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Does anyone keep local/coldwater salt water set-ups??


David R

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^as subject says, anyone?? I'm interested in setting up a rockpool tank with local fish and want to know a bit more about them first. I'm guessing a chiller would be essential for summer...

Also what are the legalities with catching fish to keep?

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what are the legalities with catching fish to keep?

for the legalities. you will need to check with your local council and find out what their bi-laws are. you can only collect certain species of fish and a certain number shell fish (mussels and oyters etc). It is also illegal to take a certain type of seaweed from the sea as it is a pest.

hope this helps

perky

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hey,

i kept a cold water marine it was in a 2.5ft tank which i thought was way to small i collected shrimp, small fish, shell fish all sorts but i didnt get much sea weed as i didnt want the tank to go all yuk i couldnt aford a cooler so what i done was freezed bottles of salt water and put that in the tank and that kept it cool i just feed them on flake, brine shrimp, frozen blood worms pritty much any thing tropical fish eat for filteration i only use a internal shark av which kept it pritty clean but i didnt fortnightly water changes i have to air stones running in it and a moon tube light it was so interesting to watch i will definitly get another but in a bigger tank

my friend tim downs(newtman) also set one up at the same time and he still has his going

cheers

anthony

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http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=3725

I used to have a rock pool marine and needed a chiller in summer.

Most fish caught in the sea grow too big for an aquarium but rockfish and triplefins from rockpools look cool.

Mt tank was 3ft x 1ft x 1ft with an AquaClear filter. It had sea anemones, sea cucumber, hermit brab, starfish, brittlestars, chitons, shrimps, a rockfish, triplefins and anything else we could catch in the rockpools. We topped the tank up when required with fresh sea water and gathered sea lettuce for the inhabitants to eat. Luckily we are only 20 minutes from the beach.

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I also had a saltwater tank, I fed the tank once a week had an internal filter rocks and a sponge filter I changed water once a month with either nsw or asw (natural or artificial salt water). I had this running for more than 6 months no problems. I don't know if the fish are still alive as aparently my ex girlfriend unplugged it a couple of months ago after I moved out (I still haven't gotten around to collecting that tank yet). I had heeps of glass shrimp, hermit crabs, snails and fish that I don't know the name of. they were all neat characters. Rock pool fish are relatively hardy I found and have read in books the same as they are use to quick temperature changes and salinaty changes (small amount of water in the sun evaporating the water). It is not legal to just take them I don't think (although nothing is illegal untill you get caught) but you can purchase them through your LFS or The seahorse farm in Napier

Good Luck

Daniel

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Thanks for the info. I think I'll try to get the tank set up soon-ish and see how it goes over winter, and if it's still going well when summer comes I'll look into buying a chiller.

Does anyone know of any websites to identify local fish??

*edit* also, would it be a good idea to run a skimmer? [i'm guessing it would be as it's still salt water]

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I don't know a website off hand but find this book very helpful

The Rockpool Fishes of New Zealand, Te Ika Aaria O Aotearoa

by Chris Paulin and Clive Roberts

ISBN 0-908953-01-1

Thanks Caryl, another good one for the collection on the fnzas website http://www.fnzas.org.nz/therockpoolfishes.0.html

even amazon doesn't know anything about this book. Any volunteers to write an editorial review and/or provide me with a picture of the cover page ??

Cees

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hey there

yup as caryl says, that book is really helpfull for identification or things......i got it out from my local library :)

and as anth/ critter guy says, yes i also have a nz saltie tank....which is doing great

if ya want to kno more jus let me kno and i can tell u abt some of my experiences an stuf.. :):)

Cheers Newt

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oh, my tank is 390mm high by 915 long by 380 front to back so it holds like 135 liters i think, plus however much is in the filter (external canister).

as for livestock i have a whole load of different tripplefins,about three hermit crabs, loads of dirrerent anemones(sp) some blue with 'white tube' tubeworms, a few sea squirts, and a spider like crab that is kinda flat backed.

for filtration i only have an external canister, and an air driven skimmer which seems to take a great deal of skum outa the water, which is realy good cos im sure that it has at least some good efect on the healthyness of the tank. :D

oh yea ill try an get some pics for ya soon if you want .. :)

Newt

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