blueether

True, but the alpine and the wellington fault are both well over due and so is white island. I predict that all three of these will happen

I have that as the wallpaper on my phone

But plastic fish just don't look or move the same as real fish, and I don't think I have seen any that look real either...

Well I'm on the wrong side of mid thirties now so could well be a MLC, and Ira must be at least twice that so it could be an end of life blowout?

I don't think you can call it a "healthy addiction" especially the tropical addiction Welcome none the less

A little more than the 40k in the OP I would go for something like http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mg/tc/auction-404863414.htm or http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mg/mga/auction-395711655.htm or a new TD http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mg/td2000/auction-343279272.htm

+1 all of the above I would also suggest getting a cooler and a very large tank. I wouldn't keep a giant in my 4'x2'x2' tank and I think that a full sized banded would be a tight fit as well, the ~15cm one I had looked good untill it jumped out one night. I would suggest catching them as whitebait and growing them up, you never know what you will get and the inanga that you do catch will full the tank untill any banded grow up some. Of the 1/2 dozen whitebait I caught last weekend it looks like one just might be a kokopu :bounce:

We didn't get our kitten because he was cute, in fact he looked much like a gremlin or something. Because of this he has got the name Smeagol.

I havent yet, they have come into berry though. Went out yesterday to see if I could get some more shrimp and only say one, but I did see some large Giant Bullies, upto about 150mm. I also managed to get 1/2 a dozen whitebait, this morning I have a very fat torrent fish and only two whitebait left

Looks like he acquired at the district court: :rotf:

Dont know about discus fry, but for my natives (small bullies and whitebait) I do this: Steep 1, slice heart thinly Steep 2, cut the thin 'steak' into thin strips Steep 3, cut the strips into mini cubes Steep 4, feed to fish Done with frozen heart and a very sharp knife. Steeps 1-3 can be done with the wife's 'fine' cheese greater (if she isn't around to see) PS I did try in the food processor :sick: but was too fine for my larger fish

There are a few of us that have them in our native tanks, I have two. A few points about them: They need cold water, below 20deg. They need lots of places to hide They will nip fins They might fight and eat another cray Have a read of the native section of the forum

It is easy to get the shrimp to berry, last year I had many that did, the hard bit is getting the larvae to survive.

Bugger, my back porch is only 7ft wide... 2.5 m^3 of water is a lot

Mine eats freeze-dried bloodworms and krill (broken in 2 or 3 bits)and I have had him eating vitapet goldfish granules (wetted first to soften), other than that I feed heart meat

ot: My native mussel is not looking as good as yours, but then I found mine sitting in the sun some 3 or 4 ft from the edge of the water. It is starting to move a bit more now so must be recovering somewhat.

Don't know where to find them up there, but a fast flowing cold stream would be a good starting point. I caught mine more by accident than good practise, just turning over large-ish rocks (1 or 2 fist sized) to catch invertebrates. Mine is in a 50~60 litre tank (about 35 l of water with substrate/wood) with about 2-3 inches of fine sand as a substrate with small to large stream pebbles on the top and a large bit of flat/cupped driftwood for it to hide under. The pump is a 350 l/h directed along the bottom and the filtration is a built-in internal. Could do with a bit more flow. He (?) bosses the little red fin and common bullies around sometimes.

By the size of the stick on thermometer I would guess 900-1000x500x500, so about 250 litres displacement?

I have two small plants of azolla, but I know where plenty is if you want me to post some to you. Send a PM if you do.

Hi, and welcome. The tank looks nice, just remember that the bacteria in the filter need food, ie fish waste, to survive and multiply. The sooner you start adding fish (in small amounts) the sooner the bacteria con strongly establish themselves.

A good little read is Stella's book on keeping some of our native fish, but they might not float your boat. It's the only fish book I can recommend as it is the only fish book I own

[off topic]Last week I caught ~10 common bullies from lake Arapuni so they should be good to, apart from the fact that most of them look to be males[/off topic]

Yes, that is why I have seen them 150km inland :sage:

I would keep up the salt that you were/are using for ich. as well. It will help the healing.

My 400 l native tank is now plumed into the water feature (about 100 l) on the back porch. This has duckweed, yellow button and Callitriche stagnalis/Elatine gratioloides (not sure which plant it is). This is using the same overflow system that I was using for a drip auto water changer, still has a drip feed but only about 3 drips/5 seconds. Ant excess water waters the herb trough. This has only been setup like this for 3 days so is very early stages atm. will be interesting to see how the nitrate levels go over a few weeks.