New native fish videos on youtube

[Stella]

Just been uploading a couple of videos, one of the baby black mudfish fighting, the other of my old riffle tank (torrentfish, shortjaw kokopu and bluegill bullies).

The mudfish one is pretty poor quality, but it is such weird behaviour for them I thought some would find it interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/user/nznativefish?feature=mhum

neeeeed sleeeep nowwwwww

[nativelover]

do you still have the fish?

[Stella]

of those two videos, still got all the mudfish but lost everyone in the riffle tank due to a major disaster I still find that video sad, they were doing so well!

I also have a 20cm giant kokopu and some common bullies that have just spawned.

[preacher]

You lost the riffle tank! Oh Stella, those torrentfish were so cool. Visiting your place was a highlight just for that experience alone. What a terrible shame. I hope you can get one up and going again.

P.

[Stella]

Aw thanks Preacher!

It was neat getting to show everyone. That was probably when things were at bit of a peak too.

I would love to do a riffle tank again, but they are a bit of stress with temperatures.

High flow pumps = lots of heat

High flow fish = can't hack the heat

And cutting down to two big tanks made the maintenance SO much easier while dealing with uni.

Anyway, hopefully soon I shall get to live vicariously through the big native tanks going into the National Trout Centre and the museum here. And of course everyone else getting into native fish once my book is out (been sorting the index today, and Zev has the rest of the book nearly sorted! )

[nativelover]

how big was that riffle tank ?

what dimensions?

[Stella]

It was 120 cm long x 50 front-to-back x 40 tall. Brilliant proportions for a native tank, though even longer is always better

I think the shortjaws in that video were about 12cm long and just starting to deepen nicely. (they start long and slim, then deepen and widen after a while, eventually winding up really stocky)

The tank now houses my adult brown mudfish.

[Insect Direct]

nice vid, and some even nicer fish

[nativelover]

what natives would be good for a 120 long tank?

[Stella]

All of them

...with the possible exception of a 2m eel

The other dimensions of your tank matter quite a bit too. Large ground area is important for most natives.

What are you interested in? What can you find locally? If there a focus species you want? What habitat types do you like?

[nativelover]

i would really like to put some kokopu in but what sort and how many?

[Stella]

Banded kokopu are probably the easiest and least threatened.

Giant kokopu get a bit bigger than is realistic for most aquaria, and shortjaw kokopu have their own ways of being tricky. And both of them are more threatened.

Bandeds don't play too nicely with others, so aiming for a single focal fish is probably best. Two might be ok, but it depends.

I think a good plan is to get a little kokopu and some inanga (say five or so). The inanga fill up the midwater space so the tank doesn't look empty. Inanga only live a few years, so by the time the kokopu is a good size the inanga would have died off naturally. Smelt can be used similarly.

Bullies would be fine long-term, kokopu tend to ignore them as they hang out in different areas.

[preacher]

I guess that depends on what you can find. Chances are it will be Inanga so I would imagine 4 or 5 would be quite comfortable with some Bullies. What sort of lighting/cover will the tank have will also determine what you want to put in. Koara, Banded and Giant Kokopu prefer lots of cover, where as Inanga are a midstream fish and used to a reasonable amount of light as long as they have plenty of underwater cover to hide under. You wouldn't want more than 1 or 2 Koara or Banded as they grow to to 20+cm, Giants even bigger.

Aww Stella! You beat me too it

P.

[nativelover]

i might go with the banded then i want to have it looking like your riffle tank with no plants :bounce: do bandeds like fast flowing thought ?

thank you so much stella :bounce:

[Phantom]

Wow that riffle tank looks awesome. I've never even thought about doing a native tank before, but I'd love something like that.

[Stella]

Nope, minimal flow is best. Flow from the filter is plenty.

Banded kokopu habitat is pools in slow small streams with lots of forest cover. Low light = no plants They like rocks or wood to hide in.

Do a search of the archives for banded kokopu

[nativelover]

ok cool thanks for that so what filter would you recomend for this 120l that i want to buy :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: