good morning from nz

[Stu]

hi all don't know wether I should be posting this here, but as I'm killie mad I thought way not !
I have been keeping killies for , around 10 year and presanty have 15 speciea / colour mophs. they are:-
Fun. sjoestedi, Fun. gardneri type unknown, Fun. gardneri albino, Fun. shceeli, Fun. filamentoseum 1 female no male no eggs , Chromaphyo. bitaeniatum aq strain,Aphyo. australe chocolate strain unknown has been in nz 20 + years, Aphyo. australe gold ,Simp. constanciae this too has been here 20 + years,Notho. korthausae red , Notho palmqvisti "Gezani"TAN 95/16,Notho. guentheri gold , Austr. nigripinnis 1 bag of eggs no fish i' ve hatched this once already but lost the 1 female due to a heat wave , Aplo. lineatus striped aq srain and Aplo. lineatus gold .
My most resent species are the sjoestedi there large but still young fish and there firtilaty is poor , out of 100 eggs only 5 are firt. the eggs are 5 weeks old , eyed up and ready to hatch starting to get just a little worryed but in this spe. it can take 8 + weeks hope they hatch soon and the Notho. guentheri gold my first generation are 6 weeks old and breeding with lots of eggs to spread a round. both these fish came in on a commercial import so i dont know the origens thou the sjoe's look like the american strain.
thanks for leting me go on and on , HKK ( happy killie keeping) stu

[RRG]

Hello, Stu--is that your real name? Well, anyway, I don't mind you going on and on, but consider putting your information in "chunk". I read that "People understand information best if it is delivered to them in chunks--small units--rather than all at once." This is very true when I read your post. I stopped after reading few sentences of what you wrote, sorry, and tried reading it again.

Also before you submit your post, try clicking the SpellCheck to check on misspelled words and Preview to see what your post is going to look like.


I'm impressed, 10 years of keeping killies, that's a long time. I hope I will be as dedicated as you in this fish/aquarium hobby. And a big welcome, with your experience you must be an asset to this forum.

[Stu]

thanks for your comment , yes stu is my real name, well short for stuart .
sorry about the poor selling it's always been a failing and i don't have spellcheck with XP.may have to get WORDS or some thing.
p.s if i'm wrong about XP let me know.

[CM Media]

HI Stu,

First of all, welcome to the forum.

If you take a closer look, on the righthand bottom corner there is a spellcheck tab. All you need to do is to click on it and run through the spelling check before you click submit.

Hope that this helps.

[Stu]

Thanks Au SL ,

I noticed that an hour ago, I'ts great to have one availible

[wcknight]

Wow, New Zealand ! Welcome Stu,

Is it as great there as folks say it is ?? What's the weather like ? In winter's... here we get snow, rain, sleet etc. SPring Summer and fall (early fall and late spring anyway) are okay.

I just started this week end with my first hatch...just 5 fry and only one survided more than a week... this weekend I get to try again...then it's wait until next April...

Maybe in 10 years, I hope to have at least a few species going. For now I'm just trying to get one or two.

BUT the AKA annual convention will be right down the road from me (Rockville MD, about 2 miles away). IF any of you can make you'll have to stop in and say hello.

regards Wes

[RonWill]

Welcome to our cyber-corner, Stuart. Great to have another New Zealander hop onboard. (Would it be considered rude if people called you a 'Kiwi'?)

Personally, I've been maintaining killies, on and off, for about 7 years and each year simply gets better, albeit more husbandry work too

Was going through your list and am quite surprised that with NZ's strict import regulations, you're still able to maintain so many species but one comment did grab my attention and that's your reference to the SJO.

It seems to me that killie hobbyists, in this forum and elsewhere, find the SJO not a very fertile/prolific species. Those who manage to get tons of good eggs either have a super duper pair or.... we all still have alot to learn. Meanwhile, I hope you have better luck with them and that you enjoy the visits here.

Wes, some of us started our killie journey with alot of heartaches and disappointment but I believe these failures only serve to reinforce our appreciation when we can get a population of them going.

It doesn't matter if only ONE fry survive. It means we need to try harder the next time.

That probably explain why I set interim goals to have a tankful of one species before I move on to the next, or choose to faithfully maintain those which I like better.

...the AKA annual convention will be right down the road from me (Rockville MD, about 2 miles away). IF any of you can make you'll have to stop in and say hello

I wish we could meet up in person and put a face to the name but no, Maryland is one state too far from most of us. I'm also quite green that there's a convention you'd be attending, so do tell us how it's like, ya?

If you do come across any Aphyosemion elberti for sale or for judging, do take some pics of them (and the convention, of course). Many thanks in advance.

PS added 050303:
I just recalled that Debra Bear live in Willards , Maryland, and wonder if she knows about the convention. Sounds like a good opportunity for those in the boonies to acquire some fine fishes <wink>

We've not heard from her for a while and I hope that she, her family, her killies and the chickens are doing fine.

[Stu]

Hi Wes ,

WOW Maryland , it's a hop, skip and jump from NZ to Singapore but America , thats half way round the world mate. The funny places you meet people.

Thanks for you interest in good old kiwi land , in short it's a great place , but you really have to see it for your self mate!.

Bad luck on your fist attempt with killies , you didn't mention the species though, I would be interested to know what it was. Hay keep your chin up mate we all learn from misfortune . I lost my first killies a trio of notho's to that dreaded velvet , I didn't know what it was at the time . Good luck with your next hatch.

Thanks for your welcome Ronnie, we kiwi's don't mind at all . New Zealander, man what a mouth full !

Hay I read your post on Aphyolebias peruenis, that really is a fantastic species. We only have the S/American species on my list and I'm the only one with nigripinnis, and it's not looking to flash either, I think we may loss it. The thing is we can keep this species out side all year , i' ve collected eggs off a pair that over wintered ,from time to time under a thin lyre of ice!.

the SJO are a bit of a pain . I email David Ramsey (AKA) and he said that this fish does have a poor fertility rate until they are a year old .As my SJO's came from a tropical fish importer , I suspect that they are less than a year ,so i'll keep on breeding them and if he's right (which i am sure he is )sooner or later , with just a bit of good fortune and live food i'll get them going .There is a few people over here that are waiting on bated breath for me to succeed.

Killies do get imported every now and them mainly A. australe gold , E. annuals ,A. lineatus and A. panchax panchax .The importer who brought in the gold guentheri and sjo's is also looking at an import from Peru Apisto's , fancy pleco's and KILLIES so i'm keeping an eye on there web site just in case.

[wcknight]

Thanks Ronnie, Stuart,

This week end I try again with the second wetting of this batch of guntheri eggs.. The species is Nothobranchius Guntheri Gold.

I have some N Rachovii eggs due in late April also... and I have a couple of shipment of guntheri and rachovii eggs on hold until the weather warms up here.

I will stick to these two species, as I don't have a lot of tanks to devote to this. I have a tankful of Kribensis and another full of guppies. I will probably convert at least one of these tanks over later. If I can get these two nothos species going, I may consider others down the road.

I will bring a camera to the convention and keep an eye out for Aphyosemion elberti ... I don't have a macro lens for my camera but I may look into getting a new camera with that capability before the convention I hope.

I was hoping to have a tankful of Guntheri by then, but who knows, the next batch may be a lot better. May is still a long ways off.

wes

[Shae]

Hey Stu, glad to see you joined up.

Shae