Foxjxa

I swear, that is exactly what happened with our smallest cray, "Righty". He used to be the weird loner type that would run around the tank doing strange things like climbing up fern fronds and jumping off of them for no discernible reason. Then he moulted and was suddenly the biggest koura in the tank. He turned into a jerk. He would scare his lady-friend, "Lefty", away from peas and other delicious treats and steal them for himself, or he'd pop out from behind a rock and spook her. Lefty has since moulted again and has given him the smack down, however. Over the weekend my coworker watched while Lefty and Righty 'fought', with the battle ending with Righty on his back and Lefty casually walking away in triumph. Lucky for us, that's the extent of violence we've witnessed between our three.

Neat pictures. :love: Love the last few pics where he's starting to fill out and get a bit of pudge going on, he looks a bit like my 3 now, lol! What do/have you fed him on? Doesn't look like he's chowing down on the inanga, lucky for them...

I thought it was a ginormous banded from the pattern near the tail. So many bullys! Can anything be done about the parasites?

In April we estimated he was about 17cm, roughly the same length as the other banded pictured. Now I'd guess he's closer to 18-19cm in length. He's still a few centimeters shorter than the giants though, who were all pushing 22cm last I checked. I don't even want to guess at the diameter of his stomach though... definitely the fattest fish in the tank.

Sorry for the delay, I was off work Tuesday. Here are some more pictures... Got another picture of Rocky the banded today. Looking as obese as ever. D: Compare that to this guy, one of the other banded kokopu. I spent about 10 minutes trying to get this shot for you, twinkles!! The bandeds just don't like staying still for me. Gotta love the shortjaws. :love: Here's a shot of the reclusive Stella the Koura, named after Stella the human. Scarface the giant is in the foreground here. And I'll finish it off with my favourite female red-fin. So pretty!

:slfg: They are fed on frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, mealworms, crickets, waxworms, earthworms, peas, courgette, locusts, pink shrimp, mysis shrimp, carrot, sweet corn and a bit of ox-heart on occasion. There's also several pre-made frozen food mixes we feed, like tropical tucker, cichlid tucker, goldfish fish dinners, community fish dinners, etc. Each day they'll get a mix of some of the above and we're always looking to try new food. This is ignoring random buckets of live food/bugs caught from local streams or ponds, of course.

Thanks guys, I'll post some more when I'm in at work on Tuesday. nativelover - There are actually a few inanga in the tank at the moment, but I don't think they will be staying, unfortunately. The kokopu have never so much as looked at a bully funny, but seem to like the inanga a little too much... :tears: To be fair, the banded/giants have been housed with bullys since they were first caught and did not see inanga again until they were big enough to eat them. Some of the bullys seem to take advance of their 'safe' status and I've seen a few steal food right out of the kokopu's mouths!! blueether - Rocky is the fattest / most disproportionate fish in the tank. He's ridiculous. Gotta love them giants though. Since adding the fish we haven't scooped any out to actually measure them, thankfully most of them are nice enough to pose close to the acrylic when we've got a ruler so we can get a good estimate. twinkles - Lefty is a pretty koura, I think her tail patterns become more distinct each time she sheds. The newest cray, Scrappy, has gorgeous markings too but is really hard to get in front of the camera. The bandeds are SO hard to photograph! With any luck I'll get a nice-ish one on Tuesday to show off, otherwise you'll be stuck with one of the mediocre snaps we use to monitor their growth. As a point of interest, apart from Rocky (the most active of the bandeds), our banded kokopu like to hide in shaded areas or under rocks every now and then. When they come out from hiding they are a dark purple-black in colour with few bands visible at the end of the tail, but after spending some time out and about in brighter lighting they mellow to a lighter purple-brown with more bands. Has anyone else noticed their bandeds changing colour like this?

Wow, and just like that it's almost been a year already... WARNING, lots of pictures and some blabber ahead!! Here's what the tank's looking like now. Please excuse the water clarity, this was taken a few minutes after feeding time. One of the large male Common bullys that Fishkeepa took a photo of several months ago. He's now one of several large Common boys with a stable territory - he regularly patrols almost 1/4 of the tank! Same male Common bully, (believe it or not!) with one of several female red-fins who also hang out in the 'sandy area'. In reality he is a pale cream sort of colour and is the lightest male Common in the tank. One of the newer additions to the tank, this little red-fin boy survived without water changes or food for a couple of months before being re-discovered in a tank up at Massey. He's since put on some weight and has his own little area he likes to hang out in near some ladies. I call him 'Slim', seeing as he's still slightly thinner than most of the other red-fins. Lefty the Koura. The three crawlies added last year have been getting along just fine. More than fine, actually. This lady got together with Righty, who was then the only male in the tank, and mated! It was all very exciting until the eggs hatched and the fish ate all the babies before anyone saw them, (I assume). There's also now a fourth Koura, Scrappy, who is about half the size of the other three yet has been living with them for a couple of months without incident. Not the best photo, but I think it's important for everyone to see how much some banded kokopu like to eat. He's called Rocky and was the fish fish to get a name when him and another kokopu tried to eat the same inanga(!!!) and he came away with a cut lip, (If you squint you might be able to see it on his upper lip in the photo). Our two Shortjaws. A little girl has decided to called them "Floppy" and "Grey". I'm thinking Grey is the bigger one. These two seem to be able to eat as much as they want and never get fat. The little one is only now about the same size as the bigger one was when we added them, (~17cm), they don't seem to grow very fast. The three Giant Kokopu have undoubtedly grown the most. Around 22cm in length at the moment, I don't think I could touch any of my fingers together around their middles. They're probably the stars of the tank, next to the Koura, and are easy enough to tell apart that they all have names - Scarface, Antony and Andre. Here's a full shot of Antony, 'the fat one'. Close up of another Giant Kokopu, Andre. That's probably enough photos for now. :slfg:

I wish I could go back in time and give this to everyone who's ever set up a public native aquarium. Saved. But argh, please let me get you a better pic of the Te Manawa tank!! It needs to be algae-free and as pretty as the other ones.

Beautiful! I want that weta!

He needs a name! I bet the out of focus dude behind him is a shortjaw too, I can never get them to sit still! The koura you've photographed is also the smallest male in the tank, currently known as "Righty", he shed his skin just last week and came out sporting that neat new pattern of his. Absolutely awesome pics. :thup:

From now on I'll be posting updates, including pictures, on the 5000L tank and Te Manawa's other live exhibits here: http://te-awa.blogspot.com/ :spop: Thanks to everyone who's come along to see it all, it's wonderful to hear your feedback!

What's going on here? Pick anything out apart from the crazy piece of grass? No? This fuzzy image might help... :happy2: I counted just over 20 little bouncing babies a few minutes ago. The first batch of eggs were all eaten by day three, but the two agassizi obviously had another shot at it in a different location and now mummy-fish has moved them onto this rock! I'm so happy!

:sml2: Looks like a pretty flash bubble nest, that ambulia's been put to good use.

I forget, is it loaches that react badly with salt? If not, salt the ____ out of him?