Mikey

I have found that mine has changed colouration a few times... when he moults. Sometimes it is the same colour, but there has been a few times where he as altered quite markedly, perhaps altering his camo to suit the tank and when you change things, he changes Coolest change he made was to quite a vivid speckled green, this happened after I threw some green fern fronds into the tank for a change.

I'm sorry to hear about this. You had a fantastic tank set up with awesome looking fish, you lost the Kokopu? Good luck with the new arrival and hopefully it isn't too long before you get back into the natives!

Yip, they are escape artists and very entertaining to watch! I use a mesh lid for my native tank as it allows more air to get to the water and helps control temperature, while preventing the escape attempts. There were nights where I would see the Koura on top of the driftwood searching for weak spots in the lid. hope yours is going well after the escape.

Sounds like you are having good success in breeding bullies, it is good to hear... getting them naturally breeding in captivity is a long term way of safeguarding the species if we lose the wild populations... which I hope we don't come to! Just look at what's happened with White Cloud Mountain Minnows, they are basically extinct in the wild. It is mainly the aquarium trade and breeding in captivity that has kept the species alive. Thanks for sharing you experience and how you do it. PS: If you ever have an overstock of bullies I would be more than happy to take some off your hands. I'd rather obtain captive bred ones than take them from the wild population, as I'm not sure how thriving my local bullies community is doing. Which reminds me... I need to go spotlighting and check up on things!

Interesting questions here... judging by the reaction the common and upland had in the bucket, I'd suggest that they wouldn't hybridise even if you tried I guess Stella/Blueether et al might have an actual answer for you, if there is a known answer that is.

Agreed... Koura can get themselves into some very interesting predicaments, very entertaining little beasties.

:nfs: How do the Shrimp get along with the Koura? you find many have gone "missing"

Hi Beezel, I'm still not sure what took out my koura, could have been water temp spike that I wasn't around to see, everything else seemed to be ok, and his tank had a water change only a few days before he had his issue. So I'm really at a loss as to what happened, it could just be one of those random things that happen from time to time in the wild that I happened to witness and trying to find a reason. :dunno: I haven't got another Koura as yet, all I have done with the living creature part of the tank is chuck 20 mountain minnows in there so there is something moving around and keeping the good bacteria alive. I've been meaning to go out and at least get some shrimp, but life (aka young kids) keeps getting in the way of my night time excursions Cheers.

Sophia is on a roll :rotf:

Those camo crabs are rather interesting aren't they... I've never seen them before. Thanks for sharing :nfs:

That they have a young daughter in the house, and they have put this tank together so the daughter leaves his tank alone :rotf:

Awesome way to spend a weekend in my opinion... looks like a successful trip! :nfs:

A lion is a cat isn't it? :slfg:

Heh... I'll come build a treehouse with you, but no way am I reading Twilight At least it is still on the radar and not being forgotten... I guess the public interest means it wont just be dropped

Yup, that is the tank size, the 180L. Is quite high so found the top was very empty when crays were present. Realise that the shrimp and minnows will become a source of food at some stage.... although what I have been reading about the minnows is they tend to hang around high to mid level and don't hit the deck much, so I reckon i'd only lose them under unusual circumstances I'm hoping to go spotlighting in next few days once weather clears a bit to see what is around and do a bit more planning from there. I have thought the same thing.... one thing I was thinking of doing was getting a "turtle" tank, which generally have big footprints, and then can use the ramp and basking area for the second level... and create a super cray house. The cray that recently died out of my tank used to clamber up the wood to try get moths and things that hit the surface... so I can imagine they would go well in a multi level complex. But I'm getting side tracked, that is a long term goal haha. Cheers for your thoughts.