northland chic

I would go for the Aquaone. I'm pretty sure I have one running my knife fish tank, I've never had any problems with the cleaning or anything. It's actually easier to clean than the fluval and cheaper. Ohh I just thought of another great thing I don't think theres an o-ring in the aquaone. The only problem I found was finding a bucket it would fit in. I have an old fluval 403 and you can't get parts my impeller shaft is a cotton bud with the ends pulled off. But my aquaone is great havent had any problems! If I was buying I'd go for the Aquaone for price and ease of use

I think Hyperion (the teil) would like a friend sometimes but I think he would get jealous of the new comer. At the moment he gets all the attention. They keep all the tiels in one cage at the shop and they always only seem to have males. But I suppose its not meant to be long term and the birds don't really whistle or say anything, they try to stay away from each other so they don't really look happy. I wouldnt mind getting him a girlfriend if another boy is not suitable but I would worry about egg binding and all the girly problems I read about. I think he does mating behaviour but I'm not sure. He will chat with me and then walks around the floor of his cage with his wings just held of his body and does a particular whistle. Hes very entertaining! Mimicks our puppies fighting and calls them with me. We have had him three months now and I must say the whole family loves him. Thanks for the answers NC

I have a young male cockatiel and would one day like to get him a bigger cage and a friend maybe. Would he be able to live with another male cockatiel or would they fight? Could he live with a ringneck or a lorikeet? If I get him a friend will he stop trying to talk? Thanks NC

I used to name all my fish but after a few deaths years ago they just get called whatever they are. We have oscar, syno and our clown knife is Knifee. Years ago when we had an arowana my partner wanted to call him Marowana, I soon put a stop to that.

How many did they have at that price? Anything else interesting there? How much do they charge for silver arowana? Thanks

I'm borrowing a computer while my baby is in the shop and all the sounds are twice as fast as their meant to be. Everything games, media player all of it. I have looked at the settings but don't know what to do and can't see anything out of the ordinary. Any help would be greatly appreciated please. I can live without sound on my Pharaoh game(this comp ain't grunty enough to play much else), but I'd love to watch the youtube clips and stuff people post links for. It has something called VIA Audio deck but I don't know how to use it. Anyway any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks NC

Clown Knife about a foot long, I don't want to put him with the oscars because he can't compete with the 2 gut buckets for food. He was with them for a while when they were younger and it didn't go well.

I have a 7x2x2ft tank it has 2 oscars and a heap of silver dollars plus 2 angels in it. My knife fish is getting grumpy at the two geo suri's in his tank. Knifee's tank is 5x2x2ft it's just them a syno, pleco and talking catfish. Do you think I should move the geo's to the bigger tank? I'm worried about the oscars because although they have never bred they are good friends, they dig pits and guard them. I have never seen them show aggression towards each other But I worry that another hole digging cichlid might make them angry. Geo's are probably about 10cm oscars about double that. My only other tank is a 4ft community tank.I would love to make them their own tank but have none spare. I don't think it is a good idea, what's your thoughts on this? Thanks NC

A few years ago my partner caught a couple of prickly sharks and he also got a bramble shark (was going to post pics but my normal computer in the shop). I thnk we sent a prickly shark to Te Papa. A couple of weeks ago he got a spotty dog with spikes. Apart from that theres the normal spikey dog shark, carpet shark, school shark, great whites, makos, bronze whalers, blues and i'm sure heaps of others.

I love fish! My favourites have to be Hapuka and Bluenose yay!! My partner is a commercial fisherman before anyone asks we don't eat heaps of fish, it is illegal for us to take one for ourselves for tea. I don't think owning fish has put me off but I don't like it when I see people who keep a whole bucket of little tiny fish (spottys, mackeral and herrings) when they don't intend to eat them or people who catch a really nice fish then leave it in the sun to go off then take it home and eat it. If your going to take its life look after it, kill it don't let it sit there dying! Commercial fishing is alright its keeps us fed, clothed and bills paid but I don't like the net methods where everything is caught and in the end they are after quantity not quality so its normally poor grade that your lucky to get $2kg for. Also I think the use of sonar makes it so the poor fish don't stand a chance. Game fishing is alright but I don't like it when they have the hour/s long fight to let it go and see it slowly sink and if its still alive its so exhausted theres so many sharks attracted to the fight that its soon dinner anyway. I don't blame people for not buying it from the shop I'd say most of the time its at least a week old but someone has too or we'd be out of a job. But anyway I love to eat fish its so yummy in batter or fried in butter or fish burgers or raw fish yum yum!

i agree with mystic no pacus! You have to knock them on the head when they're big, no one will buy it even for $1. Wish someone had told me they ate silver sharks. Our old ones ate both of mine one was about 25cm came home to find out 5cm of body left I had had this one from tiny so was shattered one pacu got ikied after that. Then woke up a few weeks later to find remaining pacu eating my 15cm silver shark so our last pacu got ikied. They had also been attacking my oscars. I have had a few pacu before and never had them that aggressive even had a black one. Do not reccmommend!

Our little mini foxy X Jack Russell 7 months and our mini pinscher 3 months

For me a breeding pair would be when I see wigglers or fry. I think its good for cichlids and the rare fish but it sucks when someone is advertising a breeding pair of goldfish or guppies because they want more for that reason and just about any guppy or goldfish will do its not hard to get a breeding pair of guppies.

Yay! Good on you all! There's lots of awesome places to visit up here. Most of our beaches are breathtaking. If you want to see the top of the North Island would be find a camp site for your caravan maybe somewhere like Whatuwhiwhi/Karikari, theres an awesome holiday park there one of the top ten (ph 0800142144). Thats about half way in between Mangonui and Kaitaia. You could park your caravan and drive around from there, its only a couple of hours to Cape Reinga or theres those dune bus tours that leave from Kaitaia. You could also visit Mangonui briefly and places like Taipa where there is no camping ground. Theres also holiday parks at Tauranga Bay (ph 094050436) and Taupo Bay (ph 094060315)about 10kms out of Mangonui. Tauranga Bay is only a bay or two away from Taupo Bay. Theres also a nice camping ground at Hihi (ph 094060307) which is just a few minutes (about 6kms out of Mangonui) and from the beach at Hihi you can see Doubtless Bay and the one at Whatuwhiwhi is almost on the opposite side of the bay to Hihi. Just about from any of those places I mentioned you could drive to the top and mosey round. My partner goes into Spirits Bay on the boat and says it great I think theres one of those DOC camping grounds there maybe. Parenga Harbour is beautiful if you drive up the top, you'll get to see the blinding white silica sand I don't think you can stay there but its a lovely place to just have a look at. Sadly to say I don't think I would bother with Kaitaia unless you want to go to paknsave for supplies or warehouse or something. I just about have more species at home than the local petshop which is also a garden centre so don't bother with that (neons, glowlights, silver dollars, loaches, maybe a pleco or two, platies, barbs and a couple of gouramis now you know what they've always got). As for other petshopsI recommend the same one as Smidey Northland Pet in Whangarei nex the police station is the best and the next best would probably be the other one in Whangarei on Kamo Road I think. On the main road up north if you don't turn off to Kerikeri theres a petshop by the warehouse at Waipap never been there though its only new. My dad when he comes up he stays in one of the camping grounds around Mangonui and drives everywhere and shows people around. One of his most popular destinations is the Anicent Kauri Kingdom its just out of Kaitaia on your way to the Cape. It got some great looking woodwork in there and a huge staircase made out of swamp kauri, you can actually go up it to next the upper floor. If you got to the Cape you have to have a quick look at Houhora. There's alot of great scenery on the drive to the Cape. If you go to Kaitaia its only about a 15 minute drive to Ninety Mile Beach as well. I could go on all night. But I definately recommend finding somewhere up the top half to stay and then have a few days relaxing and a couple of days sightseeing. I recently met some people on our wharf from Wellington, if you do want to go fishing on the Mangonui wharf go on the last few hours of incoming tide and use bait jigs get you a livey then go from there. My mate was shark fishing from my partners boat the other day and had the mean hook up. Oh the struggle I didn't envy him at all, he looked like he was going to go flying off the boat or let the rod go! In the end the bright shark chaffed the line on a mooring. You can also go to the World Famous Fish N Chip Shop, I'll be honest it is more expensive but the feed is better and the fish is fresher (my partner catches it) but they only do fish and chips no burgers or toasties or wedges. Sorry to go on and on but I don't want you to miss anything! Anyway hope this helped and didnt confuse you sorry if it did but once I started . . . . . .

Um. . . 3 dogs (Beastie pitbull , Puppy mini foxy x Jr 6months old swallowed fishhook the other day looks like $500 operation for her and lastly mini pinscher Killer) 5 Cats (Mrs, Stoney, Tigger (3 legs), Precious and Kitten) 2 Kittens and just the fish now my rat had to be put down can you believe one of the local vets clinics was going to charge me $40 to get my rat put down!

Happy New Year!! I had a good new years eve went and picked up a miniature pinscher puppy (totally unexpected) hes so cute. My partner being a fisherman is out fishing so I went with a mate to paihia for a look at the fireworks arrived just in time to see the last of them but cool anyway. Didn't get out of the car just came home was better than sitting at home alone though and I got to go in an awesome 1998 Nismo Skyline woo hoo! Again Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks for that Snookie was very helpful.

Welcome it is great to see another Northlander! When I first started keeping fish I had names for them all but after a few you will run out of names and it just makes losing them harder! Welcome!

Was helpful but not really what I was looking for. How many anal fins should they have?

Hi everyone, After a few years running tropicals I decided to have another go with goldfish, but this time be a bit more picky about who goes in there. I decided after seeing some of the nice fish on trade me to get orandas. Wouldn't want to buy goldfish at the only shop within an hours driving distance because they only get in nymphs (no one realises the difference) and they still wouldn't be cheap, so trade me it was. I have bought a couple since, some arrived today and I got one extra in the bag. I've noticed one has a joined tail and one has only one anal fin where the others have 2. I thought I got an xtra one because of the joined tail but now I'm not sure. So what are the standards I'm looking for? One anal fin or two? I'm pretty sure joined tail is not good. But anyway any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance NC

Yip, my oscars like shrimp. I buy little bags 2inchx1inch (50 or 100 bags for $4.50)and freeze a few per bag also can put one mussel per bag, makes for quick easy feeding.

I have two synos I bought as clown synos and they look more like the one in fishy_t's photo. They got some more clown synos in just after I got mine and they didnt look the same to me. Hope it works that them when I first got them they are about 12cm now but I dont really think the spots have grown. I read that page on syno hybrids and one of mine has a kink in between his dorsal and tail fins wondering if thats what it meant when it said kinked spine. the little fin on the top of the body between the dorsal and tail is not in the centre its on one side of his body.

I have a 4ft community tank and it has about 22 black widows, some glowlights, red eyed tetras, 1 angel, 2 gourami and a heap of bottom dwellers plus a breeding pair of Kribs and find they get along great. The big school of black widows looks awesome!

Our one is about 30cm now, he lives with 3 angelfish, 5 geophagus suri's, 2 Silver dollars, 1 Mytennis, 2 plecos, 1 chocolate catfish (never see it but know its there) and one Clown Syno. I bought about 10 baby silver dollars from the shop and let them grow up in there, he might have had a little go at them but knew he couldn't eat them. I normally find he will be looking for his dinner then just bite what he finds thinking its his bloodworms. I don't really have much problem with him but we've had him since he was tiny and hes always had tankmates. We did have him with oscars but found hes too slow when its dinner time.

I have a feeling I bought my delphax under a name like that. Here is a link to the thread with a pic, hopefully it works: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/delpha ... 14675.html Do they look anything like it? Would be very interested if they did. Have still never found anymore. Thanks NC