PeteS

I would like to obtain a springtail starter culture. Thanks Pete.

Here is a link to an interview with Peter Wilhelmus from NZ Clearwater Crayfish Ltd that was on the Radio NZ program Country Life tonight http://tinyurl.com/ljeny3

The big larvae could possibly be Oniscigaster distans or O wakefieldi which is a mayfly.

Depending on your tank size I would use froze water bottles from 1Ltr to 3Ltr size. You can also use fan on your tank or an air con unit if you have to cool a fishroom.

My black mudfish were on holiday at Stella place while I was overseas recently. When I finally moved them back home they came with a leaf litter substrate, before I had them in a tank with the glass bottom painted black with bits of wood to hide under. The first thing I notice was there behavioral change as stated by Stella above. They are much more active. They do seem to love swimming in an out of the leaf litter looking for food, in this case white worms. They swim pass the water fleas with out eating them :-(. Not sure what the water chemistry is like at the moment. I use rain water for water changes. I will need to dig out my test kits to check.

Polystyrene balls would not work they would have no structure when wet and form a big mass at the bottom of the filter which would clog quickly. You need a cheap media with structure and hire surface area for the water to flow around. How about using the large expanded clay balls used in hydroponic.

Once again you have had such a cool! experience Tuataras are so cool, but I so want to go spotlighting for mudfish You with out your camera in hand I does not happen.

I wish my mudfish were big enough to bite me :-) Then again they could be as I have not seen them for three weeks

Cool photo Stella as always. Nice fat fish also, nice clean rock to NZ native Fish Rock

Carnivorous plants are cool. I grow them in old fish tanks inside, some grow outside in full sun and some also on window sills depending on what type of conditions they like. I'm going to the International Carnivorous Plants Society Conference in Sydney for a week then over to Perth WA for two weeks looking at CP's in the wild. Should be fun Supasi, Good to see that you are into native CP's and native fish. I have seen four types of sundews (Drosera) around MT Ruapehu, plus one bladderwort (Utricularia).

Cool fish. I saw the one's they have in Animates.

Yep is was a great trip. The banded kokopu were so cool and all those glowing crayfish eyes were amazing. We also saw a few whitebait in the Himitangi Beach stream. I wish we had seen some mudfish, but hay we can always go back again. The Native Fish Hunt Syndrome is taking over.

Stella, I must have a closer look at those worms in your mudfish tank they could be a form of tubifex. Some interesting links: http://tinyurl.com/6zgdy8 http://tinyurl.com/6x6adr

I would go with some form of tubifex or close relative. Tubifex are normally red like the ones in your photo.

Not sure on the legalities of selling live tubifex worms. It is illegal to ship them between the north & south Inlands due to the possible transfer of Whirling Disease which affects trout. This is why the pets shops stopped selling live tubifex because the were sourced from the south inland.