Stella

THANK YOU! I have been trying to remember that one the last few days :-) "Man does not cease to play because he grows old, Man grows old because he ceases to play." (forgive oldfashioned gender stuff, tis an old quote) And the best, from 'Who Moved My Cheese?' "What would you do if you were not afraid?"

And if he had brought something in and it got out and caused problems then everyone would be annoyed that MAF wasn't doing their job right. Why not make sure someone they see as a potential risk aware that they are being watched and therefore less likely to try bringing something in illegally?

The Cran's bullies seem to be settling in well. I have them in a 2ft quarantine tank on my desk beside me. They are currently going nuts for whiteworms. The males seem far more active than the females. One female is particularly timid and not out much. The two males seem strangely inclined to chase the females away. There is also a little bit of posturing going on between the boys, flaring out the throat and gills and trying to look tough. Male. Note the really ridiculously bulbous head and the pinky-orange in some of the fins. Same male. The other male is slightly smaller and less bulbous in profile. They get more bulbous as they get bigger. This one is not full-grown. Female. Note pointier head and no pinky-orange in the fins

I have been mulling over this for a while and really can't work out why your bullies keep getting whitespot. What were you treating it with and how? Whitespot takes much longer to be completely gone than just for every fish to be spot-free. You are aware of this? Very cool that the crayfish are out and about during the day! The claw will grow back, but it takes a few moults for it to get full-size again. I don't know how shrimp mate... I know crayfish do it face to face

repost :oops:

They do if you want to farm or sell them.... Not if you want to eat or keep them in an aquarium. There is no law against that. Indeed legally you can collect up to 50 per day for such purposes. Good luck finding that many at once though (some places yes, most places no). However you can't release them anywhere but where they came from (with a permit) and you can't take them from conservation land or certain lakes that are iwi-only for collecting purposed (Taupo, Rotorua etc)

Yeah, I'm with you, Whetu. I still think it is likely to be a cycling issue. Go for the MOST OBVIOUS possibility first, and when it comes to fish tank, that is water quality. Water changes are your friend. Whetu has a point about maybe you are being too through... but until we know what you are doing that is just a guess... If you can, get the water tested for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate (your pet shop may do this if it is a decent size). Then we can know for sure if it is water quality or not. A month to six weeks is very new for a tank, definitely still within the cycling period.

ooooh what are sinking carnivore pellets? Is there a brand name?

Yeah, the troutlets were cute and VERY fast! Provided some good entertainment, Legally you are not allowed to catch them or keep them (or use them as live food, unfortunately). I scored the waders off trademe for $60. Neoprene and all. Barely used. This was the first time I used them and they ROCK! Had to grow the bum myself. Took great skill. :lol:

It is not so much the manuka leaves that attracts them, as the hiding places. There are hardly any plants in lakes with koura, because they like eating them, but conversely they like hiding in vegetation. They did a study to show that lakes with no weeds were actually able to support weeds, but it was the koura that stopped them growing. To test this they anchored a submerged raft to the bottom of the lake so it was floating above the substrate and out of reach of crays. They put heaps of weeds in pots on the raft. Then they found the common bullies had totally taken over the raft and were uprooting the plants and chucking the soil out of the pots and using the pots as nests! :lol: bullies rock!

What wonderful enlightened workmates you have! hard, crunchy, spikey things with a billion legs and moving parts are much cuter than babies! Likewise. Desperately! I have a friend with a whitebait net. Another friend has a car. (You met them on Sunday!) Are you keen for another trip?

It is funny that.... mine were reasonably visible, but if you did anything too sudden and scary they would scatter and hide briefly. Mine would mostly cruise or sit in one spot in the (slow) current. Maybe you are just scary?

:oops: Hi, I'm Stella and I'm a native fish addict.... They are a schooling fish, so they are naturally a bit happier in groups of five or more, but doing that depends entirely on your tank size. That said I have had inanga in groups of 1-3 and they were fine, just you miss out on the schooling which looks cool (best seen in a long tank, 3-4ft plus). Depth is no worry in a tank for natives. I have found full grown koaro and shortjaw kokopu (20cm long) in streams between 5 and 10cm deep! Length, length, length Mine just spat out flake in a billion pieces. I wouldn't bother. Options: Bloodworm is convenient, but not really highly nutritious for a growing fish (your fish will double in size in the next year). There is a bit here about bloodworm: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/feedin ... 34539.html Grab a net and start raiding farm troughs and streams for critters. Live food is great fun and what they would be eating normally. Oxheart: I use this as the staple for all my fish. Cut off all the fat, cut into thin strips, freeze in a single layer (so it doesn't all stick together) then cut into tiny mouth-sized pieces. Not sure if your fish is big enough for this to be practical, possibly. Though you wouldn't believe the size of the food natives can suck down! Trout pellet crumble - native fish aren't huge fans of dried food, but some can be trained to take things like trout pellets and go nuts for them. Salt - not necessary. Some like to as a 'preventative' but I think it is better to focus on keeping the water quality as good as possible and not rely on permanent medicating just in case you get slack. Get stuck into the search function, there are a few good threads on inanga.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. It will be stressful for the crayfish and shorten its life, as Romeo said. There is a thread going at the moment on keeping them: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/brand- ... b6a97fae3c Crays do make cool pets

Sorry Supasi! It was kinda spontaneous and on a Sunday night... and I forgot :oops: Just pick a date you are able to come over and I will plan some trips Kahuterawa stream is in a lovely recreation area. Head to the right for mountain biking trails through pine trees, or left for a walk following the stream through native bush. Very close to Palmy but bit of a narrow windy road to get there. http://www.wises.co.nz/l/Manawatu-Wanga ... r/6x8fr/3/

Seconded on both points!!!

well no :oops: nor a bunch of other things that got introduced... but they were on a roll with introducing things.

That should be fine Caves are a must for crays. Not just one but lots all over. The more caves it can hide it, the more secure it feels and therefore the more you will see it rampaging about looking for food. (they are surprisingly timid critters). Just pile some rocks hither and yon, making sure they are stable. Lighting is not much of a worry. Light enough for you to see in. Their eyes are weak and probably not keen on bright lights. And of course without plants you don't need strong lighting. Yep, you can take them from rivers/streams. Bag limit of 50 a day - good luck finding that many! Romeo had a lot of trouble finding one around Chch. Streams in a bad way. Go out at night with a strong torch. Look in the slower, shallower areas. Or go during the day with a net and lift rocks and poke through vegetation. During the day you usually won't see them until they are in your net. If you ever want to return it (or any other native critter) it MUST go back to the same spot you found it.

pH No worries. There is a lot of variety in the wild. Stable 'any' pH is better than unstable 'ideal' pH. Snails They may eat them. I have never been too sure if they do. Could be interesting to put one in a bare tank with a bunch of snails (only they can't walk in a bare tank...) I would say they would give it a go. Probably depends on snail species (size, shell strength) Plants Don't bother. They will unearth them on purpose and accidentally, and they will eat them. Will drive you mad. Either go for plants that are already floating or disregard them entirely. Plants are not often found with crays. That said, a bit of ponga frond looks lovely in a tank. Provides a bit of textural interest and vertical stuff. It slowly goes brown but doesn't disintegrate. If you have two, one will get hassled. If you have three, two will get hassled... :lol: :roll: Unless your tank has an enormous ground area and a million hiding places, there will be hassling, if not cannibalism. One is fine on its own. I don't know what that tank is like, but for any natives they need ground area over depth. Ian has his cray in a tank with quite a small ground area and it seems to be doing fine, but I like giving them lots of space to rummage. Personal choice etc.

your questions are actually pretty well covered in a handful of recent threads. Do a search and get back to us with any unanswered ones They do make GREAT pets. Not particularly interactive, but interesting, different and easy

Turns out postage and packing for a $80 3ft tank is $100.... I guess that is reasonable when you think of the weight, risk, size etc.... Could someone PM me the email address of Peter at Port Nicholson Glass? (apparently contact details on threads is a no-no)

:lol: yes, but it seems a waste of a good hand The only time I have hand-fed mine was trying to give it a pea and the kokopu kept trying to steal it. I had to put it directly into its 'hands'! Even then the kokopu still tried to steal it off the cray... Kokopu are *insectivorous* :roll: Looking good Ian. Is that a recent photo?

A group of us spontaneously went fish hunting on Sunday night. The other members of the party were PeteS, Museeumchick, AJBroome and two non-fishroom people. First we went to the Turitea Stream by Massey. Caught some common bullies, ranging from about 5-10cm, three troutlets (1" long or a little longer), and saw a single inanga whitebait. Sadly there were no crayfish or eels. On to a little tributary at Kahuterawa Stream. We headed straight up the track to a spot we have seen a shortjaw kokopu (rare) every time we have been (ok three times). We saw its tail dissapearing under a rock.... then its head poking out. Managed to get it in the net but it swam out as the net was lifted - little sod! Saw it again later but no hope catching it. Strangely this stream didn't have much in it. We caught a few crays (one now graces Museeumchick's tank). Lots and lots of food (critters) but nothing that eats food... We had much better luck on the beach under the bridge at the start of the track. Caught HEAPS (ok, maybe 10) Cran's bullies. I hadn't really seen many definite Cran's before, so this was wonderful fun! They are similar to the redfins, but the males have orange instead of red. I took four home and plan to photograph them when they are more settled. The big common bully we caught (photo: PeteS) One of the evil troutlets. These guys were really fast, quite a challenge to catch, but great fun! (photo: PeteS) Not many fish shots.... these people-shots are by AJBroome: Pete returning with yet another fish. He had an uncharacteristically good tally that night! Me peering into a bucket. I seem to do a lot of that... Supposedly he was taking a photo of my new waders... What is it with Andrew and bum-shots? He claims it was dark and he didn't know what he was photographing... Waiting for the shortjaw to reappear....

I don't know anything about feeding axolotls, or if 'they' refers to the bloodworms of the axolotls... But when I feed bloodworm I melt them first in a very fine tea strainer under the cold tap to get all the liquid off. The liquid frozen around the bloodworms is full of nutrients that will just feed algae. The other problem with frozen bloodworm is you can really only feed one whole cube at a time, which may be more or less than you need. I find bloodworms are a convenient and well-liked food, but not great nutritionally, especially for fast-growing fish.

Slightly follows on from topics in the MAF is NAF thread... http://www.stuff.co.nz/4734741a11.html Want to use lots of naughty words, but will stick to: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: