coelacanth

no there are no snakes in NZ (legally at least). Even zoos are not allowed to exhibit snakes.

the fluffy stuff will be fungus which could have been from before or after death. If you prefer to shop at Animates you might find fish deaths to be part of your life. Most of us on here would suggest shopping at Organism or one of the non-chain stores.

once your guppies start breeding you'll soon be over-run with them. They drop babies like an Upper Hutt teenager.

just re-read your post, and you got the guppy on Sunday so three days right? If the other fish are all fine then I'd put it down to random unexplainable death

really impossible to say what happened. My guess would be that it just keeled over rather than being attacked. And then the bristlenoses may have had a go at the body (they like gnawing on dead bodies!). How long had you actually had it before it died. It might just be a case of "Animatitis"

do you know the relative chances of enough albino frogs -- even if the entire spawn was albino which would be impossible given that both parents would have to be carrying the right (ie aberrant) genes -- surviving long enough in the wild to be caught by people (or rather just one person)? The tadpoles would stand out a mile (they would be just as albino as the frogs themselves) and then the froglets would be even more obvious to predators. Maybe they did catch them all in the wild, but it just seems unlikely to me. Just my opinion.

que?

I think its a bit worthless buying just one. Better to buy all you can and breed them up. (Although of course you could do it the long way and get one, breed it with a regular frog, then breed it back to its offspring until you get enough to sell yourself). In my opinion this person is breeding them himself anyway. No way he found that many albino frogs in a natural state.

they sure are nice-looking critters them things

lol

just remember, cutting an arm off a parent only works in the aquarium....

well that's just some pretty basic info, there's a lot more to the reptile situation in NZ than that but it would result in a flame war

donde esta la Google button?

until not too many years ago it was quite legal for anyone to import turtles so long as a few regulations were adhered to, namely they could only be imported from specific countries (I think the UK and Japan in particular), and then the usual quarantine procedures of testing for disease before and after import while being held in quarantine at either end of their trip. Relatively few permits were applied for each year though. I imagine the laws on turtles have changed completely now.

several decades ago Australia banned all exports of its native wildlife (except to zoos etc). Before that time a number of species were being brought into NZ legally. Since then all that have been brought in are smuggled ones. Many of the original species were bred well (bluetongues etc) and they form the bulk of the reptile species in NZ now, although they are still smuggled in because the fact that they are already here makes it very easy to "launder" them (claim they were bred in NZ)

I LOVE matamatas!!!! Have to agree with Pogona1 on only buying NZ-captive-bred reptiles, but would add to it that I would also only buy from a reputable breeder. Its buyer beware and if you get your lizards from someone dodgy then you've only got yourself to blame (eg the whole iguana thing).

I've said this before but I'll say it again, marbles are useless. Get some whitebait mesh from Mitre 10 or where-ever and cut it to fit the bottom of the bare tank. Once the fish have spawned you can see the eggs on the bottom of the tank. When the eggs have hatched you can see the fry on the bottom of the tank. Then you just lift out the mesh. It couldn't be simpler. If you are breeding neons and want to know if the eggs have hatched just lift up the corner of the cover that you have over the tank and you'll see the fry scooting away from the light (because there are no marbles in there to hide them!). Also without marbles you can actually siphon the bottom of the tank to remove any uneaten food etc.

if you want any proof that reptiles are being smuggled into NZ you only need to look at the list of species on that site. I mean seriously, frilled lizards?!

Realistically, few people who would be going out and catching mudfish would be interested or even capable of trying to breed them. They would just want something strange. How many fish-keepers with fire eels or knifefish or arowana are trying to breed them? Can you count the fingers on one of your hands? Protecting swamplands is the answer to protecting mudfish (and other species). Captive breeding by private individuals could certainly be used in conjunction but would probably be of limited value in the real world (particularly in that private breeders breed for themselves or for sale. Most would have no interest in breeding for the sake of conservation -- and I don't want any protests from those few who would be interested, we all know the majority of people are inherently selfish).

hey guys, I've been away so just catching up on threads now. No, there's absolutely no way freshwater stingrays would EVER be allowed into the hobby in NZ. No matter how much money you threw at it, they would NEVER be put on the allowable import list. Yes, zoos and public aquariums would potentially be able to get permits to import them but they would definitely not be allowed to sell any to private persons. Yes, freshwater stingrays have stings, and yes they can kill (depending on species). And finally, NZ has native marine stingrays, eagle rays and electric rays, all of which would be legal to keep -- so long as you have an enormous tank!

my new favourite marine fish: Shaw's boxfish, at the Melbourne Aquarium last month...

if you're talking about marine fish then OAB is dead on. The wrasses in NZ used to be commonly called parrotfish, and still are by fishermen. The most likely species if similar in any way to Nemo would probably be the banded wrasse which is very common round NZ. If its being called a parrotfish by a fisherman though there's no guarantee it is actually a wrasse. Fishermen in general tend to be rather loose with common names. A good candidate if not a wrasse would be the red moki.

I've been feeding mine muffin tops

best in a set-up tank rather than a bare tank with spawning media. They'll spawn in Java moss, Cabomba, the roots of water fern, anything like that. Difficult to rear the young in my experience but others may say different. I used to do them in a 3ft tank around 27C or so.

its Animates...