Stella

My emergency WHATISGOINGON?! routine is to step up the maintenance (water change pronto, nothing dramatic though, just a little increase on whatever you do) then salt the tank to 6-7g or 1tsp per litre. (Hey, I am in Auckland for the next few weeks would you, or anyone else up there, wants to meet up?)

Ok, so it took a little while longer than I expected, but here we go, 19cm giant bully :spop:

Damn you, infidels all! Wait till I get home and upload some photos. :an!gry

Indeed! I think he was slightly before my time Went fishing again last ngiht, same stream. got a NINETEEN CENTIMETRE giant bully! :nfs: (bear in mind that most bullies I see are <10cm)

well of course after I fell in I became one with the fish and no longer felt the need to catch them

You would notice that, Ira! (thanks, fixed now)

And I think we have a winner!! :thup: The distribution mostly mentions from Wellington southwards, but it may be a similar species or have a wider distribution than expected (or Wikipedia, and the numerous people who copied and pasted from Wikipedia, got it wrong) Thanks so much everyone!

I went spotlighting last night in the Te Henui stream which runs through New Plymouth. Started at the coast and followed the stream in for a couple of km. Didn't find huge numbers of anything, but there were various bullies, lots of whitebait (mostly banded or giant kokopu - small, non-spotty and yellowish despite being fresh-run), sparse eels, a single teeny cray and various shrimp. Mostly I wanted to find giant bullies. :happy1: Likely here because it was so close to the sea. Sadly I left my waders in Wanganui so I could only catch two without falling in. Fish 1. This was the most unperturbed fish I have EVER caught. It didn't even mind lying upsidedown! Definitely a BIG bully (14.5cm) but common bullies can get that big. The facial markings don't look particularly 'common' to me, but the flecks along the body look too vague to be a giant. Not sure on this one. Fish 2: 16cm. So much BULLY! Now here the body flecks are really clear, and the white spots on the lower half of the face are really strange, and the head seemed even more tapered (when it shut its mouth). This one I am pretty sure is a (medium-sized) giant bully :thup:

Remember the depth of the water is more important for lighting than the length. A deep tank will need more kickass lighting than a shallow one. Also a tank that is particularly wide (front to back) may need more lights across the width. Of course if it is pretty standard, then standard lighting should be fine

hehe the eyes are popping out because they are fake... it is taxidermied

Am staying at Cape Egmont (the most western-sticky-outy bit of the Taranaki coast) and met this guy who's cat brought in a fish so weird that he had to have it taxidermied. He assumed it was a freshwater fish, but it doesn't look like any freshwater fish I have ever seen. The spines on the upper corner of the gill covers look quite diagnostic, but google isn't being helpful.

LOL 'we' meaning more than just me ;P maybe something like we create an info sheet that can be distributed to petshops, get an article in the FNZAS magazine, get people to spread the word to other forums and gatherings of aquarists...

This is something that has bothered me for a long time now. Not only are they extremely difficult to care for in aquaria but they are a threatened native species. We need to start a campaign to inform as many petshops as we can about this. Also I doubt that fry food would be of much use for them, especially being all 'high protein' etc for fast fry growth, it wouldn't take into account the large algal component of their diet.

Whoops, yes the big one is a banded. Sorry Supasi, I was thinking of you but everything happened rather quickly. If you get this in time and can come tonight (Friday), drop me an email I agree about not really wanting to be in the area at night.... the kokopu are brave

had another fantastic day fishing. Lifted some traps in a small lake. 206 common bullies! And one single little smelt. One trap contained 64 bullies! There were very high numbers of fish with these parasitic worms. They were about an inch long and red, coiled up into a ball between the skin and muscle. Then last night we spotlighted a cruddy little stream at Castlecliff, Wanganui, as a local had reported seeing lots of what he thought were giant kokopu there. It was easy access but then steep sides to the stream, and I nearly fell in several times. Had to be hauled out of deep mud before I sunk in and permanently smelled like to Bog of Eternal Stench. Then we had to clear the duckweed off the top before we could stoplight. But we found: Now I realise I need to alter my Juvenile Kokopu Identification Techniques. Juvenile bandeds have vertical bands that are clearly outlined in the middle then fade out top and bottom OR EXTEND ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP AND BOTTOM OF THE BODY. This chap (and others I remember seeing) have crisp edges all the way around the amber stripes, like a giant kokopu, BUT a giant kokopu stripes do not that extend so far up and down. THEN: It was interesting, when this chap 'walked' he clearly wasn't just moving his spine sideways to walk like a lizard, he was actually lifting each 'foot' every time.

Well, it is the last week of our native fish surveying fieldwork :tears: It has been so much fun - many shortjaws, koaro, crays and a few eels. Rolling the ute down a 100m cliff was less fun, but still rather entertaining (still dealing with concussion side-effects, they suck). This week we are surveying for mudfish in the Waverley area, South Taranaki http://goo.gl/maps/2Gch Muddies are difficult critters. They live in wetlands, which are hard for us to crash through, and not so much in streams or pools as shallow muddy puddles. They are best found by trapping but it can be really difficult finding places that you can actually get traps in. They are also amazing because when the wetland dries up over summer they can wriggle under logs and down root holes and survive out of the water for several months, as long as they stay damp! Why survey for mudfish? They are pretty rare due to wetland drainage for agriculture. NZ has lost 95% of our wetlands :facepalm: Now, check out this distribution map of the brown mudfish: See that huge break in the distribution in the North Island between Hawera, Taranaki and the Rangitikei River? Today we are able to put an exciting new dot on the map filling in that gap a little!!! :thup: That dot looks like this: SQUEEEEEE!! MUDFISHY!!!! :happy1: This is the area he was found in: and the actual puddle: and the traps we use: They are like a hinaki/eel trap/cray pot with an inverted funnel so critters go in easily and find it difficult to get out again. These traps separate in the middle so you can release the critter. We don't bait them, it doesn't make a difference for most native fish. Let's see that fishy again: AWWWWWW!!! We also found: AND!!!!! Kakahi or freshwater mussel. These guys are also threatened. Pollution is a biggie but also due to poor recruitment: the juveniles are parasitic on the gills of fish for a brief period. Their preferred fish are in decline, so it gets harder for the juveniles to find a fish. One last time, back in the puddle he came from: :nfs:

oooh another native tank build thread! Looking forward to seeing your updates :happy2: :sick: envy about the tank size!

Steriods.

excellent result!!!! well done

:nfs: ok, as fairly quick-fire answers: 1. redfin female 2. Cran's male 3. tricky.... markings look Cran's, head shape doesn't, but it also doesn't look like a common bully profile either, and doesn't have the 'whiskers' of a common..... argh.... going Cran's. (Gobiomorphus buggeredifiknow) 4. common 5. Cran's female 6. common (same fish as in photo 4) 7. Cran's (maybe female) 8. upland male (oddly pale) 9. hard to tell, upland or Cran's male 10. Cran's male 11. turtle food (some of those were really challenging!! Not entirely sure)

bring it on! :spop: :cofn: :digH: :smln: (the book won't be ready till late next year)

looks very Cran's male-y to me :happy2: I have started writing the next nz freshwater fish fieldguide :sage: , so starting to :nilly: that I don't know enough about telling these critters apart, hit me with more tricky cases! It helps me learn :smln:

LOL yes bullies do change colour rather quickly! Does the male have a yellow anal fin? Only Cran's have that. Just looking in the Reed Fieldguide and am reminded that the orange spotting on uplands extends to the vertical yellow stripe at the base of their pectoral fins, making them unlikely to be uplands.

Ah cool, thanks guys. Does anyone know if there are any other wild populations?

Sorry I missed this one. Err..... now I err towards Cran's..... the boy actually looks like a dead ringer for one of my old Cran's boys: (he was feeling extra colourful that day) I think her spots are not orange enough or spotty enough to be upland..... damned vague fish (Note: the Author of this post reserves the right to change her mind at will.)