David R

Its certainly looks like its of the genus Vieja, but looks different to other young V. synspila I've seen. Much more colour, they don't usualy have such a well defined read head at that size. Regardless, its a nice fish! I'd suggest you try the cichlid forum on MonsterFishKeepers as there's a heap of really clued up people there who should be able to give you a positive ID.

Its cool and overcast today, making a pleasant change from the scorching days we've had for the past week, just in time for the drive back to Auckland today too. I got heatstroke on Tuesday, got up at 5:30 to go fishing [after a late night too] and didn't have breakfast before we left, sat in a boat in the blazing sun til about 1pm, and drunk half a bottle of water. No food, little water and hot sun is a bad mix! Caught some good fish tho!

I'm starting a new job on the 9th of Feb, hopefully I'll have no horror stories!!

Get the latest addition of Axelrod's encyclopedia of freshwater aquarium fish. Its just a heap of photos with Latin names and a bit of info per species, but if the older ones are anything to go by there will be loads of photos of interesting fish. It won't be cheap though!

Thats not what he said to me, but then again he didn't know me from adam so probably thought I'd just pester him to sell me one if.... I wonder what MAF's reply was all about then if they aren't "containment".... :-?

D. polota or the American Tiger only grows to about 30cm IIRC. But I'm on the hunt for one and they're hard to find, so I call shotgun on the first one to come up for sale!!

There are a huge number of small crickets in the grass at my parents place. Does anyone know how to build a cricket trap???

Its their carpark, they can do as they please with it. If I owned a large carpark I'd be pretty pissed if people were using it to spend money at another store... Is it? I can't see why it is outrageous, when you consider the cost of hiring the clamping guy, the lost opportunity cost of not having a parking space available for customers wanting to shop at the supermarket etc. Again, its their carpark and they should be able to do as they please. I don't blame him, I know a few tow truck drivers and having an attitude is pretty much part of the job. Its not like most people caught say "fair call, you got me, I was breaking the rules", if you had to deal with people whinging and making up petty excuses every day you'd get sick of it too. Contradict much? In short, if you don't like it then don't break the rules. I can't stand people who moan about parking tickets, speeding tickets, etc etc. At the end of the day you were doing something you shouldn't have been and you got caught, so deal with it and suffer the consequences...

Hey how come he can post bigger pics?!?! Beautiful fish by the way!

How do the legs attach to the horizontals at the top and bottom?

Perhaps you need to give us a bit more info, ie are you actually parked in your own private car park or what? :-?

Mangawhai is a bit more than an hour, but its a great beach. Why not make a weekend of it and head up to whangarei, from ocean beach at the tip of the heads all the way up to whananaki north, there's enough beautiful beaches to keep anyone busy for years!

And the occasional huge random cichlid...

Depending on where you're going to put the tank you could use ply on 1-3 sides and just have a big viewing window on the front (or both long sides). That would save on the costs a bit. Although I do like Mystics idea, a big concrete block tank (a-la JohnPTC's arapima tank on MFK) would be fantastic!

Supply and demand. I don't really care about the price difference, I'm more upset at the fact that we don't get any of the lower jaw species of Polytperus here. I'd rather have expensive fish than none at all, I shed a tear every time I see a yank on MFK asking if US$40 is a good price for an 8" endli...

Mystic is onto it, and they also do it when battling for dominance, along with "greying out".

Yeah plastic would have been better, but either way I wouldn't leave him out there unsupervised as there are three cats and a dog running around, plus other predators like native hawks.

When selling anything the quantity sold will decrease as the price increases, and there will be a happy median somwhere in between selling 5 fry for $200 each and selling 200 fry for $5 each. I agree that there's enough people with the potential to breed them that the price will drop considerably. IMO they're not that different form any other cichlids, and anything much over $20 for juvi's is too much. What did A.PROPHECY's big colony end up selling for? IIRC it was around $100 per fish (maybe less?) and they were adults and sub-adults...

I felt bad for Chester having to spend the holidays in a 3'tank, so I made him an outdoor pen to run around in when its sunny, and when we're able to watch him. Unfortunately its been overcast for the past few days, apart from yesterday afternoon when we had him outside for a couple of hours. Some old timber + a 10M roll of weedmat + half an hour = cheap, easy and portable enclosure; Found some old junk under the house for him to climb on; Soaking up some rays, about to shed; Freedom!! (almost)

He's in a 3'tank that I've left at my parents place in Whangarei for when we're up visiting. I've also made him a simple 3x2M pen on the back lawn using weedmat as a fence. he can climb it but usually doesn't make it to the top. We just put him in a cardboard box in the car and don't feed him the morning we're travelling.

Surely that size would be alright for a male and a few females? Don't they only get to ~12" and slowly?

Can't post pics at the moment, we're up north on holiday for a few weeks. Lizard is with us, currently in a 3'tank but building an outdoor pen tomorrow when bunnings is open.

Greg at Tanks2U build me a 4x2x2' glass enclosure with sliding doors for $200. Should be able to set up the lighting for under $100 with a little DIY. Depending on what kind of hook ups you have, how handy you are and what kind of tools you have (or have access) too you could possibly do one cheaper yourself. Maybe look for a cracked aquarium you could convert?

Looks good!

I agree, I'd have no problems feeding a mouse to a huge fish like an arapima that could easily eat it, but for a smaller arowana where the fish is really struggling to get it down and the mouse suffers, thats not cool. I saw a video on youtube of someone feeding a huge goldfish to a school of red bellied piranhas. They must have been starving and the gradually ripped the poor goldy to bits, but it wasn't nice, and it certainly wasn't "just nature" as the person who posted it (and half the morons in the comments) seemed to think....