Rob

I think adding another catergory 'Not on List' would be a good idea as far as us knowing what is out their. Don't know if MAF wouldn't actually do anything if they stumbled across our list and became aware what was coming in (don't want to deprive myself of those exotic plecos). Just a general suggestion for the evolution of the fish survey, I'd like to see reasonably up to date scientific names used, with a synonyms field (for less current names) and some indication of what name they can get into NZ under (eg I spent sometime on fishbase.org searching out synonyms for different fish: Moth catfish, Hara hara, had an older name of Pimlodus hara; according to the MAF IHS list all Pimlodus species as allowed). Having searchable fields for scientific name, synonyms and common name would be good. If administering such a list mainly invovled verification of scientific names, synonyms etc then I'd put my hand up for it.

Cees, how much hassel to alphabetise by species within a given genus?

I object your honour , I was told There was no comment on being unable to correct masculine incompetance.

Cees, can you remove both of the Corydoras melanistius melanistius entries.

Hi Cees, can we have an edit feature for those of us who click before we check?

The interbreeding suggestions a possibility as the Thai's specifically breed for agression (and probably stamina) in their fighting fish ie it is a trait that can be selected for.

Tentatively I'd be keen on heading down to Napier and staying a night - meeting up with fellow fish people. Just no Dutch auctions, right Bruce?

According to http://www.fishbase.org the currently valid genus is Vieja. As for can we get it in NZ? Apparently not as it's not listed under either name on the allowable fish list http://www.maf.govt.nz/biosecurity/imports/animals/standards/fisornic.all.htm

I assume Andrew means the 'common' pleco. Bristlenoses might work, doubtfull on the ottos though.

My understanding of the ordering eggs idea is that it can't be done legally in NZ. Ministry of Ag and Fish requires a quarantine period (not a problem in itself) but items in quarantine need to be identifiable as a particular species. It's a little difficult identifying one Killi from another when they're eggs. Yes, you could tell MAF what they're supposed to be, we're dealing with an arm of the government here

Tokanu thermal swamp. We've had the molly hunt a couple of times - but it's not an annual event.

Koi are classified as an unwanted organism and are hence illegal (this covers keeping, breeding and transport of live specimens) in NZ. Here in the Waikato there are feral Koi in a number of the water ways. If you land one while fishing you MUST kill it. There is actually a bow hunting group that have quite a good time shooting the Koi.

Caryl - remind Esmay to keep a close watch on her tanks even once the power does come back on - with the filters not running for that length of time it's likely that some/alot of the bacterial colonies will have died - may get an ammonia/nitrite spike before the filters are recolonised.

Welcome Rene, Good to have someone else that's into the 'unusual and rare' - though most of mine seem to be catfish. So what's your favourite fish (that you currently have) that falls into the oddball category?

Yep - the rise in the NZ dollar is good for us who are wanting to buy from the US (not so good for exporters though) - I may have to start snooping around Amazon.com to see if there are more fishy books for me to buy.

I wouldn't be concerned about rocks causing low pH - rocks/gravel would be likely culprits for high pH. Aquarium water will always tend towards being acidic, the main reason is that the nitrates dissolved in the water form a weak acid called nitrous acid. I'm not saying that high nitrates are the problem, just this is the reason for aquarium water progressing from alkaline/neutral to acidic. Also pieces of wood can cause lowering of pH - this is most likely for nelwy introduced bits of wood that are also causing coloured water (colour = humic acids = lower pH). As to how to remedy it? First off, is it causing a problem - this will depend on the fish you're stocking. The short term fix is baking soda - this will raise the pH - just make any change gradually. A longer term fix is to add some crushed shell or a gravel known to raise the pH - just have to be careful not to overdo it.

I was going to object to Warrens comment: Because I have (what I consider) well planted tanks, though (I had thought) not dedicated to the plants. Then I thought a bit more about the tanks, OK I haven't adopted CO2I did put in a substrate below the gravel specifically for plants to grow I did change from one fluoro tube to two because I was dissatisfied with plant growthI do add fertiliser for the plants I got rid of the clown loaches because they kept putting horse shoe shaped holes in the sword plantsI do keep an eye out for different plantsSo perhaps I'm a bit more plant orientated than I intially thought - I like having a balance of plants and fish, this can be achieved with 'low-tech' systems. OK I don't have the plant growth rate that Warren has, I still do have plant growth though - enough that I can earn some 'pocket money' by selling off excess plants. I think Warrens comment comes across as very black and white, with no possibility of grey - which may not be entirely true - I would look past the word 'dedicated' and instead focus on balance. You need a balance of plants and fish, you need a balance of what the plants need and what commitment (money and time) you are prepared to make (I know some of my plants would perform better if I added more lighting - but I'm not prepared to make that committment). As for Pegasus's question of: I would say that if the tank the plants are being transferred to will support plant growth then the intensively grown plants will survive. There would probably be some intitial deterioration while the plant adjusts to the new conditions and becomes established but then it should continue growing (at a slower rate though). Of course I think we have probably all come across tanks that just can't grow plants - in these cases the plants are just consumables. I'd like to throw in the statement (unfortunately I can't claim the idea as my own): I'm not a fish keeper, I'm an aquarium keeper (ie fish in an ascetically pleasing environment, often encorporating plants)

We assume they're true archer fish - just for clarity they're a species of Toxotes. In NZ they're not what you would call a regular import but you do see them available every now and then. From memory usually around the $15-20 mark (that's NZ$ so about $7.50-$10 US).

Even if MAF species resrictions were loosened I doubt we would see many more gold-spot plecos (Baryancistrus sp.). There just aren't enough people prepared to spend $80+ on a fish (even beautiful plecos - which some people are still going to consider as _just_ an algae eater). Most people wouldn't even consider spending $40 on a pleco (I'm not one of those people though). The price of these things means that only the large stores in large metropolitan areas (ie Auckland) will even stock them - other smaller centres have access to these fish, it's just not worth their while to stock them. For these things to become common in NZ it would require someone here to start breeding them regularly - that still means someone is going to have to fork out a fair amount of dollars to get a potential breeding colony - and they'll want to recover their costs - so still wont be cheap. Also some of these things aren't the easiest to breed eg Peckoltia brevis can take 6 months to condition for breeding (no surprising it takes so long for the female to condition considering the eggs are between the size of a baby and adult pea ie about 7-8mm and she laid about 50 of them).

Yep - I've had a run in with those worms before. I treated with Curex (an aquarium medication for internal parasites). Can't say I was overly impressed with the performance of Curex - I had to do two consecutive treatment regimes (each of 9 or 10 days) before they all seemed to have gone. My LFS new about them - but then he's been in the business more than 20 years so there's not alot that he hasn't come across. I had recently heard about the treatment/drug you mentioned (it was mentioned in the ANGFA bulletin), saying that it was safe with a wide range of fish including scaleless ones such as loaches. They said that in some cases within a few hours of treatment you could see the fish expelling the worms - they did recommend a follow-up treatment 5 days after the initial. How did you go about getting the active ingredient from Ancare - could you do it directly or did you have to do it through a vet? What was the price like - you can contact me off list if you prefer. Rob ps ANGFA = Australia and New Guinea Fishes Association.

If you want to be pedanitic there should really only be one pleco and that's Hypostomus plecostomus. But the term pleco gets applied to pretty well any sucker mouth catfish you come across eg Clown plecos (Peckoltia or Panaqolus) bulldog plecos (Chaetostoma), sailfin plecos (Glyptoperichthys). So how did this 'pleco' madness come about - the story goes that the first suckermouth catfish imported were identified as Hypostomus plecostomus (though some say it was mis-identified). Then when different types of sucker mouths were imported (often prior to their being described scientifically) the importers just gave them some fanciful name with pleco tacked on the end (meaning it had a sucker mouth) eg Royal pleco (Panaque nigrolineatus) or Imperial pleco (Hypancistrus zebra). Now 'pleco' (meaning sucker mouthed catfish) is very wide spread. For the superstitious you may want to write pl*co - the belief being if you write pleco then you have doomed your wee fish to an untimely demise.

The next meeting for Waikato Aquarium Society is Sunday 7th July, at Pukete Community House/Preschool, on Pukete Rd. Doors open 6.30, with the meeting starting at 7pm. This up-coming meeting we're having a talk on culturing and collecting live foods for fish. The trip for July on 13th July is up to Auckland to visit the shops up there. Visitors are more than welcome to come along to the meeting and have a nosey.

For pH adjustments (up) I use Sodium bicarbonate - just a box of Pams baking soda from the super market. For hardness adjustments - long term I'll add crushed shell or limestone bits to the tank/filter (need to be a little carefull that you don't over do it), for short term adjustments I'll use epsom salts (as permanent hardness is not only calcium based, but also magnesium) - epsom salts being magnesium sulphate.

Had to go away and do some research on that Caryl. I suspected that they were different species based on their different behaviour (yellow ones will munch pretty well any plant in sight while the brown ones are plant friendly on the most part) - would have expected similar behaviours if they were merely colour morphs. I believe the Yellow apple snails are Pomacea canaliculata, while the brown apple snails are Pomacea bridgesi. Based on the information I found these are the two types commonly available from pet shops, and the behavioural descriptions fit the observations. If you want to know more there is a good website at: http://www.applesnail.net/