ajbroome

Pegasus said... > ... don't you go bringing any of those man eating plants > back to New Zealand will you ?? No need, there are a dozen or so species native to NZ and many exotics in cultivation already. Shame I can't say the same about the triggerplants (Stylidium). Andrew.

Chris said... > ... let us know when your coming over and we will try to help you... Probably won't be until March or April of next year. Will be chasing carnivorous plants (and triggerplants) up the east coast. Hopefully as far as Cairns if all goes well but that'll depend on how much time (and money) I have... Always keen to meet keen local fishkeepers though Later, Andrew.

Caryl said... > We hope the FNZAS 2004 conference will be in Vanuatu. Should be a bit of fun if it all goes as planned. I know I'm planning on going as are several others I know. Still, a lot can happen between now and the middle of 2004... BTW: Welcome, CID I'm hoping for a trip to Aus around March or April next year, probably starting in Sydney... Andrew.

Pete said... > As far as I know, Brunei will not allow their export. > Which is a great pity. Brunei is very twitchy about the export of any of its wildlife or plants. There are a few things from there (ie Nepenthes and so forth) that I wouldn't mind and there are some very nice fish as well... ;-) Andrew.

Pete said... > My particular interests are ... and Killies. Just a quick welcome from a fellow killifish keeper. Have a look at http://nzka.killi.net if you want to see the state of the hobby in NZ. You can always contact me here or at [email protected] if you have any questions... Andrew.

Caryl said... > I read an article which said if the fish name ends in 'i' it is > always pronounced 'eye' not 'ee'. If there are two 'i's at the > end, both are accented, first one 'ee' and second one 'eye'. Yep, you're right. My point was that some people pronounce it like it was named after Mr. 'Dag-et' rather than the french derived Mr. 'Da-zhay'. No big deal. Have a look at: http://fishwatch.tripod.com/newsletter/1/news1-4.htm http://www.vatoelvis.com/Latin.html Also interesting is: http://www.intellweb.com/gcka/names.htm actually there are some great general articles at: http://www.intellweb.com/gcka/fishroomgen.htm Andrew.

Derek said... > The fish you have are Epiplatys dageti Sure are. The males are more colourful than the females and have an extension (like a small sword) off the bottom of the tail, in good specimens. > ... other common names are Dageti or Black-lipped Panchax. Never hear them called that but that's OK Some people pronounce 'dageti' as 'dag-et-ee', occasionally I hear 'dag-et-eye' but it's probably 'dah-zhay-eye' IMHO... > You got them from Stuart Lord. He's the current NZKA President. > They will eat flake but it may take them awhile to become > accustomed to it as Stuart feeds alot of live food to his fish > especially the Killies. Mine thrive and breed on whiteworms mostly. In a planted tank on their own they'll produce fry, most of which will get eaten. If you pull the adults out fry will start to appear at the surface after a week or two. I'm still pulling fry from out of a tank that has been 'empty' for the best part of 2 months... Contact me if you need any specific info. Andrew.

Paul said... > You should just pop over to Feiding Andrew. > Local hydroponics why travel lol ... You'll see in my original message that I said there was one just outside of Palmerston North, the 'Feilding' one is the one I meant. Len *may* want to go to Otaki since a mutual friend lives in Levin, you see. BTW Paul, my new house is just around the corner from your old Vogel St shop... Andrew.

Len said... > I need to find another source for the suitable chemicals and Cees said... > Otaki hydroponics will courier to your home address. > http://www.otakihydroponics.co.nz/ If you get here early enough on Friday Len, we could go check this place out (it's about an hour south of here, not sure you'd want to do more driving though after 4hrs cooped up in a car already - perhaps with a quick stop at Mr Eds on the way back... or maybe early saturday morning if any are up to it? Looks like Ric/Bruce/Lawrence may be in town for Friday night so who know... ;-) There's also reported to be a hydroponics place just outside of PN so maybe we could check that out. I've never been there but how hard can it be to find? I think Peter knows where it is... Andrew.

Mitch said... > I understood the member concerned was Damon Flett... According to the Breeding Scheme Register, Damon has bred Apistogramma juruensis which *may* look something like this: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepage ... ffjuru.jpg Andrew.

Dennis said... > will platys breed will mollys? I've heard Mollys will hybridise with Guppies and apparently most of the swordtail and platies we see are hybrids between those three species but I've never heard of a viable hybrid between Poecilia and Xiphophorus. I'd bet males of one would chase and court females of the other but I'd not *expect* to see hybrid fry as a result. Andrew.

Caryl said (no, really, she did)... > I said that?? How clever of me. Where did I say it? Ooops! OK, it was *actually* Cees. Blame brain fade. Anyway, thanks Cees, interested in any info you come up with. Andrew.

Mitsy said... > ...I would be glad to put some in a box for you! Thanks, but a tad impractical :-( Something will turn up, it always does if you ask enough people... Andrew.

Caryl said... > I got this from a 'local source (geochemist)', apparently there > is a big band of laterite in the takaka hills on the Golden bay > side (top of South Island). Ah... sounds interesting... maybe somewhere to explore when we're down for next years conference...? I'd heard there was some north of Auckland too but no one seems to know specifics. > ... other local source http://www.brooklands.co.nz/article/109.htm > I've seen it in Lower Hutt petshop Yeah, I've seen it for sale in shops too. Imported and *very* expensive. I want it to experiment with some carnivorous plants from Western Australia. Saw plenty of it there last year. Anywhere you saw a patch of lateritic gravel by the side of the road was bound to be home to at least some species, also Stylidium and orchids... Thanks Caryl. Andrew.

Mitsy said... > Can this be the very same red clay soil that abounds in our > foot hills? They are known as lateritic soils and some are > very, very red. Can I utilize this soil as dry pellets implanted > in the substrate? Laterite is a very red clay found in various places around the world so it's not impossible that's what you've got. You'd need to experiment or talk to one of the specific CA based Aquatic Plant groups I suspect. Andrew, who'd love a good local source of laterite.

Fee said... > They were sold as Blue Faced Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlids. > But I am fairly confident that they are not Apistogramma > cacatuoides. You've looked at the pictures at: http://www.apistogramma.com/gallery.htm I've not seen the recent import but a couple of species have been available over the years. None have lasted very long although A. cacatuoides was bred several times. Breed 'em if you can and spread 'em around. Pencil me in for some ;-) Andrew.

Mitsy said... > Native plants are a favorite study, and I have a number of > them in my gardens and ponds. I was looking for Darlingtonia, Pinguicula and Drosera. Saw heaps of all three, especially the first two, as well as some nice orchids and so forth. Some photos from the trip are at http://photos.yahoo.com/ajbroome Andrew.

Mitsy said... > Garter snakes, gopher snakes, kingsnakes, grass snakes...they all > get proper treatment on my property. Whew! I feel much better now. > They are quite poisonous, and quite large. Yeah, I've spent some time in rattlesnake country and know some of the dangers. Back in 2000 I was up past Sacremento, near Placerville etc (ie just of 80). Skirted around Redding via SF and Santa Rosa and up the coast almost to the Oregon border. You know Crescent City? (We were looking at native US plants, BTW). All good fun and awesome countryside. I wouldn't be overly happy to have rattlers in my backyard either. Don't know what extreme I'd go to though... I'm not a big fan of bits of reptile being used as a fashion accessory (partly because it encourages a 'disposable' aspect to an already abused animal) but am happy to use cow skin between me and the road when I'm on a motorcycle... Anyway, glad I was just taking you too literally. Andrew.

Reef said... > how can i get some grindal worms I've got some, but not many. I'm about (when I get 5 minutes) to start up some new cultures so will do a couple of extras in case others are on the look out for them. Rob used to have them too... They're an excellent live food. Andrew.

I'm gonna hate myself for this, but... Abusing dogs = bad but chopping up snakes for headbands = good? Both are equally bad in my book. Andrew.

Bill said... > Caryl's in a witty mood tonight, but her latin stinks. These days, everyones latin stinks, including the taxonimists. Perhaps Microsphereoides punctata would be a better name? ;-) > ... the only thing I can think of like this are baby Argulus > (Fish Louse) I've never seen a case of Argulus infection in a NZ aquarium fish. I'd go with 'springtails' or Collembola spp. and ignore them. I wouldn't be suprised if you have 'Indian Fern' in the tank... or perhaps that duckweed... no one has Salvinia, right? These plants all seem to encourage springtails IME. I get springtails in my grindal worm cultures and feed them to my whiteclouds. Andrew.

My whiteworm method. I've never been a fan of the 'my way or the highway' approach to instructions - read other peoples suggestions, experiment, and go with what works for you... I've used plastic trays (about 15 inches square by 4 deep) as well as large shallow polystyrene fish boxes. About 2 inches of the cheapest potting mix you can buy (supermarket stuff seems to work). The theory with going cheap is that it has the least amount of expensive fertilizers and so forth in it, not that I'm convinced that they're the problem people claim. I keep the mix fairly damp and put food under pieces of glass. My cultures are all covered but not tightly (I want to exclude light, not air). The plastic trays have a loose fitting piece of polystyrene on top of the glass while the fishbox has its lid with a few holes punched in the side. For food I use boring old white bread, works a treat for me. It will go mouldy though, if you use too much, so start off with a wee bit and replace it when it's gone or if it goes green... I keep them cool, on a concrete floor in the garage. They take a while to get established, the trick is to start off with a good sized culture if you can. If I'd bought a starter from a pet store (probably supplied by Biosuppliers) then I'd probably initially start it off in a couple of 2L ice cream containers until numbers built up... BTW: My fishbox culture has been going for 10+ years and the plastic tray ones at least 6 or 7. It pays to have several cultures going at once so that you have a spare if one falls over and so that you don't harvest one too heavily at any one time. I also choose *not* to believe the 'they're too fatty to use too much' line. For quick results, for smaller fish, I recommend Grindal Worms which multiply much faster and can be kept at warmer temps. Just my thoughts, Andrew.

Bill said... > Saw a nice huge turtle in Pets & Aquatics in Northland > just recently. About the size of a dinner plate. Big females get up to about that size, males are generally much smaller. I might just get back into red-ears again now that I've got more space. At the moment all I've got is snakenecks but all going well they might breed this year... Got to do something with the swimming pool... ;-) > Came across a discussion on Killies on another site overseas, > so I posted your link. Hope You don't mind. Sure, no problem. From the NZKA site you can get to many other sites around the world. Later, Andrew.

Warren said... > Cool, could I borrow it please? Sure. Drop me a line ([email protected]) and we'll sort something out. Later, Andrew.

Caryl said... > All this information (except No.1) was gleaned from the book > Turtles by John M Mehrtens... As someone who has had turtles for many years and bred a few at various times, I can say Caryls answers are pretty much on the nose. If anyone needs any specific info, feel free to contact. Andrew.