Stella

My friend Peter Sebborn (a LURKER here who is yet to REGISTER.... HINT HINT HINT!) recorded the piece on Campbell live tonight and uploaded it to YouTube for everyone here to watch if they missed it or watch again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucb7mle2yUM

possibly a bit early for bullies to be spawning, but they do behave like that when guarding eggs. Was the fish particularly dark when compared to the others? They do change quickly, but a very enthusiastic male can be as velvety black as a 'black moor' goldfish. It takes about three weeks for eggs to hatch, depending on temperature. The chances of any surviving depends on their need to go to sea or not. Redfins, giants, bluegills need a marine stage, uplands and cran's don't. Commons can go either way. Most bullies have that cream stripe on the pectoral. More telling signs are the pattern on the face and coloured stripe of the first dorsal on the male. Have a look at the photos in my galleries in the sig link below to get what I mean. Good that they are all doing so well!

That was Charles Mitchell's one at the last fish show. Apparently she was seven years old and particularly well patterned. I have a few fat two year old ones. Lovely fish! Yet to see one in the wild though.

Just had a thought for those of you struggling to find crays. There is an old maori technique of tying together a bundle of bracken and submerging it, then pulling it up (the next day?) and picking out all the crays. Gives them places to hide you see. I know the technique was used for lakes, as the crays have eaten any plants that were there so there were limited hiding options. I imagine it would also work in streams with little cover other than rocks. (Remember to tie the bunch to something solid) It wouldn't have to be bracken. The point is something complex for them to climb into. Something to try in the cold months when we are all wusses and don't want to get too wet!

mj, so true....! Pretty much all natives are little brown fish, they just come in different shapes and shades!

CHILLER - You lucky sod! I sooooo want your basement! WEED - "floating piles of despair" oh that is a wonderful description! And sadly true. Anything they can't pull to bits they will uproot. STOCKING - That is a low stocking level. Very low compared to the number of fish most people would have. I think you will be fine filling it up, the filter will more than be able to cope. FEEDING - Grass! I hadn't heard of that one! I could imagine it though. Mine mostly get what the fish miss (ox heart), fish poo (yeah it's gross, but he has a choice!), sinking pellets and frozen peas (when the supposedly carnivorous fish miss them!). Just chuck in small bits of frozen vegie is easiest. They are naturally detritivores eating 95% vegetable matter in the wild. Excited yet? :bounce:

Why so little? The depth won't worry the critters, and the bigger the volume the more stable the water quality and temperature is. Personally I would biff the substrate and get some from a river bank. If you want your aquarium to look like an aquarium, use commercial substrate. If you want it to look like a stream, get some gravel from a stream. Personal choice though. Wood can look nice in an aquarium, if it is the right size/shape. The leaching is tannins (the same stuff that colours tea). I like it in my kokpopu tank, which is modeled on a deep pool in a slow bush stream. All depends on the look you are going for. Mostly it only changes the water slightly yellowish, and it does not affect the fish or water quality. Snails... some people hate them, others love them. I always thought snails were cool. No idea what type they are sorry. There definitely won't be any good bacteria left in the filter. Have a read-up on cycling an aquarium. There are probably as many ways of cycling as there are articles, your brain probably will explode. I still like www.skepticalaquarist.com for this sort of thing. Complex but ACCURATE. I don't know how to get into that filter.... often they sort of screw off, or unclip or something... good luck! Give whatever is in there a good clean, and throw out and black gritty things, it will be expired carbon. I wouldn't bother replacing it, it constantly needs replacing and probably wouldn't do much on that volume. Oh, do a search on the filter model, you will probably find some instructions or similar. Have a look in Bunnings or similar, lots of bits and pieces in the fluroesent light section can be useful for aquarium lights. And a piece of plastic guttering turned upsidedown makes a good cover Expect the cray to eat any shrimp it can get it's claws on. Seriously, plants suck in native tanks. They get covered in alage, they don't like current and the lower light levels that look good for natives are not good for plants. Personal choice though. Oh, ignore anyhting anyone says about using a chemical dechlorinator. Kills crays. Chlorine evaporates if the water sits in a bucket overnight, or if you blast the water into a bucket (that chlorine smell is it escaping!). What next.... Tear everything apart and clean it. Buy any bits and pieces you need (an electric timer is great for the lights!) Read about cycling an aquarium. Read about cycling an aquarium again Set up the tank: Situate in a spot away from heat sources and windows but near to a powerpoint. Check that you are quite happy sitting on top of the stand. Wiggle a little. It needs to be strong! Put polystyrene under that tank. Add substrate and rocks creating lots of caves. Add filter (try in a corner a little hidden behind some rocks) Add water (from the stream would be great, bacteria not killed by chlorine) Switch everything on. Expect the water to be cloudy. This should mostly be settled by tomorrow. Leave it alone for a week to settle and so you are happy everything works and isn't leaking.

please tell me all those bags are recyclable or biodegradable?

I suppose there are streams they *aren't* in..... Really they are all over the show. Not necessarily heaps, but if you look they should be there. If you can't see them, get a net out in the weeds or start lifting rocks. Most native fish (and crayfish and shrimp) you won't see unless caught.

Yeah, there are 5.4 species that make up 'whitebait'. The galaxiids make up the 5: Inanga (Galaxias maculatus) - most commonwhitebait, circa 95% of total catch. 10cm-ish. Lives one year, dying after spawning. Koaro (Galaxias brevipinnis) - second most common. Lives in very fast flowing, bouldery streams. Grow to about 20cm long. Banded kokopu (Galaxias fasciatus) - quite a stroppy fish, bit of a lurker. Lives in sluggish bush streams. 20-25cm. Giant kokopu (Galaxias argenteus) - Biggest native freshwater fish (apart from eels) 30-40cm usually, biggest recorded was 58cm. Not good eating. Like bandeds, lives in sluggish bush streams, under overhands etc. Possibly lives 20 years or so. On the threatened species list: gradual decline. Shortjaw kokopu (Galaxias postvectus) - lives in fast flowing boundery streams, but in the pools under large rocks. Often quite docile. 20cm-ish On the threatened species list: gradual decline. And now why i said there were 5.4 species.... smelt are counted at whitebait, but 'second class' ones, as they taste and smell like cucumber! Apparently it is stronger when cooked. Smelt (Retropinna retropinna, and Stokellia anisodon) - shimmery silver, has scales whereas galaxiids have thick skin. Inclined to die very very quickly after being caught. (sorry about the weird combination of photo-sizes....)

Compare your photo with this one of mine, who was a large female with a huge horde of babies or eggs under her tail. She has more pigment because she is big. Sadly she died soon after... with her legs nibbled off! I hope it wasn't the babies....

males are smaller than females since they become females when they are older. THough quite what is happening during the crossover stage (fertile or infertile? hermaphroditic or what?) Yeah, apparently having both sexes together is useful when trying to breed things Big ones get to about 3.5cm.

Cam, that's the one! I have no idea what defines a glass shrimp. There may be a lot of things called that. Paratya curvirostris is definitely the name of the native freshwater shrimp (which is kinda technically brackish water also)

They are just freshwater shrimp, can't remember the scientific name off hand. They eat algae and biofilms. They don't lay eggs. Well, they do but they hold them under their tails till they have hatched and moulted a few times, like freshwater crayfish and crabs. I don't know if it is ok to say, I get confused with with what is ok or not with trademe, but I do not think they are actually freshwater shrimp for sale, by the tiny pic they look like mysis shrimp, hence possibly the claim that they lay 1000 eggs per day. Thus take anything said on the site they link to with a little caution if you are looking at actual freshwater shrimp. Just remembered, the freshwater shrimp are not entirely freshwater, I think they need brackish to breed. No idea how to do it or if it has been done.

They could easily be there, they are more readily found near the sea (I have only seen one here in Palmy, too inland really). Baby crayfish look exactly like big crayfish, and are probably opaque. Shrimp get to about 3cm.

yes, one species, it is very cool. Starts off as a fertile male then grows up to be a fertile female! Only shrimp species in the world that does this. There are a few discussions about them here, do an archive search. They can be kept in aquaria but in COLD water, not tropical. (people do, but it is not fair on the shrimp!)

Sadly there isn't, but I hope to change that one day! The Coldwater section is a fairly good bet though.

Hi and welcome! Crays do rock, they make neat pets. If you haven't done so already, search the archives. A lot of threads exist about looking after and finding them. You may wind up creating a lot of confusion calling them 'yabbies'. That is an australian species. While it is a valid generalised term, people do tend to think australian and you might wind up with people telling you they are not available or are illegal here.... Most people call our native onescrayfish or koura. 1) What're the minimum dimensions for a yabbie tank? As always, the bigger the better. Stretching to a bigger tank will keep you and your cray happier for much longer Depth is of little concern, but go for as much floor space as you can get. Also larger volumes are much more stable when it comes to water quality. 2) What's the deal with filtering and aerating the water? Would these have to be running 24/7, or just during the day, or even not at all? What about power consumption? If you have filtration that circulates the water suitably you won't need to worry about aeration, the circulation does that for you. How new are you to fishkeeping? I suggest doing some reading about filters, it is a huge topic on its own. I find this site to be excellent http://skepticalaquarist.com/ it debunks a lot of pervasive myths, and tells you WHY you do things, not just the HOW. 3) How often would I have to change the water on the larger tank (80*30*30) to keep my yabbie happy? There are no hard and fast rules with any of that. Personally I change about 30% of the water every week on my tanks. It all depends on the loading, feeding, filtration etc. Very individual. THe good/bad thing with keeping natives is there are no algae eaters to visually 'clean' your tank for you. I think a lot of people think their water quality is fine because the tank looks clean. 4) I'm sometimes away from my place for up to 3 days, but generally no more. Could my yabbie sustain himself on a piece of carrot/other for this long? It will be fine. By nature they are scavengers and are always roaming looking for food. A few things could be left that wouldn't go off (like a bit of aquatic plant etc) but they would be fine left without anything for a week or so. 5) Legalities, apparently they need a licence or something. No problems, but would appreciate the clarification. You do not need a license. Not for crayfish or any other native fish. To keep, kill, eat, whatever, no license is required. Legally you may NOT: Take from DOC land or similar Take more than 50 per day Sell them Legally you need a permit to return them to the wild, even if it is exactly where it came from. All a bit odd, but you need to know the laws. If you choose to forgo this, only ever return healthy animals from healthy tanks to the exact spot it came from. 6) Summer heat? Will it just adjust to the changes in temperature, or will it just drop dead. There's no fun in growing attached to a wee critter just for him to die! A stressed cray looks like a dead cray, only it is stiff. A dead cray is all floppy. (oh and a skin looks like a dead cray, only the cray is no longer home! ) Cooling is important for most people wishing to keep natives successfully. Again the bigger the volume the less dramatically the temperature fluctuates. Situate the tank in a cooler spot to begin with. Do a search of the archives, there are many threads about this each summer. 7) Where on earth could I source a suitable yabbie in CHCH, I have heard of others complaining they are hard to catch. (you could suggest a Great Christchurch Crayfish Hunt in summer Maybe it is a winter thing, I know the south island ones slow down a lot over winter. Wait till you can bear getting your feet wet and take some nets down to a stream. Put the net downstream of a rock, lift the rock and all the fish, leaves and muck underneath will flow into it. Occasionally you will get a cray They are most likely to be found in slow areas of streams. 8) Does anyone have any links to fish keeping guides that are especially applicable to keeping yabbies? There's a lot of information out there, but nothing really suited to what I'm hoping to achieve. That is precisely why I started writing my book on keeping native fish (and misc other critters) in aquaria! It is still a wee while off being printed, but is looking awesome. In lieu of that, as I keep saying, the archives here are great. I (and many others) have written over and over about keeping these guys. Also get familiar with google scholar: http://scholar.google.co.nz most of the information about these guys is in scientific papers. It can be very handy keeping www.dictionary.com open at the same time! Also, I understand there are some lovely specimens at the Southern Encounters aquarium in Christchurch. Go and have a look, but also ask to speak with whoever looks after them and fire a few questions at them 9) Does this sound like a good idea at all, for someone with NO fishtank experience to go ahead and try and grow a yabbie? Easy peasy

Wow that really sucks. I have never met you or anything, but that article brought tears to my eyes. That must be a HORRIBLE situation to be living in for so long. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Technically you can keep a couple together, but chances are you will wind up with one big cray in hte end. Even if they seem to get one fine, they are quite at risk of cannibalism when they moult (less crunchy and somewhat preoccupied). And just tell any hungry humans that they came from the local sewerage settling ponds

At night they are often seen out and about. Though you need a stream that is not too deep, too turbulent or the surface is too broken, so you can see through it. When catching a cray that is out and about, put your net BEHIND it and scare it backwards with a pokey stick. They shoot back with a sharp flick of the tail. They are also frequently caught when doing the trick of putting a net downstream of a rock and lifting the rock. Also a good way of catching fish, invertebrates, leaves and general muck... If you want to pick them up, it is quite safe to do so be grasping either side of the carapace ('thorax', or bit between the head and the tail...). Personally each time I try I squeal like a girl and drop it the moment it starts to move... despite knowing it cant grab me back.... :roll: :lol: Bear in mind they can stress quite badly. A stressed cray looks much like a dead cray but is really stiff (a dead one is all floppy). I haven't had too much trouble with that, just know what to look for. Tank: I can't say it often enough: HIGING PLACES! A big pile of rocks with many nooks and caves is great. The more hiding places the safer the cray feels and it will be out and about more. Please tell us all about your trips! Take your camera (oh and if you are going at night, check your torch batteris first, I speak from experience :roll: ) Crays do ROCK as pets!

ooh Supasi, what did you write?

That is impressive! I have a crispy-dried fish that 'lives' on top of my fish tank as a reminder to be careful with the lids. (ok so it is slightly tucked out of sight of random guests but it works for me as a reminder.) (Actually come to think of it, I think any guests would have enough to worry about me with the random mustelid skull, bird nest with baby bird skeletons in the bottom and a dried out dead cray.... I need to stop having people over....!

Caryl, you have an article from me for this one don't you? Barrie, I'll bet he did! :lol:

No, on another site he was trying to sell some apple snails but there wound up being a huge discussion about the crays. He says he was catching crays and some MAF guy got talking to him and told him he needed a license to keep them. He apparently paid $15 for it and the license is to go with the cray if it is sold. Sounds like utter BS to me. To those who don't know, I am writing a book on keeping natives including crays and had a lot of input from DOC on the legalities. I honestly wonder if someone invented the 'license' for this guy. Seriously anyone can catch/keep/kill/eat/feed to the dog without a license or permit or anything. Just you can't return them to the wild without a permit, and you can 'only' take 50 per day.