willyp123

Bump, someone take them

Don't have any photos on hand, but be wary of keeping mudfish in a tank, they're behavior makes them very susceptible to damaging population when you remove them, they're also quite uncommon and you could have a huge impact on the local environments.

Hi Guys, If anyone wants 2 Giant Kokopu for an aquarium in Auckland, let me know - I need to rehome mine. A suitable tank would require a chiller and need to be at least 160 litres. Breed by MTI, 15-20cm Cheers

Hey mate, As others have said it is illegal to release the fish back, i'd also be very concerned about keeping multiple shortfins. They grow quite fast in captivity and will be fight and you'll likely end up with all dead or all but one dead and one very unhappy shortfin. I'd say just get one shortfin, when I kept one I had 1 shortfin in a 500L tank, and a bathtub is alot smaller than that. Cheers

Shortjaws are our rarest kokopu, a very bad idea to keep considering we know so little about them. In regards to bandeds, i've seen them a huge amount on the shore, having done extensive trapping, monitoring and having worked alongside council I'd be interested to see the data on that, as I haven't actually noticed that trend.

Banded kokopu are both abundant and unique - they'd be fine. They are afterall the only whitebait species not currently in decline.

A mod can move it if you PM them otherwise yeah you'd need to repost it.

Good reply kiwi, a bathtub may be a bit shallow is my main concern and I suspect the eel likely leave simply because in order to rock up a nice environment you would take up a significant amount of water volume. There's no harm in trying, but i'd be inclined to try something deeper. You're likely to get more replies if you chuck this on the Natives section. If your confident in identifying a shortfin vs. longfin then you should be able to get away with a shortfin in a bath, but definitely not longfin. I've got a few barrels over here in the shore you're welcome to for gassing off chlorine.

You should probably fine calcium wise if your pH is neutral or basic, crays will often consume their moults if they need the calcium. There wouldn't be any harm in putting a raw almond in the tank for them to eat (though remove after a few days). The bullies must be pretty happy - so good on you. There's a few good guides on here about keeping crays happy, scroll down a bit on this thread - heres how I do it: viewtopic.php?f=41&t=68743

Off Stellas New Zealand native fish page https://www.facebook.com/nznativefish

Would you be able to provide a source on that? In extreme cases it makes sense, but I would have thought generally they wouldn't wash to far up over the banks. It seems to me that more likely they would hunker under rocks and chill out at the bottom and wait for the weather to pass, chilling out under the banks and so forth. However I know that during this time of the year, galaxiids such as inanga will use the floods to bring them into plant life where they lay eggs.

I know of a couple round the place, they'll be a few more on the forums, possibly some of the Auckland Fishkeepers FB Group. Don't go getting ideas Get me a larger tank and then we can talk

:iag: It mightn't be a bad to possibly organize a native tank crawl, so people can see native aquaria in place, give advice and so forth

Good on ya mate, can you get us pics of the giant kokopu? Chillers are definitely worth the investment, fortunately you're going into this hobby over winter so you'll have a bit more time to get one as you'll have less difficulty in keeping the temperature below 20*c, however you'll need a chiller come summer. On that note though, if you're serious about getting into natives, then you should invest in a decent size chiller that can accommodate tanks of a reasonable size, they often come up on trademe for reasonable prices, else you can buy em overseas.

I know of a few in Albany, your best bet would be just to explore streams around your area - there are likely to be plenty around you.

Find a stream with good bush covering, 2-3 meters across, not salty - pretty much banded kokopu habitat. You'll likely find them there.

The best way to catch them, is to find a site where you know they are. Then get a net and place it behind them, put your hand in front of them and shepherd them into the net - they'll dart backwards. Or you can catch them by very quickly grabbing them, or my preferred method is to let them latch onto your hand and then pull them up. Or use traps (which I do as well).

Lots of places, what part of Auckland?

You posted this today, there's actually no point in bumping it - people will reply in due course. I for one haven't done much work with Auckland lakes, so I wouldn't know too much about them.

I mean with ANY and ALL native fish, including koura, whenever you have them - if you get them in the future or have them now - they ALL need cooling.

That doesn't mean your tank is that temperature. You need a thermometer in the tank to measure it and you need to be chilling the tank - other wise your fish will die.

You aren't answering the question - what temperature is your tank being kept at?

Resun seems to be a decent brand, no issues with them so far but Hailea is definitely the better brand

The blue ones are found in deeper parts of lakes generally - this is because blue light penetrates deeper in the lake so they camouflage better. They're reasonably rare and it would not be wise to take one from the wild, they also will return to their normal colour when brought up to a normal depth.

Where did ya get those crans bullies from?