twinkles

they're all lovely :love: Rocky's funny though, what a fatty :lol: And the other banded pic is great thankyou

Very cool :bounce: The pics of where it was found are interesting, you'd never think a little hole like that could be a perfect fish habitat. Hopefully there's lots more unnoticed in their hidey holes around the country

Finally got my new tank, the same day the forums crashed of course :facepalm: It's a 5ft 540L, came with dividers in it which i've cut out but still need to clean up the silicon remnants on the front panel from them. I'm making a background for it, attempting to copy the river edges like these.. so it'll have a small overhang above the waterline, planted with ferns and mosses, and a riverbank on the back wall covering the ugly drill holes that have been glued over (there's 7 of them). Holes in the bank for the koura and bullies, and some driftwood worked into it. The filter inlet will come out on the bank and trickle off into the water, plus there'll be a second external filter that goes back in under the water line. The background is all carved and waiting to be painted. The only tank safe paint I could get here was a 1L of medium base, so it can't be tinted too dark, will be a medium ochre and umber colour. Thinking about chucking some sand on the lower parts and maybe some peat or that ochre mud-sand on the upper parts, for more depth and colour, but will see. The bottom of the tank will have big river stones (coffee cup sized) on top of a thin layer of river sand and smaller stones. Will use wood to hide the joins in the background, and the ferns in my current tank plus a bag of spagnum for the above water. The fish: our current crans bullies, koura and smelt will be going in, plus a pair of banded kokopu (have to cheat here and buy them since there's none locally to take), hopefully some inanga or a few more smelt, depending what's around in spring, and lots more bullies, perhaps 3 more crans girls and a couple of pairs of redfins if i can find some young ones. Otherwise more crans instead. I'll paint the background this week and clean up the front of the tank before siliconing it in place, then I have to be patient for a few weeks for the stand to arrive before I can put it in place and fill it. Anyway hope it works out like I imagine it will and i'll post some pics once the background is in

it's looking great :bounce: The koura has nice colours and patterns, very different from mine. Ditto for more pics, would love to see more of the bandeds

Most of the pollution from cattle here is beef cattle, very little dairying. So the fontera work to clean up their act needs to be matched by a similar initiative for drystock farmers. We had a great result at the council meeting on friday One member of council sounded doubtful about what i'd said in my submission about the river being in bad condition, so i answered her questions with the niwa monitoring results and how we rank really badly nationally, even though we're way upstream in a river coming out of pristine national park. She didn't know what periphyton or mci or anything meant so she was quiet after that. The rest of the council thought it was great, they know they'll have to do something eventually to keep to the resource management act and other regulations coming out, so they're very pleased that someone wants to take over and do it for them without them having to pay and organise stuff. So we've got the unofficial go ahead to start applying to grants and planning properly. It's all been heaps easier than I expected so far :bounce:

thankyou

yah :bounce: i didn't do too badly then

1 - redfin female 2 - crans male 3 - crans female 4 - common male 5 - common female 6 - giant male 7 - crans female 8 - upland male 9 - don't know but he's gorgeous 10 - crans male i guess

Can I play? Fair bit of guesswork in my answers lol, but i'll be glad to see how many I can get right.. 1 - redfin 2 - crans 3 - crans 4 - common 5 - common 6 - giant 7 - crans 8 - upland 9 - don't know but he's gorgeous 10 - crans

that'll be great, will have to grab a copy I stop and have a look in the edge of our river when I walk the dog at night, always loads of bullies there and they stay nice and still but it's hard to see if they're common or crans or uplands, and they all seem to adopt the same shades in the same spots, even the boys are hard to pick out.

the other week i thought this was pretty bad, paddock with a gully draining straight into the river.. but this today, after rain and several hundred cows... While I was taking pics they were hosing out the cattle trucks and loading area, into the same gully. Stinks to high heaven.

I read somewhere that there are a few around auckland, and used to be some in northland but the northland ones may be extinct now.

yes he does :happy2: So that's an easy way to positively id the crans boys? Here's his rear

He's never red/peach like that, only strong yellow, but I know you mentioned that there's some regional variation and i've never seen a peachy or red boy in our river, just yellow and orange. They both have mottled face patterns though. Shall I assume that they're a pair of the same species, most likely crans? It's hard when they change colour every few second too lol, pale and spotty or blotchy and contrasted or black and yellow.

Sediment catching vegetation would do wonders here. There's one little stream which runs through paddocks, under the highway, through another paddock, then between two houses and into the river. With the rain yesterday it was clay brown all through the paddocks, then where it travels between the houses it's almost completely smothered by weed growth and is filtered to come out clean and transparent into the river. We're looking at mostly carex, toitoi, ribbonwood and cabbage trees

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=58471 crans then? She's got orange blotchy spots, not clear tiny freckles like the one above. But never has proper whisker markings either, that line under her eye stays faded when she goes darker mottled. The boy's orange spotted and his dorsal line is a real yellow yellow.

She's beautifully freckly I've been looking in our river for a girl like that but all I see are vague patterned girls that could be crans or upland to my uneducated eye lol. The redfin is gorgeous too, love the blue in his fins :bounce:

Ok, please read through this anyone and pm me changes or mistakes etc. Or rewrite the whole thing for me! I'm sure it sounds awful but have to get something in as a submission on the council's long term plan tomorrow, and then follow up in person at the next council meeting. It's hard to figure out how to say 'quit poisoning our water and let us plant trees' without sounding like some crazed hippy they can ignore And I can talk to people in person and explain it all find it tough to get a complaint down on paper or know what word to use to suggest things. Need to add some more at the end too Ruapehu District Council is falling well short of local and national expectations for waterway care and protection. While other district and regional councils have established policies, bylaws and projects to restore and protect aquatic habitats, we lag behind with no consideration given to water quality or habitat protection in long term planning documents or daily council activities. In urban Taumarunui we have unfiltered stormwater systems running straight into our awa, degraded streams with little or no indigenous flora and fauna surviving in them, and cattle given free access to waterways and the awa itself on council managed land. Many native species are absent from areas they once thrived in, and summer algal blooms render the water unsuitable for swimming and recreation. We request that RDC considers the protection, restoration and promotion of aquatic habitats as a major objective for any works in or adjoining waterways in the urban catchment. We also request the help and support of RDC for a community led restoration project on council and private lands adjoining the awa and waterways. Particular areas of concern highlighted in the LTP and Asset Management Plans include the development of Taumarunui Domain and Cherry Grove. Both of these areas are in desperate need of restoration planting and improvements, and we would like council to ensure that any development work done in these areas is focused on improving water quality and aquatic habitats. Appropriate native re-vegetation of stream banks, wetland areas and river margins should be included in any improvement works. Not specified in the LTP or AMP's but currently managed by RDC is the large area of land bordering the right bank of the Whanganui Awa between Cherry Grove and Matapuna Bridge. This land is currently leased as grazing, allowing livestock to trample waterway edges and wetlands, defecate directly into the water flow, and preventing the establishment of native riparian species. We request that a plan be developed to end riverside grazing as leases expire, and return the land to a usable community recreation area, managed by community groups and iwi. This would allow the community to riparian plant the urban catchment river edge and stormwater gullies, greatly reducing the effect our urban area has on water quality and habitats in the Whanganui. Whakaora Awa has been investigating possible funding avenues to supply plants and provide ongoing maintenance for this area, and now seeks discussion with RDC to evaluate when grazing leases expire and coordinate to find the best workable plan for planting the area over several years.

I don't think so, could be though? The best i've seen is very endler-looking wild-type guppies.

that person needs to have their auctions pulled, they're trying to pass off mixed guppies as endlers and with the price tag to match. I'd love some true endlers or similar looking guppies too

Jansens had them years ago, as did some other stores. And they're for sale here and trademe fairly often as aquarium fish.

I find the easiest way to float a bag and slowly add water is if you can open the bag and peg it to the side of the tank. Plenty of fresh air and easy to keep adding a little more water.

Good on him :thup: My first tank was a 3ft tropical with neons, swords and platties, some plants. I saved for weeks and trolled the trade and exchange till I found someone selling a setup in my meager price range edited to add: And every individual fish was carefully chosen after spending an hour staring into the tanks at jansens, lucky they had patient staff hehe

lol, doesn't seem to be much info on them... Distribution: Maybe native Often found in houses Life History: Has powerful mandibles, could probably bite humans Runs fast Predacious Eats flies, cockroaches Looks very creepy :roey: