budak

Hi Doc, Ya, I was there.... mainly to browse though.... you can see some nice pictures of the show here Thanks for your compliments..... and I hope to be able to contribute in the planted and some of the fishy forum sections here Goldie, I have always wanted a fish tank (as in lush, planted aquaria) as far as I can remember (nigh 30 years), and had only been able to restart the hobby (after childhood dabblings) a few years ago after a decade long dry period.

I'm very glad to say that the flowerhorn phenomenon has largely petered out in Singapore (and it seems in Malaysia too, and hopefully Indonesia and Thailand etc... as well)...... when you have a species that breeds like rabbits but "commands" arowana/show discus prices, you are going to get a spectacular crash (dozens of wannabe LFS specialising in flowerhorns in Singapore have gone kaput, and good riddance!)..... for myself, the aesthetics and ethics aside, I had been campaigning locally (on Singapore forums, newspaper letters and intercepting public talks) on the hideous environmental impact of released flowerhorns in local waters and am only too glad to see the end of this monstrosity (the fad as well as the fish).

I am not a killie breeder myself, but thought some here might be interested in this website and community of international killie breeders and egg exchangers (although I am not sure if it's possible to mail eggs over to NZ?).

With nutrient-rich water, good Co2 and moderate lighting, I find java ferns take about a month to get attached. Instead of fishing or cotton thread, I find that those slightly stiff plastic cords used to tie phone/computer/wire cables together when you buy an appliance ideal for fixing the fern rhizomes onto driftwood. Here's an article that might be useful.

can i be diplomatic by saying I have friends from both North Island and South Island?? and thanks for the link, Caryl. will plough through it later tonight.

My personal aquatic interests are planted aquaria and Southeast Asian aqualife - you can view my haphazard gallery here (requires registration, but Imagestation is one of the best free online galleries). I have only been to NZ once (3 or 4 years ago to North Island on a week long working trip), but have fond memories of the country, the people and esp. the pristine nature. One question I have is: does anyone keep (is it legal anyway?) those strange fishes known as galaxiids? I have always found this group rather fascinating.

Hello! I came across this website and forum while googling for some Latin plant names (you have a nice plant/fish database!), and was quite pleasantly surprised to see a thriving NZ aquaria scene. Cheers!

What I have read (in some natural history book) is that these fish actually feed on the "aufwuchs" (little micro-organisms, plankton, insect larvae) that hide in streambed algae growth, so they probably need more protein-rich food than most people suppose.