acara

I fed my Polypterus Delhezi a variety of foods, mainly(but not in order) frozen lancefish, frozen bloodworm, live earthworm, mussels(we get very small ones here, no greenlips), Tetra cichlid sticks, live water louse, small slithers of fresh fish, any cull fry, JMC catfish pellets, and anything else it would hoover up, it wasn't a terribly fussy fish!

Yeah, they're cool fish, but I too am jealous of some of what you guys get down there, that are unavailable here.

Thanks guys. The betta are actually a mates, I offered to go halves, but he wanted them. I do sort of consider them mine though, as I'm always over there, and have a few fish in the place :bggrn: I'll be supplying him with live foods all summer, and hope to try and keep that going over the winter too. Currently I do gammarus, dapnia, bloodworm, mossie larvae, earthworms, etc, he does micro, white, black, earthworms. Guppy fry are used initially. We both do red cherry shrimp too. According to chats I've had with others that keep macrostoma, they are reasonably hard to keep, spawning is not difficult, but raising the fry is the problem. One guy lost his pair recently and it was enough to make him give up fish keeping. This pair are like any other betta I've had, walk into the shed and they're straight up to the glass, following you around, and like angels, are the pigs of the aquatic world, they will eat everything, and can't get enough food. The other day the male displayed to the female, so fingers crossed. If anybody can breed something, this guy can, his list of current and recent species bred is impressive. He only does Sth Americans, mainly wild caught, but I chipped away at him to get these beauts. His shed cost €30k and we had great fun designing it. He then went to SA with Heiko Bleher for a 2wk trip into a couple of un-explored spots(by white man anyways), and bought back 10 boxes of fish, a few of which I still have here. As previously mentioned, bettas are not hard to breed, most mouthbrooders I've kept only require a pair and some water. Biggest issue is shifting the fry. They are pigs, and will eat anything, good laugh watching them chasing mossie larvae, dapnia, etc around.

Typed out a nice long post, then lost it. I have offloaded most of my fish in the last year, nearly giving up the hobby, mainly due to lack of time and horrific heating bills. However, the local shops are getting in some nice stuff which has got the juices stirring agin. Here's this weeks buys, the bettas were special order, the peppermint pikeheads were an impulse buy in a cheap chainstore (Maxizoo). Sorry for lack of quality, only had the point and shoot cam with me. Colours aren't what you'd expect, but fish were only minutes in the tank. The pikeheads came straight out of the bag and milled a few guppy fry. Aim is to not feed as much live food as poss, but to get onto frozen and dry. The bettas had guppies cycling tank, and to stock with live food, but the bettas landed late at night, so were put in tank and not checked for 24hrs, so we hadn't time to get guppies out, 24hr later bettas were fat, and there was a few guppy heads on bottom of tank! Female macrostoma Big daddy(hopefully!!) Chris Lukhaup, a true gent, dropped by to show us how it's done

@ David R, I've been to Crete for a couple of 14nt 'package' holidays, but always rent a car and head off to see the sites. Military history, particularly the two WW's has been my interest since knee high to a grasshopper, so I've done a lot of the sites there in relation to the Battle. I've nothing but admiration for the lads that served there, and I must say, the attitude of the locals towards me changes quite significantly once they find out I'm a Kiwi. They're so use to the boozy Brits and drunken Irish and think I'm just another of them. Second trip I arrived at hotel on a coach load from Ireland, and they were all a bit miffed that I got free air-con, they had to pay €60 a week On a few nights away from the resort, we stayed in a room owned by an old chap, and he was delighted to hear I was a Kiwi, showed me around his herb garden that he was so proud of, and told me of taking food as a kid up to the Kiwi soldiers hiding in the caves, one of the soldiers sons often goes and visit him. I've done ANZAC Day at Galipoli, and whilst it was special, Crete is up there too. A favourite spot is the German Cemetery. I photographed every Kiwi grave in Souda Bay, so if anyone requires a photo of a prticular grave, let me know. As for this years dawn service, it poured in Dublin, but that didn't stop us. had a mug of rum at 0715 with the Lord Mayor, and later in the evening went to the church service, followed by drinks at the Mansion House, and I had a few scoops of the black stuff courtesy of the Lord mayor.

I went the other way,born in NZ,left at 24yrs for a year,ended up in Scotland(grannies born there)for 3.5yrs,then stuck in Ireland for last 12yr.

I did see that they were going to start exporting,but havn't heard anymore lately. I'll see if I can find out anymore. Thanks.

I don't mean to gloat,I do see fish you guys get,that I can't. One of my dream tanks would be a NZ native,I've seen some stunning ones on this forum.

Due to pm's I'm receiving re importing our own fish,please note my location!

Funny,mine loved them,were apawning like mad,but then that's what shellies are best at! Yours obviously have a bit more taste and class than mine!

Never put a photo up here,so will try,have a bit of vino onboard,so may not get it right 1st time! I think it's a johanna,not confirmed. This is her when I was acclimatising her,dripping water into a 70ltr tank,so she's well stressed and not showing her colours as best she could.

Have you tried escargot shells? Ask any French restaurants,etc. When we're in the Greek Islands we see plenty of stalls selling shells like the site above. I can't stand them,I'd rather they weren't collected just to decorate someones mantle piece or whatever,best left alive in the sea if you ask me.

I have a lovely female C.johanna,about 14inches. She bunks in with 2 quite large Aequidens,one of which is very dominant and there's a bit of jaw locking occaisionaly,but nothing serious. I've thrown in several small fish earlier on when I first got her,but never saw her take one,though that wasn't the reason I put them there. Thankfully I now have her on dry and frozen food,so no need for feeders now. I've never had more than one in a tank,so can't comment on conspecific aggression. A couple of us are putting together an order for import,and C.regani are on it,and well priced. I lost a young C.saxitilis a couple of years ago. Will get some pics up when I get a chance.

I'm looking after a mates fish shed for a couple of weeks,and he's got several wild types,I don't know the first thing about them,but he will be back on Tuesday,and he can id pretty much any discus. He has ones that look to me like this,and they've fry for the last week. He is actually up a creek in Colombia at the moment with his pal,Heiko Bleher. Cost a fortune,but man I can't wait to see the photos and videos. He's also bringing back 10 boxes of what they caught,and a few from the wholesalers. :happy1: :happy1:

Good choice,I only use Sennheiser,great quality at a good price.

I text my brother asking this,he is airport security in NZ. The reply was,yes,you can.

3 of us here say beard! If he were to stay clean shaven,I think he would look better with shorter hair.

Congrats,and well done on getting the meeting with MAF. Great to see people making the effort,I hope you get the results you're after. Like you said,there needs to be a market to make it viable,most bettas are species that need specialised care,and are not for the 'community' tank. Actually,I,from my experience,would say all bettas,including splendens,should be in species tanks. For example,I have the species I mentioned,and lets take B.enisae,my fry are at the stage they need to be seperated from not only the parents,but also themselves,and the parents could do with a spell apart,so that means a minimum of 4 tanks,for the one species. The minimum I house enisae in is a 2ft tank. There will be alimited market for my fry,and then they won't fetch much of a price. They probably need to be shipped seperatley too,and this will push the costs up,although shipping at a young stage can help. I really enjoy keeping them though,and they are amazing little characters,I just loved sitting watching my channoides hunting out food,the way they turn their heads and move looks inteligent,similar to puffers,etc. Ten minutes ago I threw a load of small dapnia in with the rutilans,and sat and watched the hunt,with a glass of Bowmore.

I don't know where to view these lists of allowable NZ imports,but wonder would it be worth requesting the powers that be to look into adding a few species? To give an example,the Irish govt did not recognise the NZ drivers license,although the roads laws are extremely similar,yet they recognised many others that had vastly different laws. A Kiwi mate of mine had to go through the whole learners type thing for a couple of years,even though he'd been driving for 15yrs. Earlier this year,after lobbying from Kiwis here,the NZ license is now recognised. Maybe the same could be achieved with getting a few more species on the NZ lists?

Just to annoy you,I have B.rutilans,B.edithae,my B.falx and B.enisae are breeding plenty. I use to have B.albimarginata,B.channoides,B.imbellis(great spawners). My LFS had a pair of B.macrostoma last month,but I didn't trust myself enough to keep them,they ended up dieing in the shop. I have B.foerschi on order,well possibly them,they'r listed as B.sp pudukuru or some such name. I have access to a few suppliers lists,so putting together an order for early next year. Macrostoma are the ultimate aim,just not til I finish shed properly,and gain more experience with bettas.

Horrid tank,obviously somewhere in Asia,the discus are horrible,man made jelly beans. Give me wilds any day. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

I have never used yeast on any culture of live foods,and have great success. In the meantime why not try frozen baby brine shrimp,or even the product in the link below,it's brilliant stuff,lasts a long time,and there's no waste. Will give you a chance to get your cultures established. http://www.oceannutrition.eu/products.aspx?Product=instant-baby-brine-shrimp

I finally moved a couple of tanks around tonight,had been meaning to do it for weeks. One of them has a male Betta falx and several females I got from Anton Lamboj,who collected the parents in Borneo. I'd seen the male holding a couple of times,but had no means to save fry,so left them to it,but never saw a fry. After moving the adults,I syphoned out a load of sand,pebbles,and a hell of a lot of 'leaf litter' from the bottom. I then noticed a loan fry in the quarter inch of water left,so put it in a guppy trap with adults,then saw one stuck to side of empty tank,looked in bucket of gunge and there was a half dazed one floating around. I emptied most water out of the bucket and then spent a back breaking hour taking at least a dozen more from the muck in the bottom of bucket. They are tiny,and don't seem to be looking too lively in the trap,threw in a load of microworms,but suspect the syphoning with gravel probably knocked them about. Maybe the father was holding,and spat them early during the stress of being netted,I shoulda checked him properly first. Fingers crossed they pull through.

Ihad festivims that absolutley slaughtered any plant,yet plenty of my friends keep them with without them touching plants.

Gutted for Scotland. Funny you should mention the kicking,here's a copy an dpaste from my local forum(Ireland),that one of the lads posted "Super 14's is all kicking and it's fairly dire viewing imo. Went to a few matches when I was over there and it was tortourous to watch. I wouldn't want that for Ireland, no matter how successful we could be." Can't really argue with him.