M@.

so came into work yesterday and the koura had set up shop in the bullies cave. all the eggs had mysteriously disapeared as well :tears: The female is looking skinny again so assume another lot of eggs is somewhere, havent been able to spot them yet, so may be in the koura aswell If i find the eggs on something easily removable I might take them out and put them in my fry tank to see if i can get them to hatch at least

so, exactly a week later, I think I'm going to get another round of eggs! The female red fin is looking fat as again, and I saw her duck into the cave where a bit of wriggling around on the roof happened. I wouldnt be supprised if she is looking all slim again tomorrow Edit: so cool to watch the male try to lure her in. He swims up and sits facing her, the darts around so he is swimming directly over her and does a little shake before darting off towards his cave

oh, sorry should have been clearer - the eggs have always been black. I was wondering what you ment by "halfway there"? (thought the eggs might change colour later on) I have another female that doesn't have any eggs, and neither of them had any to start with

what do they normaly look like? it seems like it has less than when i first noticed it... always been black though

bully eggs :happy2: the eggs themselves are slightly out of focus, but you get the idea and my berried shrimp I assume it is the same shrimp. I have 2 females, and it seems a bit of a long time for her to have them, so might be the other one

didnt do anything out of the ordinary to get them to spawn, just had a nice cave for the male. If i had to guess, i would say it could be because I caught them a couple of months ago, then change to slightly warmer tank water might have tricked them into thinking it was spring I hadnt actually considered trying to raise the fry... thought at best they would provide a little snack for the other fish hmm, might have to have a think about that one and give it a try at least edit- photo of the eggs here: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=62955&p=694454#p694454

Im not sure about redfins specificaly, but was reading a study about this the other day. Couldnt find it in my quick google re-searching, but think the jist of it was: zooplankton is a lot smaller in the sea than in fresh water. Therefore, diadromous species can lay more, smaller eggs. I think it said that landlocked poputlations of common bullies had larger eggs than their counterparts, and tent to only exitst in lakes where the conditions are right for lots of zooplankton. so potentialy if you could provide a small enough food source they might survive? although it wouldnt suprise me if there was some physiological factors that would affect the fry aswell (osmosis might be an issue without the salt?) My redfins spawned on tuesday, so I will let you know how that goes! :happy2:

what type of granules do you feed blueether? im trying to get mine onto Wardley Cichlid Crumble, but they dont seem to like the taste? - they go to eat it, then spit it out and ignore it

just tried to get photos, no way I can get a good angle on them. Might try again tomorrow, if people are interested, when i can bring my water proof camera in but in the meantime, here is dad guarding his nest :happy2: (the eggs are on the underside of that rock on the right)

Update: the female looked a bit skinny this morning, so thought she might have just got greedy at feeding time but got a torch and had a look in the cave - the roof has a big patch of eggs! super excited! not sure if I will be able to get a good photo of them. Kind of wishing I had a non-diadromous species now, but stoked they were feeling happy enough to exhibit this natural behaviour

hi guys! so I have been away for a few days, and have come back to find my male redfin has turned jet black and has set up shop in a cave. He is beeing realy entertaining, shooting around all over the place! One of my females is looking realy fat aswell, so here's hoping I might get a spawn! what do you guys think? Im realy enjoying watching the different behaviour at any rate

Thanks Guys, i was pretty stoked to be involved with this one! It is very closely related to the brown skink, but they are only found below Taranaki, so finding something similar in northland got lots of people very excited! The DNA testing showed something like a 3.5% variance from the brown skink, and the current variance within that species is 1.2%, i think. So it will be investigated further (with things like scale counts) this summer to see if it will be described as a unique species And as F15hguy pointed out, yes we did have a permit for handling, but had to take the one we caught into DOC for the DNA sample to be taken (was released back where we caught it after)

While they are supposed to be jumpers, I've never had my guppies or minnows jump (Or even break the surface) but guess some individuals may be more inclined to jump than others I think a few factors probaly would encourage them to jump - if they have some good cover in the tank they will be more inclined to hide rather than jump when they get startled. I have also heard that some species will jump more when water quality drops, as they think it is the dry season and they attempt to find a larger body of water

Thats actually how I found out about it, via this: http://roberthodgin.com/boil-up/

arrgh! I cant believe I only just heard about this - was in Aucland last weekend but didnt know it was on http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/Default.asp?t=1879

might have just got a shy one aye, damn! He wouldnt fit a WCMM in his mouth at the moment, was just thinking it might encourage him to come out more, and then take them out when he is bigger and hopefuly bolder. Ill see how I go, might not bother

hehe, here's my skinky claim to fame! http://breamheadtrust.org.nz/news/new-species-of-skink-found-at-bream-head/

cool, thanks for the reply! I suppose I’ve been taking 'nocturnal' as more of a guideline than a rule, as my koura normally goes for a couple for walks round the tank a day. Was imagining the Kokopu cowering out of the way somewhere, rather than just off having a snooze :yaw2: normally feed them first thing in the morning, so might change that to after (my) lunch

So, bit of an update - berried shrimp is still alive, still berried too. Nearly been a month now, how long do they hold for? I saw a post on here a while ago (couldnt find it again) about black shrimp and the connection to BBA. I was away unexpectedly for a bit, and the lack of upkeep lead to some BBA developing, but as a result one of the shrimp is heading towards black which is pretty cool! on an unrelated note, my banded kokopu hides all the time. he comes out for feeding, and then I dont see him for the rest of the day... any tips to encourage him out? I have tried to create plenty of cover in the tank to make him feel more secure, and was thinking about putting in a small school of WCMM for a bit (thinking something smaller and less flightly might make him feel safer/give him something to look at?) Do you think he will get bolder as he gets bigger?

:nfs:

I havent been there myself. Looking at their website it looks like not as much as the others, but says they have Axos and a "Small selection of freshwater fish"

http://www.wellingtonvets.co.nz/ these guys have fish aswell. You have the Petone store in your list, but the Miramar one has the basics (maybe 30 FW tanks and 2 SW tanks)

For Li@m's I would say Redfin Bully (due to diagonal face stripes) In stealth mode (darkened colour) as he is feeling teritorial (bossibly breeding) someone with more knowledge might correct me though

pics?

Im sure you would be doing this if it was possible - but is there any way you can get your overflow to a drain, or even out a window? I know I would end up forgetting to empty the container and flood my house :-? Plus means you dont have to turn the system off if you go away for a week