Stella

interesting idea... How big were they? I find 7cm long is my cut-off point for feeling comfortable having a cray with fish. I am amazed that it could kill two fish in five minutes, or were there two crays? I don't know anything about the canterbury galaxias, but looking at the description I imagine they would hide the moment they were introduced, which would make them easy to corner

I finally saw some giant bullies in the wild last saturday. Went spotlighting in a stream on Himitangi Beach. Saw a good dozen, but no huge ones unfortunately. The strangest thing was seeing your typical beach stream: sand, seashells etc, and there is what looks to me like a totally freshwater fish sitting there! And another! And another! It would be so strange to set up a tank for one with a sand substrate and shells etc, it would look totally marine.

Hi there, Yes, bullies are great. Really hardy, adjust easily and great characters. Do read up on whitespot, but if you get things right to begin with it shouldn't be a problem. Make sure you are onto it with waterchanges, temperature and plenty of hiding places should they so desire and they will be hopefully fine. I have always had koura in with fish, only had trouble once. I think the male bullies were starting to establish nests and were easier for the cray to pick off. The deeper the tank and the more ground area the easier it is to keep them together. Currently I have a koura in my kokopu tank. There are five kokopu in there and they all spend the day hidden in a pile of rocks with the cray and no one has lost so much as a bit of fin. Every tank is different.

where? I had a look on the weekend and asked, but of course the staff had no idea :roll:

Please forgive the epic tale below... Well, I got made redundant from my job as a dental assistant. Last day 30th Sept. My dentist is leaving and they haven't got around to replacing him in time. Ok so it isn't actually all that terrible.... In fact, I keep saying what a wonderful thing redundancy is! Only tonight, the thought of being unemployed in 22 days (16 working days) is a little depressing. But back to the good stuff: I was actually thinking of leaving anyway, had the idea of leaving about 23 hours before being given redundancy notice. Time to chase my fishy dreams! Do something with the native fish. I have a decent amount of savings so won't be forced to eat upland bully fritters for a while, not that I really want to use up my savings. Anyway, that was two weeks ago, and you wouldn't believe the amazing opportunities that have suddenly appeared out of no where. Really amazing stuff, feels like something new and astonishing happens each day! Seriously, people from DOC are contacting me, wanting to talk to me about the book! I am getting rather worried that my reputation is somewhat overinflated, I seem to have turned into this expert! And have mostly decided to study next year. A graduate diploma in Ecology. One year study and then I can do postgrad if I so desire. At least by then I will have the book finished and have my full driver's license (which will be handy with going into the field! I finally got my learner's a week ago). For the next six months I will attempt temping. Haven't done it before but I think it will work out nicely. It will be easy to get work during the study breaks and I have the freedom to do any fishy contracting etc that I can get my hands on. So much amazing stuff has been happening! It feels like my Future just hopped in a time machine and grabbed me by the hand and is dragging me in the right direction! So why to I feel so hopeless about 1st October? :roll: Anyone want to employ me?

Hi Caper, Yes I meant to do an update. It looked a little worse, just cloudier, so I put it in malachite and formalin for a few days and not it is right as rain! Very very pleased

And amazingly prevalent ;P Cool, I need to work out what I want to say (possibly at the last minute) and will get back to you all, thanks!

Well the trip last night was great! The party comprised of PeteS, a girl doing her masters on mudfish, the local DOC manager and I. We met up with the Forest and Bird party (four people) at the carpark, and, after the customary introductions, set off into the bush. Near the start there is a boardwalk with a lot of boggy areas underneath. These were carefully peered into just in case there were any mudfish. We did see something small swim away but didn't have time to tell if it was a tiny fish or an insect. Sadly no mudfish we seen, despite our best efforts, but 'Mudfish-girl' and I are now determined to eventually see them in the wild at night! We carried on to the first bridge and stream. Very quickly some large, well-patterned crayfish were spotted, and a fat, full-grown (circa 20cm) banded kokopu was seen resting in a pool. I managed to get the nets in so there was one in front and one behind, virtually touching him. He seemed rather sluggish and disinclined to go anywhere, so I moved quickly: gave him a fright, lifted the nets up and..... no fish! Little sod. Once the water cleared we notice he was still sitting near the same spot! The second attempt was much more successful and I showed the party the large thrashing fish. I always try to explain a bit about the fish to the people on the trip, but it is funny the things that I have just got used to and forget about: one of the ladies was quite surprised to see that the fish didn't have any scales! The next couple of bridges each had a few kokopu near them. Mostly they were quite big, but there was also a small, skittish and very well-marked fish, about 10cm long. Mostly the fish sat in the beam of light so we could watch them, but some shot off immediately. Some areas were just full of pairs of glowing eyes - crayfish. We didn't see any eels, but I know they are there, probably growing fat on crays. On our return trip we crossed the first bridge again. Lo and behold that kokopu was still sitting in the same hollow! We did actually see a few glowworms, which was the point of the Forest and Bird trip. Not many, but they are there. Possibly it was too dry for them. We left the Forest and Bird people and headed to Himitangi Beach to look for giant bullies in the little stream that runs along the beach. I hadn't looked there before but had been told it was a good spot. The shivering really didn't help with holding the torch still, but we did manage to see about a dozen. No huge ones sadly, but some were maybe 10-12cm. I think the strangest thing for me was seeing what looks like a typical bully sitting on a sand substrate and surrounded by sea shells. Would be interesting to create a sand-substrate tank for one! Then back home for hot chocolate and gingernuts all round! Soooo much fun!

My boss is Afrikaner and is leaving soon. He has been absolutely awesome. I want to write something in Afrikaans in a card. Can anyone translate my message into Afrikaans for me please? (without writing a whole lot of dodgy stuff!)

....................................omg .....wow....... I actually got an email last night from the local DOC area manager (he saw my aquaria last week) and now there is a woman from head office keen to meet me and talk about the book and the possibility of doing some kind of live display for the head office! This is in addition to the other person from Wgtn DOC wanting to talk to me about the book....

That does seem excessive. She has had plenty of time. Fair enough you start getting pushy with her! That is a lot of money. When you say real estate agent, do you actually mean rental property manager? Surely they could mediate a bit and get her to do it?

Awesome! How do you keep them? Don't they need to be tidal?

Cool! Would you like a ride down with us or meet us down there? The local area manager from DOC will also be coming down with us. He has done a bit of work with native fish.

Romeo, Romeo, where art thou, Romeo? I want an update! Peel yourself away from that tank, boy!

No, I REALLY don't need to get into native marine! You can see what a bad idea it was me getting into native freshwater.... :roll: :lol: I so would if I lived around the Wellington coast! (BTW will be coming through Wanganui between now and Dec, will definitely try to chalk in a time to visit you and your creeks!)

I just used basic art/poster paint. Works fine, though not overly adhesive (don't stick anything on with sellotape after). I just used what I had. I imagine spraypaint is better. With it lasting..... at least I can remove mine very easily if I so desired. Say if the front got all scratched and I wanted to turn it around..... or something. There are plusses and minuses.

I would love to do a rockpooling trip, but have no idea about the critters. Could one of the clubs down there organise one where people with a little bit of knowledge can point out what things are? I would so be up for that! .... then again maybe not, I really don't need to get into native marine tanks too....!

COOOL! How exciting! :-) Given the way they were packaged, it would probably be fine to plonk them straight into the tank so they can go and find something to hide under. Bet you can't stop staring at them! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

:lol: Well the fish definitely won't approve!

The Horowhenua branch of Forest and Bird is doing a trip to Lake Papaitonga (just outside Levin) looking at glowworms on Saturday 6th September. I just spoke to the guy running it and the general point is a 'night ramble' looking at things that come out at night. Me being me, we have now added spotlighting for kokopu (and eels and koura) who abound in the streams in this reserve. PeteS and I will be going down, and also exploring the creek at Himitangi Beach on the way back, which is apparently a great spot for giant bullies. Maybe will check a few other spots if time, weather and enthusiam allows. Anyone else interested in coming? We may be able to take a couple of people, or if you would rather meet there, it is 7pm in the Papaitonga carpark.

I got a few new buckets recently, as you all know, you can never have enough buckets! Thing is they smell really strongly plasticky. Should I worry about this or will it be safe to use? Mostly just bucketing fresh water into tanks. On a similar topic, a girl I know doing her masters study on native fish got a couple of thousand dollars in scholarship money recently. She knew I was one of the few people she could tell who would understand that the first thing she will buy is more buckets! :lol:

Good the ammonia is looking better. I wouldn't stress too much about the pH. It is better that the pH is stable rather than fluctuating around a more 'suitable' mark. Also native habitats can vary widely, and koura are found all over the show. On a similar topic, I went mudfishing on the weekend in a wetland. Really really organic, no rocks or anything, and the pH was 8.4!!! Really astounded. No idea why it was that high. We expected it to be soft and acid.

ah ok. I guess the tiny white threads sticking out of tubes in my mudfish tank could be coloured, just hard to see from the peat tannins.... Need to learn my aquatic inverts.... BTW Mincie, I love your sig line!

Not sure, but I think tubifex are white.... I have seen those guys before, just not sure what they are. Definitely an aquatic critter, definitely not earthworms.

COOL! You must be so excited! :bounce: I guess with introducing them.... they aren't coming in any water, so they can't be slowly introduced to more and more tank water.... I guess slowly sprinkle some on them? Use a bit of airline to do a really slow siphon of tank water into their container? (Chuck them in straight away and go do'h! like I usually do?) We expect photos uploaded by tomorrow night What Mark said re: cycling.