coelacanth

all the popular bichirs are farm-bred I believe. That is why they are so cheap in overseas shops :evil:

well its not really important who got it started, its being dealt with now. And its great that everyone is being so responsible about the issue.

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I will let the forum know about the identity of the eels when I know results. Ideally MaF should have knowledgeable fish "advisors" with them when inspecting imports, because they can't be expected to know which fish are which when they aren't familiar with tropical species, and it takes years of experience to gain the skills necessary. Finally, good to see that so many people out there care about this situation, and that many shops are choosing to either not buy the eels, or not sell the ones they have until the matter is resolved. Good job and well done to all.

what I was meaning was AFTER they knew (of the shops that do know). Otherwise the shops are innocent of wrongdoing, in that they were ordering "glass kuhlis" believing them to be actual loaches. The importer is the one at fault, because even if they brought them into the country unwittingly, they surely must have seen immediately that they weren't loaches when they arrived. Again, My opinion!

Biosecurity are currently investigating the matter. The outcome will be posted here for the benefit of all hopefully. And yes I believe that if shops are selling the fish and KNOWING what that they are likely to be illegal (pending results) then they would have to be liable also. (My opinion!)

you don't "need" a protein skimmer, they just make things better. For local rockpool critters you can get by just on a simple filter, a chiller for the summer if it gets hot where you are, and they appreciate lots of water movement too. Good thing about rockpool stuff is that you can just let it go again, get different things....it is cool keeping a rockpool tank

there are several possible Anguilla in Asia that these could be. None grow to the size of NZ's huge long-finned eels. Probably around the two to four foot mark would be likely

I agree the eels should be destroyed, and that will no doubt be MaF's position too. Many people out there will not agree with this but why risk our native eels for the sake of keeping what is essentially the same thing from another country? Babies of the native eels can be found in any waterway (tiny streams are best because it is easier to catch them), and they grow quite slowly so can be obtained at any time of the year. For something a little different , the spotted eel, originally from Aus but now established in NZ, is found in various parts of the North Island. Adults are brown with dark or black mottling. It could probably be kept in a tropical tank.

get a native one instead

Ok guys, I managed to get into Organism after work, and they are without doubt eels (as in true eels, Anguilla sp). True eels go through several life stages, first being the marine leptocephalus, then glass eel when returning to freshwater, then elvers (like very miniature adults), then they just grow from there. The ones currently being sold as "glass kuhlis" are at the glass eel stage. They will start colouring up soon. I didn't have a magnifying glass but could just (barely) make out a fin protruding past the actual tail tip. In eels the dorsal, caudal and anal fin are combined to make one long fin, but in glass eels the fin and body are almost indistinguishable so it is VERY hard to see. The first bulge in the body, as seen in the photos, is the gill arch. These ones are not NZ eels, and are likely to be an Asian Anguilla species. There is no way MoF would knowingly allow the import of Anguilla eels because of the risk that would pose to our native eels, both in terms of them as a species and in terms of our eel fisheries. They are therefore "illegal", and I would suggest people do not buy them. For those that do have them, glass eels are very easily reared on brine shrimp, bloodworms, etc. They are certainly not loaches, and neither are they Afromastacembelus as suggested (all mastacembelids have pointed noses even as tiny babies).There is a very slim chance they could be synbranchids (swamp eels) but it is unlikely; I haven't seen baby synbranchids so I don't know their fin structure.

Ok guys, I managed to get into Organism after work, and they are without doubt eels (as in true eels, Anguilla sp). True eels go through several life stages, first being the marine leptocephalus, then glass eel when returning to freshwater, then elvers (like very miniature adults), then they just grow from there. The ones currently being sold as "glass kuhlis" are at the glass eel stage. They will start colouring up soon. I didn't have a magnifying glass but could just (barely) make out a fin protruding past the actual tail tip. In eels the dorsal, caudal and anal fin are combined to make one long fin, but in glass eels the fin and body are almost indistinguishable so it is VERY hard to see. The first bulge in the body, as seen in the photos, is the gill arch. These ones are not NZ eels, and are likely to be an Asian Anguilla species. There is no way MaF would knowingly allow the import of Anguilla eels because of the risk that would pose to our native eels, both in terms of them as a species and in terms of our eel fisheries. They are therefore "illegal", and I would suggest people do not buy them. For those that do have them, glass eels are very easily reared on brine shrimp, bloodworms, etc. They are certainly not loaches, and neither are they Afromastacembelus as suggested (all mastacembelids have pointed noses even as tiny babies).There is a very slim chance they could be synbranchids (swamp eels) but it is unlikely; I haven't seen baby synbranchids so I don't know their fin structure.

if they are eels, they're probably gonna get pretty big...

I havn't seen them in the flesh yet but from the photo they do look very like baby eels. If they are, and they were imported from overseas, then there might be some problems from MaF...

as i'm sure you're aware you can't feed a clown knife on flake, so ignore the shop (wasn't Animates was it?). Tadpoles and fish are fine, but it gets tricky if he gets accustomed to only eating live food, so try to get him onto dead as soon as possible. But for now, getting him to eat is the main thing.

here's a albino softshell from the Seacon Pet Expo in Bangkok last year... and just for the sake of it, an albino knifefish at the same Expo.. The theme of the Expo was albino animals. Was very cool.

you would end up with a bunch of hybrids.

look down on them from above. Females have a diamond shape, males a torpedo shape

can breed them too. I think they might be a bit dearer than $36 down here though...?

not many. go see Organism and they'll be able to help you out. But other than bns and gbas most small plecs are at least around $100

Wikipedia is about as trustworthy as a hungry monkey with a banana. Sidthimunki grows to no more than 5 or 6cm (its entirely possible that the author of that Wikipedia article confused cm and inches -- 5in equals about 13cm). There is however a fairly new species called nigrolineata which does grow to probably around the 13cm mark, and is fairly similar to sidthimunki

how's your crayfish with the fish? I had a couple of blue crays in with mine and whenever they swum near their hidey-holes they would come charging out trying to grab them in their chelae. Maybe they was just bad ones...

I don't think the mods would really go for it. Not enough threads to make it worthwhile. And the marines just get put in the marine section.....

yeah we really need a native freshwater section instead of having threads buried all over the place....

that's a cool pic. It makes it look like the tank is so massive that there is another full-size one in the background. Isn't perspective a wonderful thing!?