Captain Conkout

Hutt Petts in Lower Hutt, Wellington has a tropical cray. He is a fair size tho and lives alone... I believe this was a rescue and was sourced from a commercial fishery. But shows they are out there - somewhere.

Ahh so the rule of if it doesnt fit in their mouth it's safe doesn't count for eel vs cray? Hmm, maybe it will be a messy one-off meal for mr.eel. I've been looking for any natives but haven't found anything that looked like what i saw (or what I remember - from almost 20 years ago!) it was a very vertical x-section like a trout or rainbow (to use a tropical example) and it wasn't a bottom dweller it may have even been 20cm and was quite finny. It was just swimming in place waiting and when released just cruised off. I'm going to whip up a few new traps and see what turns up... maybe we'll see it again...

Hello all - just been browsing old threads about native eels fish and crays but perhaps you have some more up to date advice or experiences.? I have just aquired a rather sad looking shortfin (I believe) eel. He is estimated >10 years old but around 60-70cm. His fins appear a little sad/rotted. I have him in a holding tank until his tank gets delivered Monday in which I have added a little melafix, a little tonic (white spot fin rot etc) so hopefully he will be a little cleaner when he goes to his new home once set up. We went to the beach today and got a really nice log, hard and dark - a bit burnt in a spot so I'm trying to scour through all the loose burnt wood with a steel brush. It's got a great hole for him/her to hide in. Although I will have to chop it in half to fit it into the tank. I guess water temp is around 8 atm would they prefer a bit warmer/using a thermo on lowest setting..? I am interested in other fish that may accompany an eel of this size. He seems very dormant atm and clumsy. This may be related to his condition having been in an uncleaned tank for about 2 years... but then I am used to my very active tropical spiny that is more like a mouse or rat - constantly watching and begging. Thsi guy seems like a very clumsy lurker - more like an axolotl.. Would native crays be a threat to an eel at all? I was thinking of catching a few larger fish and maybe having one cray in there, I just thought they might nip. Is there a size of fish that would be safe or are the crays just too nasty to be housed with anything..? I'm in Wellington, years ago we laid an eel trap overnight in the Ngaio stream the next morning we had what appeared to be a small brown trout - aprox 16cm long waiting to be let out. This would be where I would have a look first for a fishy tank mate.

I'd be as concerned about what was leaching into the water, I'm sure some amounts of lime and what not would be acceptable but who knows whats in commercial ccrete.

I wonder if the paua will effect your ph over time.. I remember reading that bits of shells can do that. Might be something to watch but with water changes you probably won't notice it anyway... Yeah when I first started out I wanted to make some poor mans paludarium (?) with branches and all that but really the fish love the ship i bought for about $100 and it really just looks like a reef now with the plants in. Once I decide to go one way I don;t do things by halves so big fake and fun it will be. Anther idea I had was I saw a blackhawk chopper toy about 40cm long at the warehouse too was thinking of painting it and breaking it up some to make it look shot down and do a sandy bottom tank to look like IRAQ. Maybe some IED forces takign a cheesy victory photo too. Spose could doctor up java ferns on top of a stalk to look like palm trees... hah too much trouble and I have too many plants now. Maybe for a show tank sometime!

I just got a deep submergence suit set for my tank from the Warehouse for $25 its pretty cool if you want a fun addition to your tank. I don't have a pic of mine in the tank but it's the same as the one this guy is selling on ebay and looks great hunting thru the crpyts.. http://cgi.ebay.com/DEEP-SEA-DIVING-SUIT-WORKS-GREAT-FOR-G-I-JOE_W0QQitemZ320170121323QQihZ011QQcategoryZ2467QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem It comes with a figure and a lame ass sea monster but I took the screws out of it and removed the plastic windows and it looks boss in the tank - about 17cm tall at a guess... I haven't seen tank decor like it and reckon it looks great in mine with the big wrecked ship . Got 2 rubber sharks coming and gonna make a floating mine field. Much better (and easier to plant) than my 1974-vietnam-rice-field-US-vs-Vietkong-battle-scene I had been planning...! (..plus the pet shop managed to sell the 2 on-sale bubbling combat choppers with rotating turbines so it was dead in the water anyway.)

I don't know if your sharks are anything like mine but there's no way they'll be hand feeding anytime soon and putting my hand anywhere near them in the water only distresses them. Infact it;s rare that they eat anything 'given' to them they grab off the surface occassionally but most food is gotten from the floor long after we lose interest... My tiger barbs are a whole other story, they wait below for me to disperse the food. Only had them about a week and I tap the water a litttle and if they haven't been fed in a while they school beneath - I can see these guys getting tamer although they're fast and usually grab the surface food and race back down to the safety of their friends...

Oh just that the holes only appear on the dieing or very affected leaves. No holes on the very green ones. Also appears quite uniform when it does appear which to my mind suggests it is not fish or snails. But I'm guessin there

It's very much both the young and old plants. Some leaves are only 1-2 inches long and exhibit but there are a couple of leaves on the same root system as infected leaves that appear completely free of it. The vast majority of leaves have the affliction though.

Delete Don't know how but my replies seem to wind up being new topics. And always late at night....

Bought a largish amount on trademe. No photo and no mention of the plants being in this condition. More is listed so if this plant is a disaster then I will be pursuing with seller/TM. (No names until I have their response to my email) If I remove all the leaves affected I would have very little left. Basically I don't know if I should just bin this lot... Salvaging what's left to expose my tank to who knows what contaminants seems unwise. If this is a nutrient issue and can be confirmed then I'm annoyed but at least it isn't a complete waste.

That was my first thought when I saw it Sharn - that it was just like land ferns that the bottommost leaves discolour and die with lack of light. This could have come froma very heavily populated tank. I've had salt water and chlorine suggested to clean the plants incase it is infectious but don;t want to risk any of that till I have some idea of it's risk to the tank.

I'm bringing this thread back from the dead as I have just aquired some java fern at expense and it seems to have a similar disease. Leaves are turning brown almost black at points and becoming raggedy, there are holes forming through the worse leaves. Some leaves are untouched... Over all (from a distance) the plant appears green and healthy. But most have this brown discolouring and about 40% at least seem better off to be removed. I won;t be able to take these to the LFS till Sunday so am left keeping them in a holding tank with thermo. Another concern for me is if these are badly diseased (as they certainly seem) that they will be contaminated with all sorts of other diseases too...

I have some Bala, tiger barb and a flying fox in the tank. They are supposed to enjoy 6.5-7.0PH so slightly acidic atm my PH looks about 7.2-7.4 which is not miles off but just wondering what I could do to slowly bring this down. Ammonia looks negligible Nitrite negligible at last check I'll do a hardness test tomorrow. Theres a few plants, one good sized driftwood and a little co2 bubbling away. Is there like some 'stuff' I can put in there (non-chemical) that would drag this PH back towards slight acid? Do logs/plants co2 usually send it up or down? Cheers!

Have emailed argus to get an idea of price etc.

Cancelled a bid I had running on 2x Root Therms. My solution would be to have just bought a couple of cheap step down transformers off Ebay as well but that price tag was nearing $200NZ+ and not exactly an eloquent solution... Caryl did someone at Argus put the thing together for you or did they just supply the parts. I read of some people making their own heaters but haven't found any DIY plans and not electrically skilled myself to conjure some up. I am currently congratulating myself on my DIY yeast co2 generator maybe I can follow this up with a DIY undergravel heating solution. $5 yeast + abot $50 parts for a pump driven co2 system beats the $300 I was going to outlay on a proper co2 system!

Is anyone able to confirm if the supplied adaptor is 110v and 220v compatible. I have been looking at getting one of these directly from the U.S but if a whole new transformer/adaptor is needed this would kill the economy. If all it needs is a physical plug adaptor (about $10) then this is a good buy... Model I'm looking at is 40W large tank model. Locally cheapest I;ve found online is about $170NZ. Standard price in US is about $50.

Got 4 silver shark today - a compromise on 6. I went a bit mad at the beach collecting large driftwood. Made for an interesting environ but the best looking piece was just starting to rot so removed. I got a fright when the logs had been for about 30 min- 1hr when something plopped off the underside of the water from the log while i was talking on the phone! I had a look and a gigantic earwig was swimming his way up to the surface. Earwigs are quite bouyant if you never knew.. He sat on the tippy-top and wiggled about looking for a rescue helicopter. That's photos of him/her in a big beer stein. At least 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 inches long. Creepage! Tank as it's set up. Member/s Tsarmina helped out moving the tank and provided a good lot of cabomba and some other leafy plant (I've forgotten what it's name was). Positioned all cabomba at left to catch direct sunlight and hopefully curb algae growth. I don't think my stones are any good. Fine for plants but if I have eel down the track I'd have to fine some less gravelly stuff. Maybe I will be able to just give them an area of more sandy secluded tank that they can dig in... That's a ways off but - have to see how racey these sharks are first. Oh and big ups to Ben down at Lower Hutt Pets. He has been really helpful with fish types and gears. And I didn't even have to buy everything in the shop! (although my wallet sure felt like I did!)

I would assume anything that big in your house would be a male tunnelweb. I have seena few larger spiders near rivers in warmer areas but nothing like the number I saw when I was in the country just outside Sydney a few years back. The rock walls at the creek we visited were crawling withem. But I think they were likely as not huntsman and not a special 'water-spider'. Spiders like water for drinkies, I remember someone telling me or having read that they creep up to the corner of your moth when your asleep even and have a lil sip-sip of that yummy droolage...! Might be a total fabrication but a good creepy story for arachniphobiacs!

I just wish they could have more in tank company. Cos I hate the idea of lonely fish. I say that cos the smart fish always seem needy, watching you, waiting for you to feed them! The bumble bee is quite a small fish aye? But no trouble from the oscars? The Lion is what kind of fish. When people talk about breeds I'm not familiar with I go hunting and the only fish I found were the oranda (mutant goldfish) or the marine Lionfish... The idea of these guys being sociable with other fish is encouraging. I considered them a one-or-all-the-others situation.

Feel like I'm almost ready to fill the tank with treated water and introduce the first fish. You can read this entire post or skip to the questions at bottom. I have been working up a community in my head of something like this 6 silver shark, 6 clown loach, then some numbers of tiger barb, khuli loach, bristlenose and/or larger sized tetra. The tank is very bare atm and the slower-lower level critters would need a lot more cover before even considering their purchase (months away). The wood I found has some great hiding places though. I have been reading about oscars and it would be a huge departure from the planted, community aquarium. Sources have suggested less palateable plants like java as being suitable in oscar tanks if the roots are protected. www.aquahobby.com/tanks/img/igor1.jpg ...is the what made me consider oscars because it appears they don't have to be in a low-maintenance 'cell'. From what I've found out reading.. reading.. the format when starting out with oscars is to aquire a number of juveniles (5-6) as they pair off seperate (or rehome) the singles and keep a breeding pair. Some suggest my tank as being far too small others just about right. From what I've seen of these fish 200L each seems very generous! But this maybe a social consideration (rather than a hygiene one) and relate to the oscars and not any other fish knocking about in the tank (plecos/clown loaches?). My partner thinks the oscars are *very* ugly, but I like them and am intrigued by their personality. I know that once we start a community aquarium that means no Oscars for a long time (like until I win lotto/get a 100% pay rise or put a ring on her finger (maybe not then)) but certainly not till we move to a larger abode... I guess the appeal for me is these fish appear to relate to their owner, not something I'm expecting from shark or loach. Are Oscars an 'advanced' or difficult fish to maintain? Is it hard to find homes for lil Oscars if they make it into the world? Is the idea of a planted oscar tank a myth, a fabrication or outright lie!? Are oscars REALLY that cool?! So far I have:- 167cmx50cmx53cm tank (about 400Ltr) external Eheim & Fluvan canister filters. Fresh noodles for the eheim - won't run the fluvan for a bit. 2x300W heaters (mounted at both ends) Largish, unrotten, beach-sourced driftwood. cut this to stand on its side and siliconed onto sheet of glass placed on bottom of tank under gravel so no chance of movement. Also smaller piece to be weighted down until completely water logged. I got a bit carried away and one nice looking piece was almost rotten - sort of soft so binned it. Many plastic plants of questionable believabilty. Gravel enough to cover the bottom for about 3 inches although only 1inch+/- atm. Nets, tank cycle and water conditioner. Tap water (ph about 7.2 at last check) Girlfriend - excited about plants, not so excited about fish!

Yeah everything I have found says redtail = badboy of the tank. 2 badbois and you get drivebys and dead homeys.

I was obviously misinformed about 3ft tanks being inadequete for 3 silver shark and a community of smaller fish.

tank in question was 3ft.