Stella

Don't worry, most people have never heard of them! tis a native fish, related to the whitebait fish, but this one lives in wetlands. There are five or six species. This is the brown one from taranaki/manawatu/kapiti/west-coast-of-south-island. There are two up north, one down south (canterbury) and another on the chathams. They do not like deep water and often live in places where the water dries out over summber. They wriggle under logs and things and stay moist but out of the water until the rain comes again. They are evolving towards eels. Very cool

ok, just redid it through photobucket. I remember why I gave up on that site - awful advertising etc!!! The photos seem really small. If you want to see big (huge) versions, again: http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefish/Mudfish

bugger. they work for me! might have to resurrect photobucket for doing this, just prefer the presentation of picasa

I am involved in a mudfish breeding project for massey university as part of a master's student's thesis. She is going to have some in large outdoor troughs and i will have some in an indoor aquarium (where I can keep a close eye in them And they arrived last night!!! Five big 'uns. 12-13cm total length. Nice and fat. Jsut gorgeous, in a kinda ugly way. I am going to try and upload a few photos but had no luck last time, I think it is some problem with picasa and this site.... If it doesn't work, go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefish/Mudfish There are also full size versions there, plus overviews of the tank. (edit: trying again)

Hi Warren, Small whitebait are usually a different species, kokopu and koaro are smaller than the inanga. (I soooo want some koaro. Beautiful fish. Used to have them and really need some again... 'for the book';) happy to pay you if you get too many!!). DOC has a useful chart of whitebait identification on their website. Inanga are the easiest - long and clear.greenish with tiny black spots. Koaro are short and milky, kokopu are short and amber (best seen when en masse). That is when they are first caught, they all change a bit after a little while in fresh water. I have: Four giant kokopu, last year's whitebait (bought from Charles Mitchell the whitebait farmer) Two banded kokopu (ditto above) Four inanga, at least one is three years old. One gorgeous male redfin One common bully, I think female Two Cran's bullies Three bluegills (had them a few months. very different to normal bullies in shape and behaviour) Eight juvenile black mudfish (guessing less than a year old, got from a roadside ditch in Hamilton) Five large adult brown mudfish, arrived last night for a breeding project I am doing with Massey uni. So, um, that's 30 fish, nine species! I used to have koaro and uplands and desperately want to have koaro and torrentfish again, also need uplands to take some better photos. Upland bully with blue gills? Sounds more like a bluegill bully to me! Uplands have the typical stocky body of the other bullies, a very blunt profile and a spotty face, usually brown or orange. Bluegills have a blue line on the edge of the gill cover, are very slender and have a face covered in tiny black spots. Look at the pics on my picasa site. Your 'common' bullies don't really look like they have the tapered head... could be upland or Cran's..... Bullies are hard to identify though. You can get Cran's which look very upland etc. It was so exciting getting the mudfish last night!! They are a lot more relaxed now, just hiding under the wood. Yes various natives have been bred in captivity. Various bullies do it easily. Various mudfish have been bred, some have great success without meaning to while others tried and failed. Whitebait/galaxiids are mostly impossible in captivity to my knowledge. Torrentfish and bluegills not as far as I know. I really need to get a female for my male redfin, he would be so up for it! Stroppy territorial dominant male! Yay for native fish and finding more people with this wee obsession! :bounce:

just quickly, I have very little time tonight but I will reply to you in full Warren later. Yes keeping the water cool is very important over summer. Preferably no higher than 18 degrees but they can cope for short periods at 22 degrees. I used to use a chiller but the pump died. Used to use ice till I went away and my koaro died... Now I use a standard 15cm desk fan, stand removed, opn top of my tank, cooling through evaporation. Works really well. Bananalobster - native fish ROCK! I hope more people will get into them once I get my book out and the info is more easily accessible. Just need to spend less time here and more time writing it There is a reasonable amount of the basics on the forum now, do a few searches

Hi Warren, Yep, that is definitely a redfin bully! Male to be precise. The males are the only ones with the red colouring. Females are just brown but still have those diagonal face stripes (also in brown). The other one could be a common bully.... a profile picture would help. They have quite a tapered head compared to the bluntness of the other bullies. Also those 'whiskers' under the eye suggest common to me, though my cran's has them. Do they have a coloured stripe on the edge of the first dorsal? What colour? Bullies do change colour a bit. I think only the males are able to do that. The very dark colour is their 'breeding plumage' but also appears when they are being territorial or competing for food. Amazing how fast they can do it. They can lose all their colour and just go sandy brown if stressed, other times go quite a dramatic speckled colour. Not too sure why they do that one. Have only seen commons and uplands do that. Also redfins are darker and a more intense red in relation to how dark the environment. Presumably yours lives and/or lived in a low-light stream with dark substrate. I haven't noticed my redfin male to change colour, he just stays looking impressive all the time. What other fish do you have? You are most welcome to come over and see my fish and talk natives if you find yourself in Palmy some time! (I currently have eight species, nearly nine (tomorrow I get brown mudfish for a breeding project!!). I am ever so slightly obsessed and am writing a book on keeping them.)

They are all galaxiids ("ga-lax-id"). There are some 50-ish species in the world, 26-ish in NZ, most of which are not found elsewhere. Whitebait are the juveniles of five species, in order of commonality- inanga (G. maculatus) (by far the most common, 90%ish) koaro (G. brevipinnis) banded kokopu (G. fasciatus) giant kokopu (G. argenteus) shortjaw kokopu (G. postvectus) All the other species are found in the south island and often have fairly geographically restricted habitats. Those ones don't have a marine stage, they do have juveniles similar to whitebait, just they stay in the rivers. Oh, and the six native mudfish (Neochanna) are part of the Galaxidae family. It is far too early in the morning for this much geekery....! Must go find something peasant-like to do.... anyone got a Woman's Day?

Two different species. Paranephrops planifrons northern crayfish (north island and nth-west south island Paranephrops zealandicus - southern crayfish rest of the south island The southern one is bigger and hairier. I found it hard to find many hard facts about the differences, lengths or ages. Many basic sources just copy other basic (incorrect) sources and the scientific papers also conflicted with each other. Crayfish rock Sadly with one that big you WILL start having trouble with your fish. I started losing fish or them losing dramatic parts of fins when my two crays reached around 7cm each. I put them back once they became a problem, but with a cray that size, hell, keep him in his own tank! What a size!

It depends on the species and the conditions in the pond. I would go for highly unlikely to spawn, and even more unlikely to survive. Koaro and kokopu are capable of forming landlocked populations in the wild, so those ones don't specifically need a marine stage (though given the option they take it). Breeding and hatching is triggered by floodwaters in autumn. Quite an interesting cycle really.l I understand Charles Mitchell has captive breeding stock for his whitebait farm, but I don't know if they spawn in a natural waterway (but partitioned so they can't escape) or artificial (giant tanks) environment. If it was easy to do he would make megabucks and he has been researching it for years... Sorry! However they all make good pond fish, providing the water is cool enough and they can't jump or climb out. Yes, climb.

Stella 27 Female Palmerston North Dental Assistant Bachelor of Arts: History (finished) Bellydancer Motorcyclist (sitting restricted next week) ChildFREE Atheist pagan Separated Attached Bisexual Native fish nutter

thanks, it is an ancient Shark I am replacing. Developed a shocking rattle and the suction cups were gone (I bought it second hand two years ago, so it did have a good run). How long have you had yours and do you remember what size you got?

hahahaha Caryl!!!! That gave me so many awful mental images. I was going to tell Coelacanth that he could feed me the muffin tops instead of the whiteworms, but I have changed my mind!

I am after a small internal filter for my 2.5 foot tank and I noticed cheap Hailea filters at the pet shop. Anyone know anything about these? Would I be wasting my money on something cheap?

Caryl, what lucky whiteworms you have! I have jsut recently started a culture and have been feeding mine mashed potato flakes. I was fairly mortified buying them (what peasant uses mashed potato flakes, particularly BUDGET mashed potato flakes???) but that there were three different brands available was more disturbing. I keep them in a jar with a plastic spoon beside the culture and sprinkle in a spoon full a day. Gets eaten really fast and doesn't go mouldy - no big lump of wet food waiting to be eaten

Hi OAB, Finally got my computer sorted so I could see your video - wow! Particularly the scene where they are all packed in facing the same direction. Thanks for posting this

Or seriously salty water

Yeah, the sooner the better! i have a fish I want to enter

Always pleased to be of service to the native fish and fishkeeping community! :lol:

He does! Not at the fish show, but he has photos of my butt crack while I was distracted mudfish hunting, latia hunting, whitebait hunting.... and so on. I need to start wearing overalls! :oops:

hehe, the *giant kokopu* was brilliant!! I could have (and probably did) stare at her for hours. Caryl, I was going to say you could use them if you wish But then decided I might sound a bit full of myself.... Evil: good one! :lol: (Were you actually there? Personally I was a little worried how much butt crack I was displaying to the world while down there taking photos, but given the other option was not taking photos... you can see what I chose! Currently uploading a couple of others I had forgotten to. These are all the full sized photos so it takes FOREVER.

I have uploaded a few of my better photos of the native fish displays at the fish show. Mostly black mudfish, giant kokopu and a cran's bully (belongs to HandS and won a first prize I spent so much time killing my knees taking photos.... but what lovely fish! http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefis ... alFishShow

Do any of the algae chemicals control brown algae? Am sick of the stuff, really wish there were native algae eaters.

Hi Ryan, Andrew and I are keen for a fish club starting here again too.

Ooh I am getting a nice little list in no time! Tt is still a way off yet, but those on the list will definitely be emailed when it comes out. Hopefully within a year at the latest, preferably sooner. Cichfanatic: That program sounds really good, I had a quick look at the link. I will look over it more later, but it could be something to add to the useful websites section. Thanks.