Mikey

Hah, for some reason I am reminded of the movie Braveheart... FREEEEEDOM!

:nfs: Looks like Stella got a good look in the area, and very nice pics to share with us as usual

Snake = 1 Possum = 0 Enjoy your meal

Heh I had a week to think it all through and I planned it to work the way it did... still felt messy, but I guess you are always going to get that when you are breaking down a well established tank. Now, need some opinions on what to do with the gravel... I have the finer stuff in the above pics which is in there and will stay there, and I have the bigger sized gravel which is in the previous pics... so what would you do/how would you combine it? I had a couple of thoughts, but interested to hear what others might think. a) Fine gravel spread evenly along bottom, with bigger grade gravel on top and sloping down from left to right. b) Split gravel, so have one end with finer gravel, the other end with the big grade and have it "mixing" in the middle. c) mix it all up into one big bucket and chuck it all in together. Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome Cheers

Impressive... wonder what it'll look like after a few years. Nature has a habit of playing around with man made features

Update time... A good majority of yesterday was spent dealing with the first part of getting a Native set up in my 180L tank.... which was moving the current tropical set up from the 180L to the 60L. So here is the tank as it was before I started: I firstly removed the wood pieces then gave a good chunk of the gravel a really good vac. I then used a honey container to scoop clean gravel out into a bucket and relocated it to the 60L... progress pic: Then I removed the plants, some of them I trimmed up and replanted into the new smaller tank, others I chucked into the compost due to them looking so scrappy and covered in muck. Now ready to start catching the fish: The next part was having to catch the fish... was a battle to get the tetras, fast little blighters and there is a brace going across the middle of the tank which means you can only have nets in one side... I ended up lying a breeding net down on it's side and shooing the tetra's into the breeding net... worked pretty well. Success! I have left a sword in the tank to see what it does under cold water conditions (curiousity :smln: ) I have refilled the tank and left the filter running... so this is what I have sitting in the lounge at the moment: So that is my canvas for the Native tank... "phase two" is to set it up for the natives, so I will be giving the tank a good scrub down to get rid of algae, the gravel left in there a really good vac, then adding the larger sized gravel I had in the 60L tank earlier in this thread.... then various pieces of tea tree will be put in with whatever rocks I can find. I think I am going to relocate the spray bar from it's current position to one of the ends... this way there will be a quieter end for the Koura. The light system will change to a much lower light level LED system. Then I guess phase three will be to finally go and get a few occupants :happy1:

Stella's book has this effect on people... I read her book when she first released it as I was looking into natives anyway, I have done some extra research... and I am now breaking down my tropical tank and moving the remaining occupants into a 60L in my daughters room, and the big tank in the lounge will then be converted into a native tank. May I suggest you guys go spotlighting in your local streams to see what is around... once you have done this it gives you an idea of what you can easily put into a tank/pond at your place. I have been spot lighting a lot to see what is cruising around in my area http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=50515 and I have Banded Kokopu, Bullies, lots of shrimp and Koura in close vicinity... so I have planned the stocking around this. To quote a line from Stella's book: Welcome to the obsession :happy1:

Obviously the fish liked it that way if you have hidden babies Congrats on your find.... I love Corydora... I think they are great little fish.

I use tea tree in my tanks... it has some awesome shapes... I pretty much cut it to size, give it a scrub and chuck it in the water... had no issues. It releases tannins, as a lot of wood will, but as the fish I have like tannnins in the water it is no drama, I don't even try to remove it.

I have family down in Te Anau... and that area is fantastic to get out into the outdoors, I've spent many a summer holidays down there over the years. Good luck with the fishing!

I'm jealous that you have that much space in your house for a tank that size... I guess I do... it's just filled with kids at the moment.... ah well.... maybe one day I can get my super big tank

I tend to agree with Cricketman... I would never "operate" or break open a tumour on a fish... I would research the disease work out a course of treatment... do said treatment and have some patience in letting the treatment do it's work. The fact your fish survived all this... that is one tough fish.

So much for making a small 60L Koura tank as a side project Well and truly hooked on the obsession now... perhaps I should change the title to the thread to Native tank build or something :slfg: (which I have now gone and done.)

Nice looking tank and fish you have got going there... I agree with Stella, when that Kokopu takes off and tries demolishing that whole tab by itselfs is pretty awesome to watch Thanks for Sharing.

Well played Stella, Well played. I'm actually really excited about it. Means i'm not going to be as restricted as I was before. And yes I do have native loving disease... not just in fish either... planted native trees all around the house, love Billy T James, Murray Ball etc etc.

Update time... things have come to a shuddering halt over the course of this weekend... I was sitting there looking at my tropical tank thinking that it looked pretty empty fish wise and having a Koura in that tank with some mid/top dwelling fish crusiing around the top would be awesome... my wife agreed. I jumped onto a fish stock calculator to see how feasible moving the current fish stock of the 180L into the 60L would be... and lo and behold... my stocking is so low in the bigger tank that the 60L would be fine. I also calculated the groud area... and the cray would have twice as much room to roam in the bigger tank. Soooooo bearing in mind there is no occupant in the 60L yet, I reckon I might as well do the conversion now BEFORE I get two stocked tanks and have to scratch my head working out where to put them while I work on the tanks. So Stella, it has happened.... my thought is turing into a reality. So, I have now emptied the 60L out again... and I will be transferring gravel, a couple of plants, driftwood and the fish from my tropical tank into it. This gives me a decent tank to set up for natives. New set up for natives will be: Tank: 90L x 40W x 45H (approx 180L) Filter: Eheim 2073 Lights: I'm going to use the LED light set up I had for 60L.... I tested it on the tank yesterday and it looks awesome... nice a gloomy like a forest stream should be. I will need to alter the mesh lid a bit now, but shouldn't be too bad... 45cm high means koura can cruise around the bottom and I can look at getting some fish for the upper reachs. I will look at getting a chiller for this volume of water as well, I didn't think it was worth it for 60L, but might worth it for 180L.. i will keep an eye on trademe, and any specials at the LFS for this though :lol: So watch this space for photos of the conversion and the new Koura home... Cheers

Heh, that is nice timing. Hope you have success this time! *crosses fingers*

Need to photoshop a cape on him.... Super Lizard!

I see a caption for that image... nom nom nom I has a carrot, finger is next.

Well you will be happy to hear this one then Stella.... I left your book sitting on the table one day... she picked it up and read it cover to cover while daughter was having a nap... lets just say she is much more encouraging of me getting a Koura now... she thinks it will be an awesome animal to have crusiing around in the tank. Maybe you can use this as a marketing strategy Stella.... "This book will make your partner like and encourage your obsession" :thup: I'm going to be interested to see how my nephew goes with it... he is scared stiff of the turtle at mums place.... so we will see his reaction to a crazy armoured big clawed beast charging him from a cave. While writing this I had a thought... I still have quite a bit of the tea tree branches that I hacked up... so perhaps I should flag the rocks and just go for more wood? The Koura in my local streams don't have many rocks in their natural environment, so it might actually be better for them if I just use wood and occasional rock. Whenever I find them in the streams they shoot off under wood piles.... hmmmm something to think about.

I'm sure your Kokopu and Koura are very happy with the feed you provided them Are the remaining two Smelt still alive in the tank? Also... I agree with Stella... I haven't been spotlighting for a while... and it is getting warmer. So I should get out there and peer into the water.

Been very hectic last couple of weeks, Had friends come from overseas, daughters first birthday, friends 30th birthday, and this last weekend I got very sick and am still getting over it. (this is all on top of normal life ie work sport etc) I am quietly confident that I will be able to get some more work done to the tank this week/weekend and then leading into christmas finally get the occupant. Hah, maybe I tell my wife it is her xmas present :rotf: I have been keeping an eye out when I've been in garden centres and HFF on the rocks they have... nothing has taken my fancy as yet. So at this stage I will probably just seed and attach the filter, do a nice big water change and then go find said Koura... I can play with rocks at a later stage... and the Koura can help me landscape haha.

Very good, will send to my younger siblings :sage:

Ngaw.... Look at those big brown eyes... Agree with above posts... that is a cute puppy

Aw I dunno about that... depends what she makes the gooey inside of the cocoon out of :rotf: