F15hguy

imagine that scrunched up inside a slater and you would be close

and they can hold sperm for over a year, so no need for a male either

just about any creek or even many drains that have heaps of vegetation, or try scooping in the weeds in the waikato, I found a heap in a roadside ditch that runs to a dairy farm drain

just about always in the vegetation, i tend to find quite a few in smaller slow moving creeks with lots of cover, preferably without Gambusia

add a 10-20mm lip of pond liner to the edge of the capping just to be safe , mine escaped past 100mm board screwed to the top of an old bath tub, if there is a natural creek down hill though, dont worry too much, just re-capture later imo it was the same fish coming back over and over again

damnit, if it wasn't a DOC reserve I would have collected it, possibly named it and there would be some sort of porcillionidae (?) named fishguyii around

would not be surprised, that place is one mad place, mad bugs, mad slaters???, probably a normal wood slater with a surfie hairdo

im glad you don't normally enter the photo contests. also that lion head is one of the happiest specimens i've ever seen.

close but different had tail feelers as long as antennae, plus this image is from UK, and it also did not taper at the end like this, was an almost perfect oval

was on Tiritiri matangi island all this week and had a ball, came across a weird critter in the rocks (by fishermans bay for those who know the place), it kinda looked like a slater with massive feelers and long legs, it was about 2.5cm long not including the antennae, but it had feelers at the tail end as well. someone suggested it may have been some sort of centipede (due to the tail feelers). any ideas, it was too quick for a photo (plus my camera was busted) it was a sandy grey colour as well. help please as it is really bugging me, i've never seen anything like it before.

lol, this my first time getting wild fish onto a diff diet, dirt hoppers are like sand hoppers, just found under just about every log in NZ, they are part of the family Talitridae which is a land based shrimp easy to find, hard to catch.

it is also technically illegal as it is introducing an organism to a waterway (strangely enough the legal term waterway also coveres sewer pipes)

cool, cant wait to see the updates, how do you intend to stop the fish escaping (all of the kokopu I have tried to keep outside have disappeared within a couple of weeks, probably downhill to the local creek) bullies do well though, and a couple of big koura would be awesome.

there are 2 sizes commonly available for free, the ones for mussels and the ones for salmon, both available if you hit up the right person at your local supermarket, in TGA the mount new world puts them all out once per month to get taken.

just become a huge NLS fan after converting a young mullet to flake in less than a week, also try dirthoppers mixed with pellet food, worked on a picky kokopu

very nice, looks like a good match as long as there is non relation between them. she has an awesome fin outline

same tank, top photo before a water change, bottom after.

gidday and welcome what sort of filter systems are you using, do you understand the cycling process?, how long have the tanks been running? can you get your water tested, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate being the biggies. how many fish do you add at once? hopefully we can find out where the problem lies so you can enjoy the hobby instead of being stressed out once you get it down it is a VERY relaxing hobby.

what are the water parameters?, how big is the tank, and what are its tank mates? I had a male covered like this once and I moved him to a different tank away from all his tank mates and he came right again, moved him back it started again, in the ned he had his own little palace for the rest of his life, i put it down to stress in the end, it always looked like excess slime coat to me. he was a bit neurotic though, even stressed out when i put a mirror in there.

tbh there is no real market for the blue zebras, I would let nature take its course and you will probably end up with a few surviving on their own, they always tend to be the nicer fish in the long run anyways.

hello +1 on the clown loaches needing a new home, the Striata on the other hand are the perfect size.

might as well get this started.

pretty, but id rather a hochstetters any day

lol, they cover the rocks in most of the streams around here, I just take a small rock and put it in a bucket or water for about 20 mins and they move off the rock on their own.

what are the parameters??, in a tank that large try your testing near the bottom of the tank, unless you have good circulation there may be alot more nitrates near the bottom than at thee top where you normally test.. most of the time columnaris and many other diseases are caused by water quality issues