Raul

whoooo, lets not through out this mystery just yet. Identifying bullies is sometimes seen as more of an art than a science and even the pros can have trouble... they could well be commons....but that one with the real blunt head in the 2nd lot of pictures looks like a male crans to me. ( but that is just my opinion) females also look different from males...males have blunter heads and females sharper, and quite often the females are quite plump looking. so i would say that smaller unidentified bully is a female but of which species i dont know. Commons, well at least diadromous (those that have migrated between the sea) commons have head pores. Crans have no head pores (as they are non-diadromous). so that can be a way of telling them apart. on a large bully (if you know what to look for) you can normally spot head pores if they are there. Get one of R. M McDowalls books to learn about head pores so you dont confuse them with nostrils or the other sensory pores found on the head. Of course the hole head pore issue is further confused as common bullies dont have to go to sea, and thus dont always have head pores, but these fish are normally found in lakes, ponds etc. i wonder if this has helped at all.... i say let them go and catch some redfins, redfin bullies are easy to identify. However, whatever you have, you should enjoy them. They’re probably even thinking about breeding (my uplands are always going at it, and they bred a day after I put them in the tank), so If you see a melanic (dark black) male guarding a rock he probably has a nest of eggs.

Yo, he needs darker, and more hiding places. always keep the lid on. i've seen small crays climb up the silcone joins in tanks. as to your high pH, i think it could be your choice of gravel, that stuff looks like its got an endless buffering capacity and will probably be keeping it around 8. but then you naturally find crays in waterways ranging from pH's 6 through to 8 so it could be sweet, although i would try for low to mid 7s.

Using a bit of seawater (around 5-10%) in your tank can help, reduces the chance of whitespot outbreaks and the like. Whitespot is the only problem i've had with newly caught fish, except for the odd jumper/climber. It can also be a good idea to collect a couple of buckets of water where you caught your fish and then use that in your tank, helps reduce any stress from changing to different water types. But whitebait are normally pretty hardy with changes in water conditions as they do swim from the ocean into freshwater. I did have quite a few deaths once, but it turned out what i thought was whitebait were in fact baby smelt, smelt are notoriously hard to keep alive through the catching and acclimating to the tank stage but once they have acclimated they're pretty hardy. Smelt whitebait swim differently from proper whitebait, smell like a cucumber, and also have an adipose fin.

Hi, The whitebait should take bloodworms and daphnia straight away and you should be able to wean them on to flake pretty quickly. It kind of depends what species of whitebait you have as to how easy they will be to feed, not all species get exited about flake food. eels do ok in tanks with other fish, but the general rule is the smaller the eel the better. bigger eels (12 cm +) are more likely to have a go at eating smaller fish and crayfish. You can keep crayfish and fish together successfully. However i've had a few crayfish disappear over time and i'm pretty sure it’s the eels. Crayfish may also occasionally catch a small fish. Keep an eye out for white spot, often the stress of capture will cause an outbreak in the first week or so. All the above animals are reasonable escape artists, especially when new to a tank so make you’re your lid is tight fitting.

It’s good to see some people being passionate about NZ native fish. Fish are often overlooked in conservation plans and the plight of native fish is virtually unknown to Joe Public. Whether the total banning of whitebaiting is the answer, I’m not really sure. It’s important to note that the whitebait run outside of the allowed fishing season so some only have to worry about being eaten by any number natural predators (are humans natural predators?). Of course I can’t argue that the huge catches of whitebait during the season aren’t having a negative impact. Habitat destruction is for me the key issue in regards to the decline in native fish. Many native species show strong correlations with native forest catchments. Where there’s no native forest there’s no native fish. When you hear figures, like 90 % of NZ wetlands have been drained, it’s no wonder the fish are in trouble. It’s some of the non-diadromous species (non- migratory e.g. not whitebait) that are the rarest fishes in NZ. There are some species whose distribution is limited to a single river/stream system. If something happens to that system the entire species could be lost… As to the fish that smells like cucumber, that’s the smelt (Retropinna retropinna). And it’s the same chemical compound that gives this fish the smell that gives the cucumber the smell. The wonders of evolution will never cease to amaze me. Trout, I won’t start about trout, it’ll get me all worked up and then I’ll never be able to get to sleep tonight…

Inanga is indeed whitebait and is the main species that get caught in the whitebait runs. Whitebait traditionally (and correctly) refers to the young of five species of Galaxias. Many other species can be caught while whitebaiting as NZ freshwater fish fauna is dominated by species that migrate between the sea and freshwater to complete parts of their lifecycle. Some, like the smelt (Retropinna sp), look superficially like Galaxias whitebait and probably often end up in patties. 90% of the whitebait caught are generally inanga, then the rest is mostly koaro and banded kökopu. Giant and short jaw kökopu make up less than 1% of the whitebait run. These are the ones that have a nationally threatened classification. A large number of inanga do die after spawning each year but some survive to spawn several times and survive for several years. Similarly if they don’t spawn (e.g. kept in a pond or a tank) they will survive several years. And remember, Native fish kick butt!

sounds like they might be inanga, a different species to the banded kokopu. but still a really cool fish, i used to have a few but they ate me out of house and home. do they look like this? this is one of my inanga that i used to have http://images1.snapfish.com/3479%3B%3C8 ... 3696nu0mrj

hey, i've tried putting the link in again. it seems to be too long. but if you copy the whole thing into your address bar it seems to work.

It's whitebait season again and if you're looking for something different for your tank i recommend you go fishing. here's one of my banded kokopu whitebait from last year all grown up. http://render2.snapfish.com/render2/is= ... 50,590,428

You can kind of tell by the way they move. Leeches have a sucker at each end of their body and reach out with one, stick on and then pull themselves up to it before reaching out again (kind of like one of those loopy caterpillars). If it's a flatworm they just kind of glide along like a slug. I think flatworms may also have a couple of eye spots.

I've found them pretty easy to keep, although they do normally slowly disappear during the year. This may coincide with their tankmates growing and or have something to do with their lifecycle. They are also likely to be more prone to predation after moulting which they do quite regularly. Feeding them is never a problem as they take all kinds of fish food. But i wouldn’t keep them with anything smaller than they are, especially if you're attached to it. While probably not among the top predators in our water ways who can pass up a tasty bite size snack. I don’t think they'll breed in the home aquarium. The eggs/larvae are washed out to sea where they spend some time growing and metamorphosing before migrating back into freshwater. Interestingly, they all start life as males and when they get larger they turn into females. If you're lucky you might observe a female carrying eggs under her abdomen but i think that’s about as far as reproduction will go in the tank. There is only one “freshwater†shrimp in NZ (Paratya curvirostris), but if you’re catching them from a stream that is quite close to the coast you might get some of the “saltwater†shrimp as well. These do ok for a while in freshwater but are probably more suited to a marine tank.

With a net, normally slightly bigger than the one you use in your fishtank. They can be tricky to catch, but if you know the habits of each species it makes it a bit easier. With a spotlight at night also makes it a bit easier..."they only come out at night" I don't think they're any harder to keep than tropical fish...but they might be a bit more work initially, being wild caught and all, but if you take into account the stress of capture and captivity and take steps to mediate that they normally do ok. And probably like any fish that you're trying to keep the more you know about it's natural environment and it's life style the more chance of success you're going to have. I should note that some of our natives are classed as threatened species and i wouldnt recommend attempting to catch or keep them...based on legal and not to mention conservation issues. I feed mine mostly frozen bloodworms, daphnia, mayflies and stoneflies, earthworms...theres even a few species that will readily take flake foods.

I'm currently running a 30 gal, i was thinking of adding 2 more...the problem is i already have a couple of bluegill bullies and they're benthic fish as well (hang out on the bottom). so if i add more bottom fish it might be getting a bit crowded down there. Crayfish are pretty cool, i've kept a few in my time, you have to be a bit careful with the fish you keep with them, sometimes they eat the fish and sometimes the fish eat them (especially if you're keeping eels). Bullies are sometimes ok but they'll all be competing for space on the bottom. heres a few more pics of some other natives i currently have or have had in the past. http://images.snapfish.com/34679566%3A% ... 8%3Bnu0mrj http://images.snapfish.com/34679566%3A% ... 8%3Cnu0mrj http://images.snapfish.com/34679566%3A% ... 3693nu0mrj http://images.snapfish.com/34679566%3A% ... 3694nu0mrj http://images.snapfish.com/34679566%3A% ... 3695nu0mrj http://images.snapfish.com/34679566%3A% ... 3696nu0mrj http://images.snapfish.com/34679566%3A% ... 3697nu0mrj

Hi Lynda, I've googled and there's a little bit of info but nothing about keeping them in aquaria, perhaps i'll just chance it and hope that they turn out to be the best of friends.

Is anyone keeping native fish at the moment? I have a torrent fish that has settled down well to tank life and am thinking about getting a few more...However, i have know idea if they get along with each other...So if you are or have ever kept torrent fish i would love to hear about it. thanks. http://images.snapfish.com/34679483%3B% ... 9824nu0mrj