museeumchick

Alas no digital camera =no pics but it was looking excellent, now still ok but not brill (will def be putting up pics as soon as I can borrow a camera) methinks witht he moss i will cover dead bits with new stuff, then the dead stuff can decompose and feed the new stuff. cheats fix, but will do till i can get it growing well myself

Well theres plenty of live plant matter already, I have 3 different ferns (leatherleaf, hen and chicken and button fern) so maybe i will worry less and leave it be - i can always replace it it just looks sooo good when its going well, its a shame to let it go

Heres me! http://fnord.fractalrain.com/gallery2/s ... 0.JPG.html I'm the one in the red jacket

So its not exactly aquatic, but almost?! I have lots of this lining my frog tank (two southern bells) from a friends garden and it is doing ok but looking a bit sad in patches reason #1, inadequate drainage = drowned some of it, but i've got this sorted now. It's getting enough moisture but not too much, so something else is now the problem. Sphagnum naturally likes relatively high nutrient patches: Is there any frog friendly fertiliser i might use to cheer up the rest? or could it be something else thats the problem ie light requirements?

Thanks guys they are both reasonably active (excellent pets) with climbing up under the lamp to sunbathe then off for a swim then catchin flies its just that one seems more reserved than the other - prob just trying to worry me - contrary pets are like that. thanks again

Have been very tempted to grow up aquatic inverts to adult stages on various occasions but apparently its harder then it looks. although it sounds like you've pretty much got the fishtank equivilent of a NZ stream ecosystem sorted so if anyone can do it I cant see why it shouldnt be you. Neet!

so my frogs seem to have settled in well so far, only one of them is far less active than the other, and doesnt seem to have eaaten as much. Is this just a personality thing and not worth worrying about yet (ie just keep and eye on him)? or is there something i can do as a general pick me up for him? I cant see any real problems with the environment i dont think, no fungussey bits But I am struggleing with drainage and some of my moss is dieing - im working on that though and should have it sorted soon. am i just worrying over nothing?? :-?

I have two southern bells, boys we think they are called Xixi and Phys. some names suggested at the time of their arrival were freddo, french delecacy, Houdini etc.... theres actually a website somewhere with frog names.

Wow, thats so cool! what a neat pet

Stella, you collecting aquatic inverts? Fun! there are some great big toebiters in the turitera stream (was supervising a lab where the students were fighting them (bench vz bench) although i thought this was a bit mean and made them stop, it just shows how impressive they look. BTW: toebiter = dobsonfly I have a great book on aquatic inverts you can borrow, if you dont have one already: "guide to the aquatic insects of New Zealand" (its the set text for the limnology paper at massey).

Thanks guys I have now constructed my budget, now i can start buying things!!!! fun! Stella, I would love to visit your tanks sometime (super unorganised of late), will PM methinks. :bounce:

So i'm setting up a new tank, my first real endevour into native keeping I hope to have a koura and some shrimp, or something along those lines. What sort of water testing gear do I need? sooo many choices....pH? Nitrite? co2? iron? ammonia? ammonium?.... the list goes on. and what sort of lighting will i need? (Stella, any thoughts?) there wont be any plants (as i hear Koura like to destroy them) and the tank can be placed to get some sunlight if i so choose, the room it will be in already has the basic fluroescent lighting (although if light quality is important these bulbe prob wont do the trick).

NZ bugs I can do myself, easy! Am now getting rather good at pinning them out too (started with an ento paper at massey and went from there, it's all about practice). I think i'm ok with collecting what i know are common NZ bugs, and not likely to be threatened at all by my collecting. It's the tropical things that i don't know so much about that are of interest at the mo spose i could start by buying a guide to tropical bugs? so what's you opinion?

I can get them back to NZ not as tricky as i thought actually (although potentially a little costly, we shall see) Am thinking of buying some but the ethics thought bit still applies somewhat, many are wild collected even if they say they were farmed for sale. And to be honest despite a mild gross factor, i'd like to collect and pin them myself (unless the other way was more enviro friendly).

What do you think about collection of insects for private collections (i mean the dead pinned ones, not live pets)? I have a small collection of common some NZ bugs at home, but am lucky enough to be off to Cambodia in December and cant decide whether i agree with collecting exotic insects for my private collection. on the one hand i dont know their insect fauna very well so wouldnt be able to avoid things that are under threat. and it comse down to killing a healthy animal for a personal (and kind of wierd) collection but on the other hand, i could do my research on what to avoid, and maybe go for short lived and abundant species (so as to minimise impact on the population). And insect populations tend to be quite resiliant to harvest of a few individuals (not like i would take more than two of any sort, what difference could i make) but what if everyone took a couple!!! Ummmm? I dunno, tis a hard one

Havent donated in a while (got a tatoo, then have been just sick enough to count me out) but am O neg, and its not a big deal so i donate as often as i can. Its soo worth it, if not for the potential big difference made to someones life, then the free bikkies mmmm, poor uni student

Munch Munch Munch I'm sure they'll love it, but perhaps the tadpoles wont like it so much? :bounce:

1080 effects on insects? still havent seen any evidence for this at all (and there has been research on this), if you have some could you pass it on? I am rather curious on this subject and would love to see it My current thinkings on 1080 are that it's a 'lesser of evils', while we need a better plan, this is the best we've got for now. http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/dawncho ... il2007.pdf sorry, rather off topic here but this is a subject that interests me

So fishy people if you're in palmy, theres some fantastic thatre going on at the moment, and in the near future (not entirely sure I should be advertising this, but i shall give it a go, should ba ok as much of it is non profit and i certainly wont be making anything out of this... hmmmm?) anyhooo At centrepoint theres a great professional show called vigil which i saw last nite and it was hillarious!!!! (a tragic character waiting by his aunts bedside for her to die) then opening thursday there is Bang Bang you're dead in the darkroom (also at centrepoint, just costs $12 to get in and starts at 9pm ish - this is a massey drama club production and looking rather good so far i must say) and later (4-12th Oct) there will be the festival of new arts going on, with many plays and other artsy stuff ( I strongly recommend you go to some of this as it will be fantsatic!!!!! although i am slightly biased as i am in one of the plays). so be an artsy person/ or just let yourself be entertained!!! we are a theatrical city see you there

Fail! Gah! so i got busy, then had a short nap... which turned into a large one, by which time it was too late for fishhunting, instead i went to a fancy dress party as a spider (excellent legs!). sigh, am sooo busy that i keep forgetting things, and my internet at home isnt fuctioning - grrr. I will go fish hunting, I will I will ....eventually and find myself a cute koura

Update - they are looking great! and are super friendly (not too shy) and a real hit about the office (i am rather popular now, people keep visiting my desk) named: Xixi and Phys

Spare ones?? I dont know that anyone will have spare ones, are you even allowed to have them? As I understand it only a select few lucky people are allowed to care for our native frogs (ie working in recovery and research programmes) as they are Absoloutely protected by law (wildlife act, where some other native wet critters should join them). Correct me if i'm wrong -would love to be wrong, then i could have some!!!!! frogs are fab!!! but the drama of getting native landsnails is enough like hard work for me (=epic paperwork and no results). All in all i dont even think people should be allowed to keep them outside of breeding and research programmes/ advocacy programmes. they are rather precious

sounds good i will be going for a longer term display (i want some as personal/flat pets initially, and the exhibition ones will be needed for at least 4 years) so should sort myself out to get some although first I have to get my Koura sorted (i have a tank, and air line but need to organise a filter and then stuff to go in said tank ie: substrate and occupants). I will get there I just like to have things planned out, so i am ready for fish when it finally happens.

I have heard about the destructive nature of koura so would keep it in its own tank or with shrimp. the fishtank would be separate, a new one (once i think i have enough experience with 1 = allowed to start tank no 2) I have herd that bullies tend to have trouble with whitespot - true? and is this a big deal? or just something easily sorted out/ avoided?

Never mind turns out my research missed the bit where thay can change colour (from bright green to rather brown) according to their environment. panic over