Stella

wow.... that is impressive! I second Purplecatfish.... So the female in the photo, is she spawing there? There is an interesting piece of film in the educational native fish dvd Guardians of of the Mauri which shows a Cran's female spawning, but she has lost all her patterning and turned bright yellow....!

having seen dried shrimp I would worry about my fish getting enough out of something that seems to be 99.99% water. I used to feed bloodworms as the staple diet but having seen the growth the heart meat achieves I don't think there is much in bloodworms. THe heart is just so nutritionally DENSE.

Definitely they can be used, it is just the ickiness factor that puts people off. Charles Mitchell, the 'whitebait farmer', hangs dead possums suspended over his ponds so the maggots fall in as free fish food.

If it whitespot, the first spot will now be sitting on the substrate maturing, in a few days it will hatched and release hundreds of free-swimmers. That is the only stage at which it can be killed. Otherwise you need to wait for all those ones to find your fish, get bigger, drop off, mature and erupt into even more hunderds of free swimmers. This is why whitespot SUCKS. :evil: When the free-swimmers are first attached to the fish they are too small to see. Where do you live? Maybe someone can visit and tell you what this spot is? Have you googled for photos of whitespot? If I were you I would add 1/2 tsp salt per litre of water and keep it at that level for two weeks (do your waterchanges but replace the lost salt). Salt is not as bad for your fish as some of the other whitespot meds, and since you have caught it early it will be easier to get rid of. Assuming it is whitespot....

Cunning! Does it wind up reasonably even or some chunky and some pureed?

I LOATHE cutting up hearts. Absolutely loathe it. And I was wondering how other people do it? Usually I start by cutting off the fat and misc, then cut it into slabs, then cut the slabs into thin meal-sized schnitzel then freeze it. Last time I froze the slabs then let it defrost just enough so I could cut it into more evenly sized schnitzel. The schnitzels then get diced at meal times. What do you do?

Really? You say there are in ponds. It *is* a big issue moving fish from one *waterway* to another, but a closed system like a pond should be fine. That is why it is legal to move them into aquaria, it is not attached to a waterway. Can't you get some kind of funding to eradicate the gambusia? There is definitely money available to do pest and weed control on private land. Apparently this is a major one and applications for the next round conveniently close at the end of october: http://www.biodiversity.govt.nz/land/nz ... ition.html

and all the kokopu and the bullies and the mudfish.... :roll: where are you getting them from? My mum has a great big horse trough full of them. Unfortunately I don't get out there often enough. Certainly a fabulous food for the fish big enough to roll their eyes at daphnia.

feel free to experiment with different packaging methods by sending them to me! I will fully appraise each method

I love getting visitors to put their fingers in too. Especially a buzz for people who have been studying these species but never really interacted with them when the fish had a choice! I am so going to get a video of the muddies biting me, they do it every time I put my whole hand in. There is still a rough area on my hand where it got me yesterday. I didn't think my hands were *that* soft and girly! :lol:

what about packing them in wet aquatic plants? Stop them getting bashed to death in the sloshing water?

When taking people on native fish hunting expeditions I often have fish out of the water for a little while to show people. It is stressful for the fish but you can easily tell when a fish is ok and when it should be returned. That aside, it is not a great way to present a fish for sale, it would be much better for the prospective buyer to see it in the water....

hehehe careful, you might offend someone here nothing wrong with old as dudes! :lol:

Good on you for going the right way about it! Great idea, ESPECIALLY great name!

and use the gambusia as live food (technically illegal to possess live ones, killing them in ice water is safer)

I just got bitten by one of my mudfish.... and it DREW BLOOD! There are two (miniscule) punctures and the outline of teeth marks in an odd shape on the back of my hand! OK so they often nip, them and the kokopu, and both groups are now big enough that I can feel their teeth. But these little sods try the bite-and-twist method... Anyone else had a good bite from their fish? :lol:

You could try talking to your landlord, say you are planning on being there long-term and do they have any thoughts of selling or moving family members in at some point..... Also, as Alan said about people going nuts then quitting, apparently this happens a lot with people simply setting up fishrooms. A massive amount of maintenance is required, even on well-set-up ones, which can get very tiresome very quickly. Do you have the time to do this properly?

so many people run the water straight in from the tap without heating it up. Most also say the fish will come over and play in the current. If it was too much of a shock for them they wouldn't do that. There is always the thing with ponds, how it is warm on top and cold at the bottom and the fish swim about through all sorts of temperatures.

Your gravel will be fine. You describe it as 'fruit salad' so presumably you bought it from the pet shop, therefore will be fine. Effects different substrates can have tend to be making the water hard/soft/acid/alkali. The fish that died were simply more susceptible to whatever killed them. It may have been outright ammonia poisoning, it may have been lowered immune systems due to the stress of high levels of ammonia over a long period. Whatever it was doesn't really matter a whole lot, the SYMPTOM was the fish dying, the CAUSE was the ammonia issue. Cure the cause and the symptoms will go. You may have a few more deaths yet, as all the fishes' immune systems will be down at the moment.

My tanks get water straight from the tap.... Others would disagree. I blast the water into the bucket, which drives of a lot of the chlorine. Though sticking with what you are doing is probably not a bad idea for the moment. You don't want to shock already-stressed fish. (though please, do that waterchange right now)

central filtration systems are more convenient as there is only one to deal with, BUT it also means if one tank gets a bit out of kilter, or gets a disease, then they ALL get it... I would be incredibly leery of doing central filtration. Hit Bunnings, trademe and demolition yards for light fittings and plumbing bits. DIY rather than expensive petshop lighting and filters.

in that case daily 50% waterchanges til it is sorted..... yes it is a lot of work, but is needed. (any change you are *not* on town supply? Long shot, but I have heard of people who have water that has readable ammonia in their water.) The increase in ammonia when you do waterchanges can be from things getting stirred up. How often have you been doing waterchanges? I can understand you getting to your wits end with the tank, but it is not the tank's fault. At least now you know what the problem is and how to fix it Successful aquarium-keeping *is* a lot of work, and we all do learn the hard way, but the more research you do the better.

Do a 50% waterchange immediately. Another big one tomorrow or the next day. Any readable ammonia is a bad thing. Get the ammonia down to zero. edited to add: http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disea ... poison.htm

whitespot is always raised..... like little bits stuck to the surface of the fish..... (which is technically what they are)

Oh, Snorkel I forgot. The shrimp will not get whitespot as they are not fish, BUT it is possible for the whitespot to mature on a shrimp (after it has fallen off a fish). About the same risk as taking a tiny stone from the wild and placing it in your tank. But again, if you leave them in quarantine for a week they will be fine. Then again EVERYTHING from the wild should be quarantined (fish for two weeks). I learned that one the hard way and then the really, really hard way... do'h!