maoripho3nix

Mate that looks great!! My stomach just done a 360, gonna have to catch some fish this Saturday. Yeah it can be a bit of a challenge getting the salt and brown sugar right, sometimes i just salt the fish (not a lot) tastes alright but leaves out that sweet tang.

Update: Fert too soon? or maybe too much light. Either way the algae has grown, the brown algae has been kept down by the otos but there is now green stringy algae (sorry not sure of the "proper" name) on some plants and parts of the glass. There is also the green algae in places now. Yep its normal, but so ugly :evil: Ive decided on a blackout for now, obviously the fish dont mind, but the plants will The plants havent stopped growing though, ive noticed the glosso down the heater end of the tank is carpeting better than the glosso down the opposite end. But for now the tank is in darkness, hopefully this will slow down and maybe stop the rapid takeover, and the plants might just have that chance to compete and that will result in less algae and a happy me :lol: Is stringy algae common?? or has it hijacked its way in when i planted the glosso?? From when i got the brown algae spots i reduce the lighting down to 10 hrs, and the otos have eaten most of it away aswell. But now there is stringy algae

Definatley need a lid that will stay closed, otherwise you may end up with one on the floor exploring at night. :lol: They like dark shaded areas and things to hide in/under. Off cuts of soft meat, or liver/kidney as food, but cut and wash first otherwise it will get messy in the tank. We used rotten meat to catch them for food :oops: but I wouldnt use that to feed them. Good luck with rescuing the lil falas

Ive done this plenty of times in my hooded BBQ, fish comes out exactly like in the SS smoker box I have. As an alternative of making a mess with the woodchips on the hotplate, buy (or make) a lil woodchip box. Theyre stainless steel, about half the size of a phone book, has holes in it, you put wood chips in it and place it over your burner. I work at mitre10 mega and they still have them, bunnings should too, cant remember how much they cost. I usually soak my chips in water for about 30mins, keeps it moist. Place it in the box, put it over the burner, prep the fish as usual, place it on the rack as shown in the pics above, place a stiff sheet of tinfoil under the fish to catch the juices (or a foil baking tray), now sometimes i slow smoke, or quick hot smoke. For slow smoke (1-2 hrs) i keep the gas lower than the lowest setting on the dial, but put the smoker box on the hot plate, eventually the hotplate gets hot and heats the steel on the lil chip box then chips smoke.......for quick hot smoke, i turn the gas to medium, put the lil chip box on directly on the burner, ready in 15 mins As for the cleanup, having the tinfoil sheet/dish under the fish catches the juice (which steams eventually makes it more tastier and moist) and is easier to clean up instead of it being all over the grill.......but as for smoke, doesnt matter what you do, smoke and moisture will form black condensation in the BBQ. A good cleanup if you care, i use to just give it a scrub and wet wipe afterwards. Moisture will always be there from the fish, and smoke is inevitable if your smoking a fish :lol: Good luck with the smoking

:bounce: The legend shows :lol: Wow marine tank now....would be great to see Thanks for confirming the plant, good luck with the marine tank and welcome back to the forums 8)

Hi, first time I have been through this thread. AMAZING!!! Im wondering if you can remember what plants you had in the first setup. Just wondering what the name of the tall plant is with the thin blade. I started this thread here to find out what it was and it turns out the tank referred to from the banner is your tank. People have commented saying it is Vallisneria sp. "Contortionist". Can you confirm this?? Thanks and Great tank (new and old setup)

:bounce: Great build! amazing tank, one day :lol:

Hopefully it wont be prohibited. Atleast until I can get a bigger tank and get some for it. Found this Scroll down to VALLISNERIA variations. If he/she is still surfing the forum perhaps he/she can confirm?? alanmin4304 sounds spot on though :bounce:

Went to login today and took notice of the banner for FNZAS. Saw this one Here Whats the tall plant in the pic?? Behind the fish and also to the very right of the banner

Heres some pics Still not good at taking proper photos (techniques, settings) my camera is a Sony DSC-H7, any help would be great. :bounce:

:lol: :lol: :lol: Good luck tryna get the rest of the info (if you were to try)

:lol: :lol: I guess the hobby has sunk in now. Its been educational for me and the kids love the tank/fish too. Cool thanks Sam, is it the males that are most colourful?? yeah im definately not at the stage where I can take on fry/breeding. Loved the colour on them. Might have to find a couple male guppies for now :lol: Once I get the larger tropical setup then Ill transfer it all.

Update: Started the PMDD today, hopefully the plants will approve. Also went to KiwiPetz and got some Neon Tetra :bounce: was a choice between them and Silver tips or guppies. 6 Neons will do for now. I'm planning on getting 2 more tanks, one larger tropical, one large for a native CW biotope. The otos have kept the algae at bay, still some left on the glosso but not as bad as it was. The tetras have been curious about them and stuck next to them but the otos end up blitzing across the tank :lol: Neons and Guppies, any good together?? I wanted the tetras for size and schooling as the current tank is only small. But the Guppies they had (not for sale btw) at KiwiPetz were mesmerizing Will update with a pic, but will a pair of guppies be ok in my tank???

Thanks for the sites/info Stella......always value your opinions on our native species :lol: Good thing its the Iwi I belong to Tarawera is my Iwi's mountain/lake/river area, but as always I respect where I collect

Thanks for the comments everyone. :lol: I thought it was some prank someone pulled, sometimes someone puts in soap powder for a laugh. I think its something that kills off algae, as usually theres none after the treatment, and I dunno if it helps life in the water, I use to collect tadpoles from there but cant find any now. Hmmm good idea stella, i guess its the only way to go, pity that river water only looks turquoise with depth. Could go with a bigger, deeper tank. Sometimes the bathwater has a blue colour to it. I havent studied that much into it yet, have to take a few more trips there. From what I could see at the time it was only trout, at Tarawera and the Lion Park. The surroundings were lightly vegetated with mostly fern overhanging the water, so there were a few plant/trunk pieces in the water. As for the bottom of the river/pools, it was more of a river sand with smooth and some jagged rocks (not too hard to imitate). The water at both locations looked nice, the trout pools at the lion park were spring fed, spring is only about 3 meters away and is directly channeled. You can go up to the spring and collect water too Are shrimp not lil algae eaters??? :lol:

Hey all, Wasnt sure where to post this. In the future I am looking at doing a Native Biotope. Inspiration of it comes from a visit I had to Tarawera River (Where it starts from the lake end), and also to the Lion Park in Rotorua (the trout pools). To add to the authenticity of the biotope, I was wondering if anyone had any info/success/method of making the tank water that blue/turquoise colour. Here or Here Going along the guide lines that people do this as a blackwater biotope.......can that turquoise colour be done in a tank? Or is it just spring water + depth + light that makes it that colour?

:lol: :lol: :lol: Well spotted good laugh! Have fun finding the natives.....nope Have fun catching the natives.....nope Have fun keeping natives in captivity......hmmm nope :lol: Have fun finding fauna endemic to Aotearoa :bounce:

All thanks to your huge input Stella BTW Have you completed your book?? where can I buy it?? I went tropical recently in my nano, but am keeping an eye out for a bigger tank to do up a native biotope. Ive been to where lake Tarawera starts feeding the river, lots of Trout Might do a bit more study into the native flora/fauna in that area. As a tip for getting shrimp (I had collected some late last month), using the net swoop under vegetation, sometimes its hard to see them, but they are there. 8) Have fun with the natives

I have a steamer, was just gonna slightly steam the veges, do people normally slightly cook the zucchini too?? My brother in-law once told me he gave some pumpkin as fry food, as you can cook it until its soft, he then put it in muslin cloth, but I dont want it that mushy, just right for the otos to eat. The kamokamo is kinda like a fat zucchini anyway. They have been feasting all night, 80% of the algae has been eaten, I havent fed them anything else. Just puttin the word out to see what people have tried too.

Hey all, As an alternative to an algae wafer/flake, algae in the tank, and zucchini....can I use kamokamo and pumpkin to add variety. I only ask this as I have both growing in the garden. Any other suggestions for food?? Thanks

Thanks Jen They are doing well so far, have checked on them, tried not to bother them too much with the lights, but got a quick pic while i was looking Sorry about the reflections, still not sure how to take good photos through glass :oops: :bounce:

I found a website with studies towards otos, and it seems that your pretty close to what they say too. A lot of techniques are used to catch them because of their natural size and instinct to escape. This website page explains. Apparently some sedative chemical is used to stun the oto. The website itself has good basic info on the otos. Couldnt rule that out as a possibility as this would affect all fish. I took this in consideration when acclimatising, drip fed the water from my aquarium, into the bag they were in, over a one hour period instead. I had read on another oto site that this method reduced the stress from water parameter changes in acclimatising, which Im sure is the same for most fish anyway. But as with all fish the water quality has to be precise.

Update: I now have some otos in the tank! 8) Went to 3 LFS, and only one had them (animates). They had a special on, buy 2 get one free, so I ended up with 3 otos. The smallest one zips around a bit, the medium and big sized one are quite calm. They are already doin what they do best and have cleaned up about 30% of the algae thats in the tank. I read somewhere that otos are known to die without cause within the first month. Fingers crossed mine will be fine. I also read that best results came from drip acclimation, so I decided to do this aswell. Finally have some fauna in the tank :bounce: Will update with pics tomorrow once they clean off some algae :lol:

Was flicking through TM last night and found these Trout Pellets. Are they OK to feed fish with, even though it says it in the description. I thought I would get some info/comments about them before buying. Thanks