chopper

Nah I don't work for maf. I did study into the early acclimatisation societies at uni and their distribution of foreign organisms, so have general interest in this stuff.

After reading the alpine newts thread I was wondering how many other little colonies of critters that have been smuggled in exist either in captivity or in the wild?There were those two fella's who were busted with scorpions in Queenstown recently. And there was also a thriving little colony of European gudgeon found a few yrs back up in northland. I wonder what else there is out there, ( i mean that has been illegally smuggled in not just released or escaped from captivity and not lone individuals, like the carpet python found a few yrs back). Has anyone else heard of smuggled populations existing of reptiles, amphibians ,invertebrates or even fish found?

New someone who caught a blue tongue after it came out from under their house during winter( I guess it was brumating and wanted a drink). Whether or not it was let go or escaped I guess no one will know. But I'm sure they could create a breeding pop as found in cooler climes in Australia. This pop could be wiped out if caught quick as they are such slugs DOC could just run them over!

Yeah ya can keep em in a tank that size. But, as Alanmin4304 said you will need to do more water changes. In smaller tanks they are also less active than in larger tanks. In a tank of the size you mentioned it would be best that you only keep one adult or two smaller individuals. Axolotls are filthy fiends so need good filtration or frequent water changes.They can cope without supplementary aeration.Labs often keep specimens in smaller tanks. I keep several smaller grow outs in the tank size you mention until I up grade them to the increasingly larger tanks. All this said its really best to keep them in a larger tank for their well being and for your viewing pleasure. If you can't afford a larger tank just go to Payless plastics or mitre 10 and buy a fish bin or large plastic tub and keep em in that. You can keep 2 in the bigger bins and at a push 3 with a good filter , surface area is more important than depth, but greater volume will stay cleaner longer( but no excuse for lack of cleaning).My smaller individuals are kept in fish bins until separation into the glass tanks. Sometimes if you have bare glass bottomed tank you will find axolotls toes wear down ( especially with new tanks which have very smooth glass bottoms) to stop this put thin sprinkling of sand on bottom this solves the problem. Using large river stones can be good but debris can lodge between stones so can be a pain. I find it best to put sprinkling of sand on bottom of tanks. Hope this helps.

Maf got back onto me. There is nothing to stop nz inverts from being sent overseas legally. Only those classed as protected are illegal to export and there are a few other exceptions. They gave me several examples of stopping people at the border leaving with sometimes hundreds of live specimens but had no power to seize them or hold the person in question. Also found numerous bugs in post but had to let them through. So long as they are caught by permission on private land there is nothing stopping them. I guess some may be caught in national parks which is illegal but its hard to prove they were caught there.

Check out this web page, they are selling nz peripitus, wetas, tunnel webs and nz mantis ( mantis on another page on same website) http://www.exotic-pets.co.uk/other-inve ... -sale.html Are these being smuggled out or were these exported many years ago so there are now breeding populations overseas available for sale? I am unsure ? I was also digging around on overseas reptile and invert forums and one member claimed he was able to obtain more nz peripitus. Not sure if that meant he was breeding them or smuggling them. Other websites have had hem for sale to. I emailed maf and doc but waiting for reply

Keep DVD player and spend money which was to be used on blue ray on fish stuff!

Curious to know the worst animal bite, sting etc fnzas members have received! This has to be by a member only not a friend or relative other wise someone is bound to have known Steve Irwin or know Ruud Kleinpaste. Bite, sting can be from anything from budgie to camel spider and anything in between, so long as it hurt or there were repurcusions( it may not have hurt but may have got infected). Also interested to find out the oddest animal members were bitten by? This could be a mauling from a marmoset or a licken from a chicken, and doesn't have to have hurt or can be a combo of both( hurt and odd). I will start us off( mine I guess won't have been bad compared to others but thought it would start off discussion). Worst: 1)getting nipped on thumb by a huge cancer crab. It didn't let go and felt like getting hit by a hammer. 2) bitten on nose by my son when he was 2. This really hurt my nose got infected and i had to go to doctor. It swelled up for 2 weeks like a beetroot with teeth marks. Oddest: 1) penguin, this hurt a bit because it had a hooked beak and twisted about. 2) giant weta, didn't really hurt but chewed into vein so I bled a bit. 3) Changeable lizard ( calotes versicolor) not common down here so put it down. Gave me a good chomp as I wanted to show my mate ( we had tried to catch it for ages) so had to hold it for a while till i found him whilst it continued to bite me for about 10 mins

I have only just found this thread. Most hated fish is trout. Any kind in nz. Protected despite the damage they do to nz native animals, and DOC help with administration and promotion of the Tongariro National Trout Centre the hypocrites!. Only good one is a dead one and one that has preferably been speared!

I got offered a shingle back back in the 90's for $3000 or was it $5000, long time ago but was heaps! Thought it was a rip off couldn't afford it then and definitely not now. Used to catch em as a kid in Australia where they also sold em for $20 in pet store and you didn't need a permit back then. They were very similar in behaviour to the blue tongues I also kept.

Cheers for that livingart.I guessed they must have been around for a while due to import restrictions tightening up stopping exotics being brought in.But I can't recall them being common until the late 90's in the south island anyway, and he found them in ashburton.

Was wondering how long fire bellied newts have been in nz? The reason I ask is because I remember a fella I new back in the early 1990's claiming that he found some living in a pond at a house he once moved into! So if his claim was authentic it could date back to the 80's.I suppose he could have been pulling my leg but thought I would ask the question anyway.

Awesome cheers for posting the photo sanitychelle, I still can't seem to upload the other one but this pic gives the same idea. If they are dye injected its quite disturbing ( they could be dipped also but I doubt it as this would result in almost certain death for an amphibian as it strips slime coat then replaces it with dye). I don't like these fake fish let alone axolotls. They have however genetically modified axolotls using a fluorescent protein originally found in jellyfish. These glow green under UV light and you can buy them for your aquarium but not in nz. Here are some on YouTube ► 2:54► 2:54

Here is link. Scroll right down to see photo of the axolotls http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1-general ... awful.html There is a far better picture I saved to my desk top from another forum ( not caudata.org)im a member off . I will attempt to post on tomorrow as its getting late.

I can't seem to get the picture to post on forum I will attempt a link to photo

Multi coloured axolotls Apart from luecistic and golden albino I'm guessing photo shop or dye injection but never heard of dye injected salamanders before.

I had one posted to me in a bag in a pizza shape box via standard post. Took 4 days to get here from memory and was OK.

I had an axo pulled out of a pond by a cat about 20 years ago. Found it shredded early in the morning and it died the next day. It was luecistic so I guess that it showed up against the darker pond back ground as the wild coloured individuals were almost impossible to see.

That's very interesting to know blueether! I have been pondering this question for a while so cheers for clearing this up.I assume the eggs would hatch (as cichlidcentral mentioned hearing of a hybrid) but whether the offspring would be viable to breed them selves is questionable as many hybrids are infertile. Although Splake are fertile and goldfish x common carp females are viable males are not. Also puts forward the question as to whether the offspring go to sea or not ( and then this may depend upon the species crossed)!

What dry food brand/type do you feed them blueether? I haven't tried using dry food before, but may have a go seeing as you seem to have success. McDowall says he only managed to keep redfin for nine days post hatching before they expired so maybe your onto something.

Here is a photo of some of the uplands I bred last year. Sorry about poor photo quality Im pretty poor at taking pics.

You have to apply for a fish farm permit I think and that alone costs $2000. So probably not worth it in the long run.

I was actually thinking at one time to swapping my entire setup to keeping and breeding bullies. Figuring out whether it was possible to raise those whose young migrate to the sea in the aquariums would be rather fun I reckon. I reckon Tarndale would be worth acquiring and raising due to its restricted range which may come into more threat in the future, despite the current status of it being safe regardless of it being predated by the numerous trout in its habit. But I'm not sure of the legalities about obtaining this species? If its possible I could get one quite easy as I live close to where it is found. Like I previously said I have a keen interest in goldfish but have thought in the past that they are so common throughout the world it might be worth switching over my setup. The only problem that worries me is what to do with all the offspring as I can only get so many tanks/tubs., otherwise I will have to cull them, which isn't a prob with goldfish of course, but not something I like doing to bullies! I live in the south island so I cannot ship to north island and I can't get Crans as its only found in the North Island.

I reckon it may sometimes occur ,albeit rarely, but if the Common bully is involved the morphological features of the offspring would make it difficult to determine a hybrid origin. As the Common shares many outward features with other bully species, hence the name 'Common' ie that it shares many commonalities with the others. I guess if you suspect something especially if the common is involved a DNA test would Be the only way to be sure. This would go for the other species to I gather just like it did with the Tarndale( due to arguments regarding whether it was of Crans or Common origin etc).

I found container size doesn't really matter so long as you don't over stock and are meticulous with cleaning. I have raised 8 in a 20cm cube( ice cream container size) but with something this small its really dodgy as water quality deteriorates very quick. I use 75 cm tank to place in eggs then separate fry after a few weeks. I separate into 45 cm tanks they are good as you can put in decent size filters if you need to. After they get about 2cm I put them in shallow tubs these have those Penn plax small world filters in them placed on their side( I don't buy new cartridges for these, I just pulled the back off the original one and insert new stuff which is cheaper). Another good idea to raise slightly larger fry is to put them in live bearer breeding traps in deep water. In there they get good water quality and most of the un wanted food and waste drops out the slots to the bottom of the bigger tank which can be siphoned off once every few days or gets sucked out by a powerful filter ( which has its intube directed away from the fry tanks but circulating enough current to keep water fresh and push waste towards outlet). As they get larger I place in ever increasing tank/ tub sizes. Some of the adults are kept in show tanks with substrate, water plants etc. Others are kept in tubs/ fish bins with no substrate and cut pipes and bottles to hide in. They breed in both tank set ups. The tubs are easier to clean but don't look no where near as good as tanks. But tanks cost lots, tubs don't. Both get frequent water changes which includes using pond water and their tank water is dumped into 1 pond I have stocked with water plants. Their waste along with those from my goldfish tanks makes the pond plants grow. And when the aquarium plants look worse for wear I swap em with fresh pond plants. This pond also contains swarms of critters to feed the bullies. The bullies are fed mostly fresh food, white worms, mosquito larvae, black worms, earth worms, water boatmen, snails. They are particularly fond of goldfish fry and axolotl larvae and small tadpoles which they get for a few weeks of the year when these are breeding. When fresh food runs short I revert to feeding em ox heart, prawns, fish( but they are not to keen on these last two). Apart from the show tanks the others have no over head electrical lighting units. I have these but don't use them as their is enough ambient light entering the room. If I want a close look at the occupants I use a work light. I let algae grow all over the walls so long as its not to thick or blocks veiwing of occupants. If fry are injured or sick I cull them by feeding to other fish and if other fish fry are the same I feed them to my bullies. I have never had an adult bully die or be sick for that matter. I have had them injured from fights but they don't succumb to sickness. If I go on holiday during the times fry are being raised I dump them in the pond contain water plants and inverts and they do just fine. I fish em out later and they are big and fat. At this current point in time one of my breeding units is getting an upgrade so has nothing in it, this is my bully one, all my bullies are in my ponds I will attempt a recapture later( I catch at night or drain them), I do have 8 juvenile bullies housed in another set up though. Another is full of common goldfish juveniles( goldfish are my main interest), and another is half full with a mixture of things ( bullies , axolotls, goldfish, mud crabs). I used to have tropicals but it got too expensive to run on my limited income so swapped back fully to bullies, goldfish which I have always kept. I used to breed axolotls up until rather recently but got rid of these ( most of them) along with my frogs etc in favour of natives and goldies.