livingart

Tiny is one of two young chinese fire bellies, they live with a lot bigger lonely female japanese. i like the fact that his face resembles a hippopotamus, just no ears

I clean my marine corals by hosing down with hard spray then leaving in the sun for a few days works better the longer you leave it

tried to make it bigger and blew it think its back now I hope i get better with practice

he comes out like that when my wife feeds him she took the photo

We call him Tiny because he's mi nute lol

I always wanted a massive tank, thought about a steel frame and then line with cool store walling , aliminium sheet either side of 6 inch polystyrene. could take off one side of walling and fibreglass the inside anyone got any thoughts on that cheers mark

ours are in outside pond all year round, some have been there 12 years, just watch a really hard frost can be amplified in a glass aquarium, on those nights just cover with a piece of shade cloth to create a small micro climate inside tank stops it from icing up

Hi Paul, Welcome, we are in Tauranga, started keeping fish in 1963 Here's to many years in the hobby for you cheers mark

I also try to avoid additives but Gannet bought lots of treatments with his tank used the TLC tank start cycle thing and seemed to run well, I try to avoid the rest and watch the fish for changes, lets me know when things are wrong the tingle in the fingers lets me know when the heaters broken, lol I think a lot of the worlds wild fish are swimming in chemical baths even marine fish in some areas are putting up with our waste products or amazon fish, deforestation changing their water parameters silt from up valley land developments have changed the inner harbour in Tauranga, they used to land light planes in one area now the mud is calf deep and they would have to dodge the mangroves

possibly getting ready to shed some shell, maybe

try trotting around the local glass supplies they sometimes have 2nd hand 8 to 12mm from replacement windows one of the local guys from glass place makes mine on the weekends for a cashie

like awful knawful (lol) said if you wait and are prepared to let a lot of people know what you want you can get some good deals, local trade magazines and free papers are another option new means you have a guarantee on the equipment good luck

he also has 2 of my asian spiny turtles ( cog wheels ) as well

was still in the trusting stage, and thought it was best for the turtles breeding in nz, he had all males. the photos of setup he had looked good lost contact details I still trust and still get done occassionally but we all create our own karma

the one we had about 11 years ago was a florida softshell approx 30 cm long in shell, gave to a guy nth of auckland for breeding never heard from him again

there are softshells in nz and your close with the price

awesome looking fish!!

as has been stated on the mudfish topic, keeping things that are endangered will probably get you a smacked hand, the commoner stuff will be ok. natives harder to find in lake taupo have to compete with the introduced predators catfish and trout. try the feeder streams the further up you go and the smaller the stream the better your chances, especially the farm drains in farmland or reclaimed swamp areas

local doc officer said technically all whitebait species adults as well fall under the can catch only during whitebait season the odd person taking for keeping in their own tank would be tolerated but wholesale taking of fish, gets a smacked hand one of the giant kokopu in our streams on the property is over 28cms long, quite a few giants, heaps of banded all sizes bullies are exempt koura need a licence to sell but can be taken and kept none to be released in a different waterway hope this helps

Most fishkeepers cant afford to experiment, losing a fish can be expensive and disheartening, sometimes it takes a while and good testing equipment to find out what went wrong. living by the sea with access to plentiful fresh water and test subjects might be the key. the process of elimination and a good start system that had been running well and supporting life for many months allowed me to experiment for a long time i was running local marines then when they had settled down would heat and convert to tropical marines using rockpool fish i have also bred and raised seahorses for a number of years but other things have taken over at the moment

The squid we kept were out of local harbour about 10 -25 cm avoided"butt burn" by having floating polystyrene or wood raft, they used as shelter, took longer to "tame" than octopus but put that down to living in open water - flight reflex - they go fast and straight when scared, kept tank darker for a few days in time they hand fed easily, all were started on live food young sprats and sweep, also shrimp ammonia levels seemed to be critical to there survival, even slight spikes put them off colour cant wait for summer so we can try some in the big pool

The longest i have maintained a squid for was just under 6 months high flow rate, chiller and lots of oxygenation in the water, good filtration. seem to only like very clean water, did partial water changes every week. before this i had kept squid for varying lengths of time. They eat all your fish as well. beautiful to watch with the lights out, look like an exploding galaxy. the red was a warning or angry colour

The FISH is certainly with you fihyT

I am currently using a 2nd hand water cooler and running the water from sump through it, working for 10 months now, took a while to cool it properly about 2 days but maintained an even temp ever since. cost me $40 keep rock pool stuff, triplefins, crested blenny, parore, spotty, seahorses. and a young leather jacket.

Hi hope this helps this from a 2006 department of conversation pdf The rainbow skink is an introduced species that is now well established in parts of the North Island. It may pose a threat to native skinks through competition. At present it is not listed on any schedule making it absolutely protected. Adding this species to Schedule 5 would make removal of rainbow skinks from undesired locations easier and allow regional councils to specify the rainbow skink as a pest in regional pest management strategies. It would also make it legal to gather this species from the wild (currently illegal). What are your views? - Being smaller and an egg layer would probably be a food source, this from this doc pdf http://www.reptiles.org.nz/Permitsandanimals.pdf Lampropholis Skink delicata Australian Rainbow - permit category A