My poor photography effort over the weekend :P

[CodKing]

New tank, new light (many thanks to those involved!!!)

Blue looks nice in the dark but doesn't photograph very well!

[CodKing]

Though I'd better make up for that effort...

[bdspider]

I neeeeeeeeeed a desktop background version of that

[CodKing]

Heh, glad somebody likes it!

Not too sure what I'm doing with this shot just yet... Might be an xmas prezzie for a friend of mine so I think I'll hang on to it just for now

I wish we could post slightly larger pics in here! 645px is so tiny :[ considering we probally all run resolutions @ 1024 or higher.

[Stella]

Wow! That tank looks awesome!!

Interesting angular rocks. I have only used rounded river stones before, so that is a neat contrast.

Loving those south island uplands

The vertical streak through the middle, is that a bubbler or a trick of the light?

The front-on pic is great. I have a few of torrentfish front-on. With their angled front fins and weird shape they wind up looking like little stars

[CodKing]

Cheers! Thats the tank I'd like to have a go with a punga frond.

Those rocks are some kind of intermediate metamorphic. It looks and feels basaltic but has what looks like quartz veins. Kind of odd considering the quartz runs on all sorts of angles and no real pattern to it. They used to be one big rock, being metamorphic I figure it comes from the West Coast or up in the Alps. It's all a bit more angled than where I found them but they seem happy enough and there have been no injuries so far.

They are handsome fish huh. It's been interesting seeing the emergence of a new alpha male. He's gone real dark and getting very fat but gets feed almost exactly the same as the other male. He's getting a bit more territorial as well. The female isn't having such a good time. She hardly ever comes out, usually early morning or late eve I'll see her. Is there something to that?

Yip that streak is a bubbler, about a 3 or 4 inch. It powers out the bubbles, looks much better in person, the blur is camera timing.

Looks like whitebait are starting to run already in the Avon River, do you think it would be worth me grabbing a handful? No really sure about their lifecycle, better to grab them on the way in or on the way out? (or neither)

That front on shot is magic but in full res its the tiniest bit shaky and the focus area is pretty small. I'm waiting for some summer sun to try recreate it. (sure, that will work) I'd be keen to see some of your torrents.

[spoon]

those rocks look awesome in there

[phoenix44]

Where'd you get those stones from?

[Stella]

Whoops, you asked some questions somewhere about the ponga fronds.... No big trick to it, just chuck one in. They stay green for a few months then very slowly turn brown. Any bits sticking up will die off unattractively. Bits under the water will stay structurally sound for 6-12 months, depending on how rough you are at maintenance times. Even when they disintegrate I leave the bits in as organic substrate, which then blends the new leaf in with the old.

I have heard of people having possible issues with other sorts of ferns. I have only used tree ferns (I can't tell the species apart).

I definitely find the females are more timid than males. I had a common female who became just as bold as a male when she was the only bully in the tank, not sure if that was an individual character thing or not.

Changes in male hierarchies are interesting to watch. I had a very dominant Cran's male and smaller common male. Then the common seemed to decide he was hungrier and quickly becaem larger and unseated the Cran's!

Whitebait are an interesting one. Obviously taking juveniles of any species is better as it is less of a loss to the population. However whitebait can be dodgy and prone to dying (they are undergoing massive physiological changes as it is without being chucked in a tank with less than ideal temp and water quality). Also, you don't (easily) know what species you are getting. Interesting to do though, as long as you have the room.

Their lifecycle (get that McDowall book out goddamnit! )

Inanga is the most common. They spawn in esturaries on the high autumn tides and die. The larvae go to sea and come back in spring.

The others (koaro, banded/giant/shortjaw kokopu) stay inland and spawn during autumn floods at the edges of the floodwater. The eggs are stranded for a couple of weeks then stimulated to hatch by the next flood. The larvae are washed to sea and return in spring.

Will see what I can do on the torrentfish, my photos are a little inaccessible at the moment. Some (not front on) are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefish/Torrentfish#

[CodKing]

The substrate comes from a stream near Oxford, as I said, the larger ones were actually one stone broken up. Put it this way, the closer you get to the mountains the sharper the rocks get I found this one in my garden!