ones might be kept warm by the parents, but they run around all over the show and tend to leave the nest after hatching. WTF does an altricial reptile look like?! - We are talking weak, blind, virtually foetal, like a baby bird!! Are there any surviving reptiles with altricial young?

AWWWWWW!!!! So terribly cute!!!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/3070920 ... -his-hedge

I need to set myself up for being a self-employed consultant, as I am starting to get work relating to fishy stuff. Also my book is getting closer to being printed and I am self-publishing. I know virtually NOTHING about this! I think I should be talking to an accountant (apparently they can set you up for a small fee). Though I don't know any locally. Can anyone offer some advice, accountants or suggest sites to read up?

Yay! A young 'un that enjoys the beauty of a language used properly!

Given that Caryl is our esteemed magazine-creator I was surprised she didn't edit them out when she copied and pasted Normally I wouldn't.

try reading a medieval text, THEN tell me universal rules of punctuation and spelling are not useful

We do water changes to get rid of the nitrates. Just storing it in a barrel will not remove the nitrate, though growing plants in it, like watercress, would help. Not sure that it would work perfectly, and who knows what other chemicals would build up over time. Really only any point in trying if you live in a desert, or feed it to your plants - the fish poo etc is fertiliser!

Nice photos! You have an external flash? Is it on a cable or something? I would be interested in something like this for my camera.