Souxsi

Greetings nice to meet you!

Greetings!! I am from Tucson, lived there 12 years. Albuquerque NM before that. It was quite common to see rattlesnakes sunning themselves in the morning. I was a tomboy kinda, and preferred horned toads and tarantulas to nailpolish for the most part :lol: Big hairy spiders aren't that scary if you grow up with them. The ones north of Mexico don't even bite at all, and they are really fascinating to watch. There's some really beautfiful ones too like the asian bird eating ones (those DO bite!) which are black which gorgeous violet-blue bits on their legs. Iquanas are really cool, and very common in pet stores in the states cause they are easy to breed. It's kind of sad tho, the males get nasty as breeding age adults, and people don't listen when you tell them he'll get 6 feet at least, and tail whip the snot out of you. females are pretty docile, but really just making sure they have adaquate housing (they require a LOT of space, and high up too, being arboreal, or tree dwelling) and plenty of roughage to munch on is what they need. I've been in touch with some of the reptile peeps here in NZ since this thread was started, and as soon as I get some space I'll start keeping some of the fascinating little geckos you have here. They are amazing little guys!!! So fascinating, and there is a real need for captive breeding here with their varying endangered status Those of you interested in them check this out: http://www.reptiles.org.nz/gallery.htmThe cool thing about them is they only require a patch of backyard really!

ok, thanks for the answers, Ill check my lvls and not feel guilty any longer =)

I have a young male BN and one baby angel, picked up both Saturday from Jansen's. They are settling fine! The angel is pretty gregarious, coming to say hello and rarely spooked by anything. I give him a tiny pinches of flakes 2 or three times a day, and a few frozen and rinsed brine shrimp or blackworms every other day or so. My question is, is that enough? He is always hungry looking, and never stops munching! I just can't imagine such a teeny fish being able to eat much more, but maybe growing fish can!

Good luck with them! If I had room I'd definitely take a couple!

Thank you so much! We have picked up a BN and an angel from the LFS this last weekend. They are settling in fine, tho the BN is extremely shy!! If I had any room for more I would take you up on it, those little guys are the cutest things ever. Thanks again

Thanks guys for all the suggestions, it's good to know about the options here. We went to jansen's this morning as its the place we;ve gone through the whole setup and we haven't had a bad experience there yet. The guy (Aaron i think his name is) is always very helpful and friendly, and I always leave feeling confident and informed. We picked out a BN, a larger youngin that he'd been raising in the big planted waterfall tank (he's sooo cute just getting bristles!) and we also got a stripey baby angel, which are floating as we speak in their new home. (In their bags, not the bad floating). We thought starting with just a coupel would be good for a small, new tank. Will post a pic soon!

Sorry if there is already a thread about this, I wasn't able to do a forum search. What stores in Auckland have you found to have the best selection fo fish? Products and Foodstuffs? I live downtown and have only been to Jansens so far.

I know this is also late, but for next time: When I bred these cute little buggers I used mainly tiny brine shrimp. I just turkey basted a lot into a micro net, rinsed, and dumped it in the frys tank... they loved it. You can buy a hatchery or make your own. I'm not sure how much packets of brine shrimp eggs go for here, but they were cheap in the US. Btw how are the babies doing??

I also kept some dwarf puffers when I was in the states. These little guys are soso worth it. they don't need a lot of space, but do be careful with their housemates, they are notoriously aggressive and don't seem to realize how minute they are. They follow you with their eyes and come out to see you when you feed em, getting very excited. They have really expressive personalities, I loved them. Being pretty inexperienced I will add that I had some issues. We had a pair in a 10 gallon tank, and the female never lasted long. She wasn't bullied or anything, Just died mysteriously and we'd get another fem to replace her every few months. We eventually named them Harold and Maude after the movie, which is only funny if you've seen it.

I just spent the last 11 hours in between tv, laundry, cooking dinner, and other house wife duties reading that whole thread. His tank is beyond amazing, but I also love his humorous and humble personality. He sounds like a really interesting guy. I am in awe of the hands on experience and knowledge he's gained! I would love to go spend a day just watching the fish in his tanks, and watching the schools of cichlids dashing around beside the monsters. Makes my 95L a veritable goldfish bowl. Very very cool, thanks for directing us to that site!

It's my first community tank, yes. I've kept a few fish before, but nothing like this. I had small tanks in the states, mostly betas, which I did successfully breed (they were easy as). Also I've kept a couple of adorable dwarf puffers (Tetraodon travancoricus) which had way more personality then a tiny little fish would be expected to have. About snakes, really they are great! I can understand peoples initial fear of them, but honestly they are mostly timid creatures, and if well handled they rarely ever bite. Depends on species of course, I kept mainly ball(royal) pythons. They are constrictors and nothing was so cool as feeding them My favorite lizards were Pagona vitticeps, or bearded dragons. One of them, Nero, was like my best mate. I could go anywhere with him and he'd just stay up on my shoulder, even while I drove. He never once bit anyone (well he would bite if I wore red nailpolish cause he thougth it was strawberries, his favorite food but would stop as soon as he could tell it wasn't lol). Eventually I will get another dragon, but we just don't have the space in this apt. I'm excited to try fishkeeping!

My condolences to all who knew her, esp her family.

Heck yah, I'd love to. I just found this site a day or two ago, so hooking up with others with same interest (and a lot more experience with fish) would be wonderful

CBD, bottom of Queen st and thanks!

Sounds win/win to me, if he'd like to! Talk to him about it and get back to me If not that's fine, I was going to head to Jensens to pick one out this weekend. I still need to grab food and water conditioner as well anyway. And Caryl those bristlenoses are really cute, I think we'd decided one of them as well. We have driftwood, but i'll pick up the pellet type chips as well.

Thanks for the greetings and advice! In that case, I will start out with the angels right away (oh im soso excited)! I have read they do better as a single or in a school, so should I just get one angel and a bottom feeder? I have read a lot but even the books seem to all give different advice. I'd rather follow experience over pubication at this point. The name Souxsi is a bastardization of Siouxsie from Siouxsie and the Banshees. I used it on IRC from a loooong time ago and just kept it as a nick online

I hope there's still a chance i can sign up for this since it was postponed!!! Hope you are having a great time in AZ, I'm jealous being from Tucson- I miss home!

Greetings! Nice to see a place for info and such. I'm from Arizona, so it's been kind of rough figuring out what is available. I'm a long time reptile geek, but we don't have room for a big leezard enclosure and no snakes allowed! SO fish are the answer! I have a 95liter tall tank, one of the Sunsun ones off trade-me. It's planted and has been running for around 4 months. The plants seem to be doing fine and the water is clear, so this weekend Ill be getting my first fish. The question is what should I get? Eventually I would like an angelfish.. I was thinking of a small school of tetra to start with but I read angels eat tetras sooo what should I get? Any suggestions for a warm freshwater tank noob?