Whiskas

Yes they are gold rams but they are not balloons - have one of those and the body shape quite different, much more rounded! Although in saying that the male isn't as streamlined as the female... I think i needed to leave dad in as i can now only count around 7 (?) lil fellas swimming around O well its all a learning curve

Just thought i would share this pic: Eggs laid last friday. Parents have been VERY good at the parenting thing - just removed them today. Hopefully I do as good a job from now on!!!

Aint Bumble Bee Gobies cool!! And that tank looks amazing!! Did you get those barnacle things from the beach?

yep leopardfish

Poor BEAUTIFUL fish!!! And poor children!! Have no idea what it could be - I had a similar thing happen when I started my fish on new food, All sorts of weird things hapened to them and all but one died Check the food...? Otherwise could it be shedding due to some kind of irritant?

the substrate is layered up as follows - sand, small roundish stones and the medium to large size rounded stones - none of which are sharp! The other things in the tank are plants, cockatoo cichlids and a resin rock formation thing. They get fed on algae tablets and i think its prawn tablets??? (they are pink, whatever they are), plus of course they get wateva else sinks to the bottom. BTW thanks for the link to the discussion southerngirl - it sounds very similar. My first thought was to pull mums tank apart, which we did. We siphoned the smaller gravel and sand, and chucked in some melafix before putting the fishes back. One of the cories died - maybe as a result of the pull apart?? Mum is not so good at keeping up with the dosing, maybe i will have to go do it :roll:

HI all, noticed my mums cories have white mouths - and no i dont mean it as a natural colour!! :lol: They dont look fluffy just white and they dont have those feeler-like things on the sides of their mouths. Anyone know what this could be? Checked the pH it was a bit on the acidic side, but fixed that with a couple of shells. She does regular 10% water changes, but has alot of green algae growing - maybe due to the sunlight the tank gets throught hte window? Ohter than their mouths being white and just not looking right, the fish seem happy enough....?

Hey Minchton, how did you go? Did the rain stop without any more destruction to your ponds???

dunno much - actually nuthin - about spiders! O hang on yes i do - they can eat baby fish! lol It was a decent size a guesstimate would be 5cm across (when splayed) or maybe a lil more (they always seem HUGE when you dont like them! So i scaled down the size i remember it to be) and a browny tan colour, wasn't very hairy that i noticed (not like a tarantula or anything anyways) - i guess you could say it was pretty :-? Went out to take a pic the day i realised all the baby fish were gone and the spider was gone too, otherwise could have been of more help. If it turns up again i will get a pic and post it.

I got bumblebee gobies from Hutt Pets - they are way cool and hilarious to watch when you drop something like mosquito larvae into their tank! They will eat so many they have them poking out of their mouths. I have a guppy in with them at the mo and at first they were nibbling its fins but now they co-exist quite happily. And yes i have it set up as brackish, made with tap water and aquarium salt/rock salt.

That water spiders ate baby goldfish! I had a large bucket/plastic container with around 15 young goldfish from this years spawning and they were growing well when one day i noticed a spider hanging out on top of the water - didn't think much of it. Went out again a few days later and the spider was still there, quite a good sized brown thing. I dont particularly like spiders! so i poked it with a stick, it attacked the stick then dove under the water. The spider has been living there for near on a month and the baby goldfish were around 1cm, some more, some less - now only 4 babies are left, no bodies to be found and the spider has now gone or rather i haven't seen it the last week or so. Wish i had realised sooner! Damn him! the babies were some really nice shubunkins!! Hope the spider doesn't come back next year!!

BUGGER!! I have an inground pond and left the hose running in it for 5hrs once (obviously unintentially!) came home to find the cats had had a good feed of the fish that got washed/swam over the edge onto the lawn (sometimes happens when it rains alot, but usually the fish aren't too near the top whizzing around when it is raining) - no where near as devastating as your pond collapsing and having to save the flappers though!!!! HOpe the rain stops soon so you can start your rebuild and your 2 leftover ponds dont collapse too! GOOD LUCK

what about the xray machine - wont that "see" them!?

was just wondering how it goes with domestic travel with fish - just in case i go to Auckland for a holiday and buy a fish, which i would then need to fly home

Are fish ok to travel from Auckland to Welly on the plane?

Mine gets up to 30, sometimes more! And that is with the lids and lights off! The fish dont seem to mind even the cool - coldwater fish seem ok

Just wanted to show you guys my hi-fin platies: Here you can see 3 out of 5 of my hi-fins. The 2 females I raised from a single female who was preggy when i got her from the pet shop - i liked her unusual fin shape (going to a point) - unfortunately she died not soon after dropping her fry. The 3 daughters that i kept were the biggest strongest etc. The rest got eaten or taken to the petshop. The boy (in the back) i got from the petshop along with another who looks the same but with black fins. This pic better shows the male - dont have one of the male with black fins. The girls have been dropping fry but i dont save them - survival of the fittest Some of the young dont appear to have the hi-fin, but the rest look either like mum or like dad (without black fins!)

here a pic: (quality not best as took it with cellphone)

I think the poor lil fellow died The injury may have been worse that i first thought. I put him in the wood shed yesday (no way for the cats to get in there!). But this morn he is still there. Maybe he needs to warm up before he moves or something - but i haven't seen him take a breath when i have checked on him. Thanks for the idea - if she catches another skink i will contact my local DOC office - didn't think of that before!!! :roll: I will take a pic when i get home and post it so you guys can take a look

I realise that it is illegal to take them from teh wild - but i also thought it may be illegal to kill them, which is what will happen if i re-release him at home and as much as they creep me out i dont want them to die! I have contacted the herpetology (sp?) people via the website you have given - thanks for that The cats have bells but they are pretty wiley!! If i can find where the skinks are hanging out i can fence it off or cover it to protect them - but they are soooo hard to find and they may be living in the derelict, abandoned house next door!

ok i realise these aren't really NZ aquatic animals but i wasn't sure where to ask My cat must have found a stash of brown skinks as for the second day in a row she has caught one - this time i was able to get to it before she killed it. It is in a icecream container at the mo to give it time to recover (i put in a little lid with some water and sugar mix in it for him to drink but i really have no idea what they like!) - but what should i do with it? I dont really want to let it go in the garden cos there isn't much cover and i dont want the cat to finish it off! What kind of environment do they like? So i can hoefully find a place in the wairarapa suitable to relocate him to. Or does anyone on here have a license to keep native skinks etc that would like to give him a home? He still has his tail and just has a small wound on his back.

so is the 2 for 1 sale at Animates just until sunday 25th January?

i woulda thought that him being out of the water wouldn't have hurt him that much as in Mexico Axolotyls leave their water and wander across the ground to get to new habitats (I asked a mexican who came to stay with us and she told me this). Best of luck with yours and hopefully he gets all better and doesn't attempt a silly stunt like that again!!

one female guppy - but perhaps it was just her time...

Sometimes just removing the glass top is enough to stop it from getting too hot!! Thats what i do nways.