Heir

Available overseas as pets?

Same diff... Kereru is the Maori name for "tree top tegals"

Oh I heard they tasted good apparently? My thoughts on this would be what would they be farmed for? Apart from Kereru I don't think any of our native birds taste good so who will be paying the farmers? Unless maybe they started making fashion items from feathers? lol Or bred for the pet trade. I'll never understand why you can buy Kakariki's overseas and they even come in different colour variations and here you need a permit...

Yeah. Obviously lol What I read was that it takes 3 years to get them to the right size and it was costing too much in the 3 years so it wasn't worth doing.. Clearwater for example I'm sure have shut down. Anywho when I went to order some for a Restaurant when I was the Head Chef I couldn't find them and even if I could I remember them being $60 a kilo

Do we? I thought they closed down because it takes Koura too long to grow to a profitable size?

I can solve all of this! :bounce: I will report the fact that they seem to be living in un-heated water absolutely fine and MAF will ban them! Everybody wins

Bristlenoses are not cold water fish. Otherwise they'd be banned by MAF because they wouldn't want them to be released in the wild, breed and alter our eco-systems. Haven't you ever wondered why they don't naturally occur in NZ waters? Um because maybe, just maybe it is actually too cold for them? Now there are some exceptions to the rule... ie A-town and a few others that keep tropicals outside etc. But generally they are tropical fish that require 22 - 26 degrees. And is the exception and not the rule. Kept outside this range is down right cruelty... Common sense is required when other critters lives are in your hands, they can't move themselves to water that is warm enough for them, they rely on you. Just remember, if they don't live in water that cold naturally in the wild... there is a reason.

Leeches generally mean good water quality. I would watch them we have quite a few different species in NZ most live on snails and worms etc so I would watch them in your tank.. your fish should be ohk and generally they don't eat plants so they should be all good too Hope that helps!

Oh...

Agreed. I LOVE SQUIRRELS.

That's an over statement huh ? :-?

YAY! That's really good news Skippy!!! :bounce: Congratulations!

I catch them with a fish net and put them in the tank and the blue lines and butterflyfish love them.

CUTE! :bounce:

Wow... I bet you're a hoot in real life huh... When I was like 10 I had about 5 in a bucket full of rocks on the deck at my parents house... They survived months... the water was green as when I cleared it out and released them back in a different river :roll: But they seemed happy enough. Having said that I do NOT - under any circumstances - recommend this as a home for koura!

lol It's hard when you live on a farm and your parents tell you they've turned the fence off, but forgot that they turned it back on... thus you think it's safe... and it isn't... OR when your dad is like "YUP.. see it's off" while he's grabbing hold of it... so you touch it and ZAP! Because he has a higher pain threshold... I have learnt that you can touch it with grass and it dulls the shock though lol

Haha well I've touched many electric fences (grew up on a farm) and thank god that never happened to me! I just got a shock, screamed like a little girl and learnt my lesson!

And they smell so bad because stuff gets stuck in their spines and then rots. And they're not uber intelligent either... like they'll walk up to an electric fence and it shocks them so they curl in a ball and it will continue to shock them until they die... I've seen many die this way. If I were a hedgehog I would run away! lol They run pretty fast.

Hahahahaha

I hate hedgehogs... :oops: Hedgehogs do serious damage to the population of native falcons who nest on the ground http://www.maf.govt.nz/sff/about-projects/search/05-033/press-release.htm and many of our endangered shore birds. Hedgehogs also don't just hang out in "typical suburbia" they're very wide spread in bushlands and forests etc and are actually excellent climbers. :evil:

Ohhhh that's cool

That will happen if I don't get a refund.

+1

So the tank arrived today! :bounce: Still broken But we're making progress and now the ball is in my court and I know when, where, how etc while it's getting fixed.