Aquila

These are the leaf fish i'm familiar with. What about blind cave fish? I've seen them in petstores here before.

Nah, lol Nandus nandus is a species of leaf fish allowed in NZ and some people on the 2 forums have them...otherwise not sure what other kinds are available but you could enquire with HFF. Also pantadon butterfly, or hatchet fish (if you consider that oddball), or bumblebee gobies, or scarlet badis or some cool killifish.

Maybe some leaf fish?

A school of glass catfish?

Rotonene a fully natural poison :lol:

Haha wish it was that easy! Unfortunately, won't be able to eradicate all of them like this We were joking of 'harvasting' some brown trout with some electrofishing before administrating the rotonene Not sure if they are approved for human consumption though!

Oooooh, he is sooooooo bad-ass!

My guess would also be the angels. Once they figure out that they can eat the smaller fish then that is it! It could also be the zebra loaches at night. My polka-dot loach used to hunt neons at night. You can try and see if leaving the light on over night for a few days makes a difference suddenly...that might help reveal the culprit! The other option is that the neons are dying from a disease and then being scavenged on. Do the remaining fish look healthy and active?

I had my family in Canada trying to get in touch with me before I even found out about it! They were surprised when I told them that I didn't even feel anything in Wellington.

I'd just like to add to this post, seeing as I will be helping with this operation in Karori. Stella pretty much covered all the basics so no need to repeat myself too much. I've read the proposal in detail and will vouch for its validity as a treatment for eradicating pest fish. People involved in this, and people who have reviewed and approved the proposal are experienced conservationists and scientists from multiple institutions (not just DoC). The plan is well thought out and has exhausted all possible ways to mitigate any risks to the ecosystem. In short, the stream will be surveyed on several occasions to establish accurate population estimates of banded kokopu. Prior to the treatment, as many possible natives will be caught (through electrofishing) and released into the upper reaches of the stream where no trout as present (behind a temporary barrier so they can't swim back down before treatment finishes). Rotonene will then be slowly dosed from the barrier down the stream killing everything in its path all the way to the reservoir at the end. Control trout will also be present in cages in the reservoir so that the minimum dose of rotonene to cause all of them to die will be detected. All dead fish will be removed. As Stella mentioned, rotonene degrades quickly making it an excellent tool. After the stream is cleared as safe, the barrier will be removed, and the natives from the upper reaches will begin to migrate back down into the newly establish pest-free ecosystem. This method has been used successfully in the past and hence why it is being considered as the best method for restoring karori's waterway back to a natural system. I'd also like to remind everyone that the people who entered this line of work didn't fall into it accidentally and didn't get into it because they hate nature and want to kill things. They studied for many years and are passionate about animals and conservation biology. They are the best people to be making these decisions as they have the knowledge base to back it up. Some methods may seem harsh, but someone has to do the dirty work. As always, these proposals are publicly advertised and submissions can be made if anyone has concerns that they believe the experts overlooked. Oh yeah, and stuff.co.nz pretty much botches ALL their stories anyways (except for the stories they copy directly from the journalist bank). Stopped reading that garbage a while ago...

I'm a little late to the 'party' but I just wanted to say that my thoughts are with all those who experienced substantial damage to their homes and property. I can't even imagine going though something like that but I'm so glad that their were no fatalities... that is the most important thing. So sorry to hear about all the fish and tank loses too It will no doubt serve as a warning to the rest of use to reconsider our setups and prepare ourselves the best we can for such an emergency. I am proud to see how the fish community has pulled together and offered up any equipement and help to others!

It's a tough call to make considering the aquarium-stand combo is naturally top heavy and glass is relatively delicate... Structural engineers would be the best people to listen to! Would corner brackets installed onto the top surface of the stand help hold the tank in place? I noticed that many people reported their tanks sliding several centimeters off their stands. Another idea I had was, instead of securing the tank to the wall and directing the strain directly onto the joints of the glass) is to also have wheels installed (in addition to the brackets mentioned above) on the bottom of the stand if it is sitting on carpet. I don't think the wheels would support the weight of really huge tanks, but may help most setups absorb the force of the back-and-forth movement. This may backfire if you have the tank set up on the smooth surface like a wooden floor with other big objects on either side that it can crash into...I would think that in those cases the bottom surface of a stand on its own would provide enough slide.

Could I also request his details? I want to inquire about some discus. Cheers, Milena

Aww You can save those for her baby book!

"Get in my belly!" hehe

Yes, I liked my old one too much to replace it quickly and I was convinced it was somewhere in the house. I was using my cell phone as back up but hated it.

You lose your watch for 3 weeks, search for it everywhere, mourn its loss and consider buying a new one.....only to then find it in your aquarium.

Wowsa!

I have recently been in contact someone at MAF in Wellington who cleared things up a bit regarding Val. Straight leaf Vallisneria is an 'unwanted organism' and it is illegal to sell, propagate, release and commerically display it under the Biosecurity (as others have already said). However, because it is already established in NZ you will not be fined for having some in your aquarium (particulary because it used to be sold in petstores). In fact, there are rarely any fines dealt out unless you are mass producing it and distributing across the country. By 'propagate', they are referring more to the ACTIVE process of letting it spread for later sale/distribution to others. MAF are trying to discourage people from owning it, selling it on TradeMe, or giving it out to friends' aquariums in an effort to mitigate its spread. They will not attempt to hunt you down if they happen to see a picture of your aquarium with some Val in it. They DO occasionally check TradeMe for people selling it and just pass that information onto that person's regional council. It will be up to the regional council whether they want to investigate matters further or contact the person. I believe in these situations, the person just receives a message to stop selling it as most people are just not aware. The spiral variety of Val is permitted at the moment. For more information, simply contact your regional council for advice. Depending on where you are from, the regional council will have differing advice. In certail areas, you may be asked to destroy it because the risks to local environments is greater.

lol, nice!

I think I know the type you are talking about. I think I have one of them. They are like twice as big as a regular net breeder? I got mine off trademe a while back... Congrats on the spawn!!!

I have no idea what my phosphate levels are at, but I only grew green spot algae on my glass when my lights were on for 12 hours as opposed to 10. It started growing when I added another 2 light tubes for a total of 4. I would clean it off and then it would just start growing back. It also only grew on the glass that was most exposed to light (aka not shaded by plants). When I reduced the light period it never come back, not even in the especially bright areas.

Lol, just to clarify this is NOT my fish tank. There is a link below the picture to take you to the actual blog. I think that a lego sunken ship would be even awesomer

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/0 ... _tank.html

I see that too