alisha

in answer to the crayfish question. The napier seahorse farm (yes here i go again with the seahorse farm) sells them. They are a certain breed that is like normal crayfish but bred to be smaller. You can keep the captive bred crayfish, but you must keep your reciept to prove where you have got the crayfish from as they are considered under size. here is the link if you want to know more http://www.theseahorsefarm.co.nz/sales_ ... freshwater Chris if you want to know more about the native nz fish ask these guys, they also sell them and could point you in the right direction

Im keen to car pool matthew. But need to join the local club first. Do you know when aucklands next meeting is held?

congrats Ira. Good luck with growing them up.

I Totally agree with you about the "stealing" of other people. Have you got much interest so far?What can i do to help? I belong to a couple of other clubs that send out newsletters and am more than willing to help with that side of things

Hi Hevalump I would be keen to help set up a west auckland fish club, dont know much about setting up clubs, but anything i can do to help. Will email you all details Cheers Alisha

sorry didnt really answer your questions I think if you used natural seawater to set it up it would be ok. natural seawater would possibly come with all types of organisms in it so that could start your nitrate cycle. If you are thinking about putting a few rock things in while cycling remember to feed them as most of the rock pool things are scavengers Also if you want you are more than welcome to take some sand from my tank. It will speed up the nitrate cycle heaps as it already has bacteria growing on it

Hi Chris I cycled my tank with a whole lot of patience and a small piece of mussel. It took a good month and a half and i did get some live rock from jansens but i think that was a waste of money, could have just got rock that had not been cycled yet

Hi Chris I use the salt you buy from the pet shop. The reason i do this is that the closest beach i have is titirangi beach which has signs all over the place saying not to swim there. Figure if i dont want to swim there my seahorses wouldnt like to either. If i was collecting seawater i would be doing it from somewhere like muriwai and most likely half way up the beach. Since that really is to far away it is easier to use the pet shop salt mix. In saying all this as Pies said if you have got easy access to the sea use it, it would be far more healthier and beneificial for the seahorses.

yeah the skimmer was a good bargain, but as jetskisteve said you pay for what you get so im not expecting much. Yeah you can choose which seahorses you want, i have four of each sex. I got my coral sand from hollywoods but shop around for the best deal as the prices can vary and if you are getting a four or five foot tank it take alot of sand it all starts to add up. But as i said before you are more than welcome to come and check out my tank and see it all in action, i could even give you a bit of sand to seed your tank and get the nitrate cycle happening when you set up your tank. You can tell the difference between the male and female cause the male seahorse has a pouch below his tummy and the females dont. It is really noticeable

Chris, i have a four foot tank, i keep 8 seahorses and a variety of rock pool things. I am most likely at my limit with the amount of seahorses i have. The only thing i would take into consideration with your tank is that is has to be atleast 30cm high for the seahorses to breed and be happy. Are you considering breeding the seahorses? the reason i ask is that the female seahorses are very picky and will only mate with the male seahorse once and then move on to the next male. If you are considering breeding you may need more than a couple of seahorses. I have used coral sand like you would normally in a marine tank and have a whole lot of plastic plants and marine rope for them to hang onto. I feed them once to twice a day with frozen mysis shrimp and when possible those clear shrimp you can get from rock pools, but that is a never ending job as it takes half an hour for me to catch 60 shrimps and seahorses 5 minutes to eat them. Jetskisteve i picked up this weekend a protein skimmer from jansens on sale. It was supposed to be $137.00 but i got it for the bargain price of $6.00 (yes that is right). I am holding off buying a good quality skimmer as my partner is one of those people who like to build things and find out how it all works. He is really keen to make one and being in the construction business has the right contacts to make it cheaply, but thanks for pointing me in the right direction

Hi Chris I got my seahorses on special for $25.00 each plus P & P which was $15.00. It is the same place that jansens used to get there cold water seahorses (sorry letting out trade secrets) I have only had my tank since november last year and the breeding side of things has been a bit troubled. I got my first 4 seahorses on new years eve and about 5.00pm one of the seahorses gave birth to seven babies. Off course there were no pet shops open at that time to get them food and to grow baby brine shrimp would have taken at the very least a couple of hours( baby seahorses need feeding every 6 - 10 hours) so those ones passed in the middle of the night. You dont expect a fish to give birth a couple of hours after it has just been introduced to your tank!!!! The next time i have seen them breed the male did not catch any of the eggs that were being transferred into his pouch, so we missed out on any babies then. breeding season is over now until approx october this year so i will try again then. In regards to the airation side of things i run an airpump with two lines into the tank. I have not used a skimmer either. Though i am aiming to make one in the near future the seahorses are healthy and happy so why rock the boat If you are thinking about getting seahorses you are more than welcome to come and see mine

Hi Pies Yes i pay for my seahorses. I get them from the seahorse farm in napier (they courier them up) the reason why i do this is there is a declining population of seahorses in the wild and anything i can do to help them stay in the wild would be great. I guess if you guys (for example) had a choice out of buying a clown fish that has been commercially breed or taking it straight from the reef so that the population declines just that little bit more what would you choose? The seahorse farm breeds the seahorses for this reason. If you want to find out more go to there website www.theseahorsefarm.co.nz its really intreasting. They also breed them for they asian market who use them for medicinal purposes. It sounds cruel but is better that they are breed commercially than taken from the wild. the other reason is the seahorses that you buy from there because tend to last a little longer as there a little more robust and disease resistant than wild seahorses. In saying all this would love to learn how to dive and see them in the wild

i had trouble with a breeding pair and had to take everything else out of the tank except the kuli loach. there was no way i was ever going to catch the kuli loach so figured it would be safe. They were in a small tank though.

the purple anenomes out west look very similar to your picture and can grow quite big. mines really small at the moment but i cant have them to big cause when they get to big they think seahorses are floating snacks. That can get expensive!!!! ohh and yes they are found in rock pools, low tide at onehunga tomorrow is 5.28 pm (approx) and 5.08 on sunday (approx). may see you out there

We Aucklanders do have purple anenome. i have one in my tank. They are mostly found on the West Coast beaches. Bethells beach is a good place to find them. I found mine at a beach around titirangi.