Stella

There is actually a fair bit of interest just in my tanks, seem to be a few people down that way keen to try native fish, so at least a good chunk of those people would still come if it was only me showing tanks! I also have asked a guy I know who works at Wet Pets to get hold of some of the people he knows who could be interested in showing their tanks, which will probably turn up something interesting! There will probably also be a visit to Wet Pets included.

I have had crabs for six months. And I *still* find it entertaining! No need for tank crawl hosts to have fishrooms, just one tank is fine. Always interesting things to see and learn :-) Bilbo, what sort of fish do you have? Thanks heaps for volunteering : :bounce:

Not knowing what this tank is like.... do you mean it doesn't have a single flat surface as the bottom, but a lip around the edge? Lots of polystyrene... one of those very thin camping 'mattresses'... filling the recessed area with some kind of stuff that starts as goo then sets...... wouldn't have to be perfect but would level it out a lot.

Oh! And six tiny freshwater crabs! Yes. I have crabs.

How are the ideas going for the native tank?

Hi Mystic, As there is no palmy club the number of tanks will depend entirely on those on the forum volunteering.... As for my tanks I have.... 4 foot tank with a 'forest stream' theme containing all 3 kokopu species (giant, banded and shortjaw) 4 foot tank based on the fast flowing rocky riffles (with 7000lph flow!) with torrentfish, bullies (redfin, upland, cran's, common, bluegill) and a couple of ancient inanga. 3 foot wetland tank with two fat brown mudfish. Also by then I may have some dwarf galaxias by then (found some yesterday, totally unexpected! Just need to organise a quarantine tank and make another trip back.)

Hehehe nice to see some enthusiasm! 114 hits and no one has volunteered their tank yet! Unfortunately I don't know anyone to 'volunteer' forcibly... I am poking one contact who may be useful. Anyway, there is still plenty of time. Of course random others are welcome along too! (there have been a few Wanganui people talking to me about natives)

Whereas I didn't realise there were so many! Or that ancistris were plecos...

Hi Palmy People! The Kapi-Mana club are coming up to visit us for a tank crawl on Saturday 26th July! So far the crawl consists of my Native Fish tanks.... help me out here For those who have never done a tank crawl before... basically everyone goes around as a group looking at everyone's tanks. It is really interesting getting to see how other people do it as well as getting to show off all your hard work and maybe get some new ideas along the way. So maybe you don't have the perfect 6-foot tank with show-quality fish and not a leaf out of place? Not to worry, that is not the point of a tank crawl. Anyway, you have a month to get your tank, however humble, all cleaned up and ready to share Please register your interest in this thread so everyone knows, and also PM me with your address and some generic details about the type of tank/s you have so I can write up a quick route guide. Stella

Agreed about it barely being human! And anyway it is far too young to impose our warped gender constructs on it...

Use a fine aquarium net to scoop it up, repeat until all is gone. No worries! I have done that in some of my tanks when I don't want it any more. I have lemna on purpose in my mudfish and kokopu tanks, provides a bit of surface cover for them.

There is no Manawatu club at the moment (no one/ones who want to take on all the work basically) You can become a member of FNZAS by joining one of the other clubs (I belong to Marlborough), that way you get the magazines. There are a bunch of Manawatu people here, and I am supposed to be organising a local tank crawl for Kapi-Mana club people coming up some time in July.....

Been home an hour or so... nearly braindead from traveling! The ferry crossing was rather miserable, I still can't believe I *didn't* lose my lunch...! The fish were rather annoyed with me when I got in, but now have full tummies. Anyway, great meeting so many of you! So strange getting used to names having FACES rather than avatars! I also discovered a few genders etc were quite different from what I expected... :oops: Thanks heaps to those who put in all the hard work!

Stella Origin: Latin Meaning: Star Louise Origin: French Meaning: Battle Maiden

ME! I can't wait to meet everyone :)

Hi there, The native crab is very cool. I have six I started a thread about mine here: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/native ... 29120.html (the search function is very handy, and not disabled despite the claim) They are tiny and see-through, but they are pretty obvious in the net. When I visited Auckland I was amazed at how prevalent they were, not so many down here. Sorry I don't know any sites though... Size: to around 3cm, maybe 3.5 or 4 for a rally big one. The big ones are females, the little ones are males, they actually change gender as they get bigger! What coldwater fish won't eat them: ......fry? Really small fish? Seem to be tasty wee critters. Though the bigger problem is crushing them with in-tank maintenance! Purplecatfish is right: Search in vegetation. The main trick with catching native aquatic anything (fish, crays etc) is to place your net downstream and disturb something immediately upstream. Ruffle vegetation, lift stones etc. This time of your try two nets, or one net and a poke-y stick, so cold with your hand in the water! Most of the time you won't see a three quarters of what is in a stream before it is in your net, they are all good hiders. Are you asking how many shrimp alone in a six gallon tank? Not sure how many litres that is (sorry) but they are pretty small critters, should be able to have HEAPS! They live off algae, detritus, leftovers, misc.... you get the idea Just take some stones from the stream, don't clean them and put them in your tank, they will provide food and encourage more algae to grow. They eat pretty small amounts of anything, so actively feeding them may lead to overfeeding, but Purplecatfish has some good suggestions if you need to actively feed them.

Hi there, You could visit me I am within a 30 minute walking distance (just) and near wet pets I only have native fish.... two four foot tanks with a variety of species, and a three foot with a couple of mudfish. Thing is I work till 5, but I work right by where you are staying so I could walk you to my place, but would not want you to be walking home in the dark.... I guess it wouldn't be too late and you would be with your sister.... or we could do it saturday. Anyway, look at my photos below, check out last week's tank build here: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/tank-b ... 30815.html and let me know if you are interested.

Hi Someone ;P Sorry, be thankful I can remember anything these days, I seem to be so busy I can barely think a day ahead! And it is so much easier once I have a face to apply to the name. :oops: If the natives people (and others!) are specifically keen to come up and see my tanks, see if you can work out a date and let me know (NOT within the next four weeks....). Then I will start getting other palmy people interested and work out an itinerary for this end. Presumably also there would be other stops along the way.

someone was threatening a tank crawl up to palmy on my thread about my new riffle tank. Maybe someone should raise it at the meeting?

Hi Dixon, Should be ok in a tank that size. Just make sure you have decent filtration and cooling for summer. I have recently got rid of my 2foot tanks, they were too small. Partly because I had too many fish and not enough (any?) filtration. But a few small bullies in a tank that size should be fine Just remember plenty of places to hide and males can get aggressive.

try a PM to Nooboon. He is the one who runs that tank. Beware that he is also rarely on here.... A better bet would be to look up the Wet Pets email address and put Peter in the subject line. He responds quickly to that.

Native fish A couple of people here have them in ponds. I know about them more from an aquarium point of view.

COOL! Thanks for posting this, it is great to see what other natives enthusiasts are up to! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: I regret to inform you that your redfin bullies are not redfin bullies The cool thing is it is something I have read about but not seen before (I will get to why later). They do indeed have red in the fins, but I believe they are Cran's bullies! Reason: Male redfin bullies do not have a red stripe in their first dorsal, it is blue-green. Redfin bullies have three very conspicuous diagonal lines on the cheeks (yes there is a hint of a diagonal line through the eye in your pic, but look in my photos of the redfins, the lines are really obvious and on the cheeks below the eye). However Cran's bullies do have a red/orange stripe in the first dorsal (males), and on the cheeks they have kinda random spotting. Now the reason I say Cran's on this fish rather than uplands, who also have the red/orange first dorsal and facial spotting, is that the uplands have really distinct SPOTS, compared to the slightly blobby and irregular pattern on the Cran's. Also the upland ones are slightly orangey. (note there are peculiarities within species: the only uplands I have ever caught were from the Manawatu and have bright green dorsal stripes. I have seen ones caught in the Wairarapa that had yellow ones, the literature only ever says bright orange for uplands.) Common bullies are also supposed to have the orangey dorsal stripe, but if they were commons there would not be the obvious spotting and the head would be much more tapered. Now also the two photos (not sure if it is the same fish, I think it is) show a MALE Cran's. Only the males have the coloured dorsal stripe. Female will be similar but without any red/orange. Why am I excited? I have two Cran's bullies, both female so never seen the colouration, and those are the only Cran's I have really seen. Not that they are rare or anything, just not seen where I usually go. Adding to this huge reply... note the grammar: uplands commons redfins bluegills giants Cran's Cran's bullies were first described(?) by a Mr Cransfield. It is capitalised becasue it is a name and apostrophised because it denotes possession. The other names are merely descriptive. Cran's bullies and uplands are incredibly closely matched. They can be hard to tell apart at times, and the females of almost any bully are even harder to tell apart. The upland bully is like the southern counterpart of the Cran's, check out the distribution maps on the NIWA site http://www.niwa.cri.nz/rc/freshwater/fi ... eleotridae (actually that is a perfect example of what a redfin bully is, when at its most obvious!) Oh, and the fearsome bug is a dobsonfly larva. It wasn't titled so I don't know if you knew. Again thanks for posting these pics, really cool I hope you are not embarrassed for getting the species wrong, this is how you learn. I have certainly been there done that, we all have

I love the story, very entertainingly written! I have recently become a huge fan of four foot tanks, the fish get to move around much more naturally with more space, and they are easier to look after. Good luck with your girlfriend...!

LOL! Yes, I gave them to Pete! He has a lot of live food at his place to raise them on and i don't quite have the time or desire to do it myself at the moment (I would love to in the future though!). The eggs seem to be doing well. So far he has picked off four that died, which seems a pretty good 'survival' rate for the number of eggs that are there. I will go over today to have a look, he has been taking photos but sounded like he was having a little bit of difficulty with it.