twinkles

Ditto, Stella would be best What a cool area to focus on! I wish we'd done things like that at school. Perhaps at the end you could look at if there's anything that could be done to improve the koura habitat in the school stream, like planting some seedlings alongside it if the banks have been cleared?

Perhaps everyone i've heard from bought the imitation ones too, since there's a few votes for them here. If you get another one make sure you come back and report on how it went My main dog these days is a big heading dog with a really short, smooth coat, but he still manages to leave an incredible amount of fur all over the place. And the beagle is even worse, tiny but thick coated and always grubby :-? I just call it a second layer of carpet and appreciate the extra insulation.

I hear the furminators suck. For any breed with a thick double coat you need an undercoat rake, like these.. http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/dogs/grooming/auction-472678365.htm http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/dogs/grooming/auction-472312597.htm They're amazing, keep the top layer of fur nice and pull all the undercoat out through it, that's the stuff that comes out in clumps twice a year and goes everywhere. Easy and comfortable to use. Assuming you have a decent pet store where you are, go and try some out to find the perfect one for his coat, you'll want one for long coats specifically, with firm teeth, 2-5mm apart, thickening towards the base. The masterpet ones with over long teeth are crap, best ones have teeth around the 2-3cm length and sort of grippy on the fur. You'll know when you've found one because one sweep will get you a giant clumpf of fur :lol: I had a long coat shepherd for years, who slept on my bed, so I had to find the best brush lol. Plus we have frequent foster dogs and find those brushes work equally well on most medium coats too.

They're heavy drinkers them eels, must have learnt from the local people :oops: Last night went really well Regional council flood/water team have pretty much given the go ahead to plant whatever wherever. Turns out that some of the land we thought they owned, is actually untitled land managed by the local council (i.e, where the cows are) so we need to work with them more. Made contact with some local council people who were at the meeting, and sounds like some of them would lend their support. Some of the areas we want to do are included in the 10-year district council plan as needing work done in the next 3 years, planting and other stuff, so we'll be putting in a submission next week for what we want planted and where, hopefully they'll agree and send some of the allocated funding into it. Submissions on the 10year plan close on the 17th. Also got permission from the horizons flood people to plant out behind our place better, between us and the wetland, and they're going to try and supply some plants for us which is great. Now trying to work out how to form a trust, so we can bring people together better and apply for grants from doc and lotteries etc to buy plants. Worked out we need around 6,500 plants just to do the stream in the park

Nice soundtrack Looks like everyone's enjoying their holiday

I've been looking at some on tm lately, the power savings seem great and I know lots of indoor plant growing people are switching to led instead of hps, so they must be good. Apparently alot depends on having the right led bulbs for what you want, the spectrums are more specific than fluros/halides or something? Be interested to hear if anyone's got them and how they go...

Thought I'd start a new thread if that's ok, rather than tagging onto the one about our swamp. We're going to the council meeting tonight to present our plan, riparian planting of the streams, stormwater ditches and river edge through our town. So wish me luck I toned the plan down alot, to make it easier to get accepted, so now it covers the council owned small waterways, and the main stretches of river. Taking a few interested locals and someone who owns a big stretch of land bordering the council's and the main stream, to voice their support for the idea. Fully expecting the council to say no, go away, but that's cool, we'll keep at them until they agree. I've been around photographing all the waterways we're including, and went down to the biggest stream last night to see what I could spot in the dark. So here's a few fishy pics.. This is where I was.. And this is what I saw in a 20metre stretch.. Big koura, as long as my foot if you include his claws, so I wasn't keen to get any closer for a better pic in case he pinched me sorry Bullies by the million.. And eels, 9 all up..

How wide and high is it? 1 1/2 feet tall/wide makes it around 180L. And of course it depends on the room temperature, how much heat it needs to add to get to the temp you want. If it's just for breeding the gups and not to look pretty too, then put poly on the back and sides, to keep the heat loss down. Check the temp for a few days too, I had one blow a thermostat and kill a bunch of fry before i realised

Welcome :happy2: Can't wait to see how your tank comes along, i'm hoping to upgrade my native to 700L or so in a few months so will be watching with interest

Yep I remember struggling for ages to get pics of mine a few years back.. ended up putting some in a little glass so they couldn't move too far lol. I like my bullies who sit perfectly still at the front of the tank for long periods

I love your guppy in the first pic, and the endlers style boy at the bottom of the second one

Did they look like berries before drying up? Could be a coprosma..

She's from the whanganui, where that first little cluster of red dots are west of taupo, and from the same spot as my upland boy (or at least, i'm sure that's what he is). Here's two more pics, the second is under blue tank light sorry - Here's the boy - Edit: She's about 6-7cm

Love the second one :thup:

Lol should have read properly. Does the giant bully like a hidey hole to hang out in then?

Nice wood I'd chop the end off so it can go upside down, then the koura can have the big hollow part for his house..

Thanks, that's what I thought. I better buy Stella's book I think and take down to the river

Been trying to get a decent pic of this girl for a while, finally managed it.. Crans or upland? I thought she was an upland at first, to go with my boy, but now I think I was wrong and she's a crans? And if so, what's the easiest way to distinguish upland girls so I can go hunting for one?

Lol, minnows wouldn't last long with the bullies

Brilliant info blueether So not even with guppies. Mountain minnows are happy at those low temps I think? Ours are with smelt and bullies.

I couldn't say for sure. They're meant to be happiest between 10-20deg, but I have heard of other people keeping them in tropical tanks up to 24. You could set up a tank for one with low temp tropicals though, guppies and the like? Putting them with that mix of fish they'd be likely to eat the corys

Here's my pale girl with shapes down her back, under blue tank lighting - And here's a wild one in his home - That's in a little forest stream where there are billions of them, one every foot or so. They seem far more numerous in clear, cold shallow forest streams, with shaded water and lots of leaf litter and debris, than in the sunny, warm, bare rock river edges, but Stella is the expert and could tell you more about what habitat suits them best and how adapatable they are.

I've got 3 and there's alot of other people here who've got or had them, have a browse through the native forum category. I keep mine under 20deg, but they're in a tank with smelt who are really temperature sensitive. We often find them in the warm parts of the river, still sunny rock pools on the edges, so they can probably deal with a little more heat if the water quality is good enough. It might lower their lifespan though. What are you wanting to keep them with? The two i've had for a while are really friendly, out and about most of the day and run out as soon as you drop food in the tank, but our newest one is very shy still and doesn't come out when we're around much. They've all got their own little houses where they've moved gravel and stones around under the driftwood and big rocks to make nice hidey holes. They come in heaps of different shades and patterns, so we've got one dark one, one pale one with geometric patterns, and one with tiny spots all over it, easy to tell apart at a glance. They will eat each other if they haven't got enough space each and places to hide, ours are in a 4ft and i'm planning on getting something bigger before they grow too much bigger. Grow to about 16cm I think, and they shed their shells frequently to grow bigger - always makes me panic and think ones been eaten lol. Mine like fish flakes, sinking shrimp pellets, tiny chunks of dog roll, bloodworms, any live food and bits of the plants in their tank, both the brown old leaves and fresher bits, and they will climb up out of the water in the evening to search around the plants above the waterline. Some koura eat fish but we haven't had any problems yet with the bullies who share their tank.

So here's a really rough first draft. Please have a read and message me whatever i've left out, major flaws etc. No one wants to help with the writing part of course and my mind is mush this week http://www.facebook.com/groups/160955410698054/doc/161818057278456/

Lovely big fish :love: