warrenp

I can't get a phone on the acclimitization society... google "new zealand acclimatization society" and you get 4 links, none with phone numbers or email addresses... Today I went up and down the creek a bit more. I saw quite a few dried trout fry and found another pool with some live ones including about a 25cm brown trout (whom I caught to look at then put back). I estimate there to be about 30 fry in this pond, but if it doesn't rain tomorrow I think this pond will also be dry and gone by Sunday. So if anyone would like me to rescue these fish for them, let me know quick!

What did they turn out to be? With me it was children who alerted me to the fish. I was busy trying to collect some cool water (slim chance) for my native tank and was ambushed by a group of children trying to catch the eels in the remaining mud of the big swimming hole downstream. We got to talking about native fish and bullies and so on and one burst out that there were loads of 'cockabullies' in a dried up pond further down, but that they had been unable to catch any with their empty chippies packets (not surprisingly). To which I promptly marched home for my net.

Well if I put them back I will surely get booked! (that is if DOC employees spend their summer workdays lounging on the net browsing aquarium hobbyist forums... ) See, it hasn't rained here for quite some time and it has also been very hot the last few days. The creek they came from has now mostly dehydrated back to only underground flow, and the tiny puddle that had these fish in it yesterday (already worse for weather then) has now dried up completely and turned the few remaining specimens I failed to net into the fish equivalent of beef jerky (i.e. sun-dried preserved fish meat, but barely enough for a fritter...). I think I rescued about 7 or 8... of which I'd be happy to give most away to good homes (aquariums). However, certainly not to someone who will go and plonk these fellas into free flowing NZ waterways for the benefit of their later fishing pleasure! Nature had it to end their evolutionary and ecological significance and I wouldn't be too pleased with myself knowing I were accessory to further tipping the scales in favor of introduced fish... (I mean would anyone here after having rescued a distressed ship only to find it crewed by possums willingly release the throng of herbivores into a Pittosporum patulum grove?)

Thanks Ira, 'Fry' was the word I was looking for last night. Apparently brook trout are only found on the volcanic plateau in the NI so I think these must be rainbow trout (brown trout fry look different having caught one years ago). No I won't tell DOC and risk a fine... It seems highly absurd... I mean if they were giant kokopu (somewhat endangered and uniquely native to NZ) I could've taken them home for my aquarium, but if I do the same with these globally populated introduced competitors to native fish (partially responsible for their declining numbers) I could get booked??? And what about whitebait being undersized?... I'd gladly ship them for cost but I don't think they'd make the journey (needing such high oxygenation). If anyone is passing by Featherston, feel free to pick some up. email warrenpreiss at gmail dot com.

I found loads of these in a dried up creek pond today in Featherston, Wairarapa, living with some tiny bullies and an eel. They are all small (about 4cm long). I imagine they are baby brook trout or something similar, but I can't find an identifying photo anywhere on the net... Any ideas anyone?

Yes! Great that there are a few of us! I began my obsession as an 10 year old who watched with awe (and unsuccessfully tried to catch) the scarily massive banded kokopu in the creek just down from where I lived (I'm reluctant to say where because there is still a sizable number of lovely big specimens living in the very same pond, and I'd hate to see someone like I was then catch them all!). Then as a young teenager I built a big tank from window glass under the house and I finally found a way to net those eerily big and ominous looking kokopu and so began my first native tank (to which I added crays, a koaro or two, an eel and so on). Then I was overseas in Europe (or on the move between NZ and Europe) from age 19 till pretty much now (32), and so only now am I able to again pursue my childhood obsession! ok, here is the picture of the upland bully with the blue tint round the gills. The ones I caught looked very similar, but I then assumed they were commons. http://www.gw.govt.nz/story10797.cfm Now I have to ask, how on earth did you find the mudfish in a roadside ditch?! Did you just have a feeling and pull over and there they were?, or was it hours of scrabling round ditches across the country? Did someone tip you off about them? I have been sloshing round muddy places in Upper Hutt and Wairarapa to as yet no avail... re. the five who 'arrived' last night... (Billy Connolly accent) Did they come gift wrapped or arrive in taxis? Where did you find the Bluegills? So you had a torrentfish once? Did you catch it in a torrent? Did it always hang round the torrent of the filter outflow? I've heard in another thread that the species most closely related to them is the blue cod! Fascinating... I would love to breed the rarest natives for other native enthusiasts round the country... I'm just aware that my darling isn't too keen on the house filling up with tanks... I'm not sure what will happen to be honest... I will have more questions soon no doubt but for now that is all I think... I await your book with anticipation!

Thanks for the invitation Stella! On the chance I'm up your way I will definitely take you up on it! Well I don't yet know how many species I have, as I've yet to identify my recently acquired whitebait (20 of whom I caught about 6 weeks ago). I assume they are mostly inanga (possibly a few dwarf inanga??), but I'd love it if one or two were koaro (or maybe even a giant kokopu if I should be so lucky!). I will let go any inanga out of this lot. So here's what I have: 4 little bullies which I imagine must all be common bullies (from two different small river tributaries in Upper Hutt and Wairarapa). One sizable male redfin bully who you kindly identified! (from a large stream in Kaitoki, Upper Hutt). I've had him about 3 months in a darkish tank and his original stream/river was semi shaded. One juvenile banded kokopu by the looks (as per photo) from a creek in Eastbourne. Two fully grown inanga from an inner city stream in Lower Hutt (the one behind the library). 20 whitebait of unknown species from the Ruamahanga river at Lake Ferry, Wairarapa. One little (15cm long) timid eel of unknown species from the Tauherenikau river in Wairarapa (of an unusually light brownish colour, almost as if it were an albino??) So if I'm lucky with the whitebait I might have 6 different native fish species... A pair of mudfish to breed would be a dream come true! As would a smelt or two, a torrentfish, a short-jawed kokopu, bluegill bully or a lamprey (no harm in dreaming is there?)... I have a few WCMM but I think they will have to go to new homes when/if I procure some more natives. I would like to get into breeding at some stage but I think I'll need yet another tank for this as I need the two tanks I have just to accomodate all the above (along with a few crays, two mussels, snails, worms etc)... Below is two photos of another one of my little (common?) bullies. What are your eight species? Oh, I just saw a picture of an upland bully with blue around the gill openings. Do you know if common bullies sometimes also have this blueish tint? If not, then I may have had a big upland bully once which I thought was another common bully and so put it back in the river.

Sofar no problems with the fish and this guy... Perhaps he is well into retirement and slowing down, thus unable to muster the speed necessary to surprise an agile young fish. Right now after feeding some mince, a little common (I assume) bully is running rings round him and feeding right beside him without apparent concern. The tank is 250L and 60cm high and most the small fish hang round the floating weeds well out of reach. I will keep him under observation and feed him up well so he hopefully needn't bother the fish... Nice photos Stella! I think I have a big Red-finned bully (going by all the red) but it looks a lot different from yours... I have noticed that the common bullies (I assume that is what they are) change color depending on their background (i.e, when I take them from the tank and put them in a white plastic container, they are dark at first but then go light in a few minutes). Do you think this one is just a differently colored Red-finned bully? And I assume the little one is a common bully?

I'm not sure if anyone here has seen a bigger one than this?? I caught him/her (no eggs so maybe a male?) today in a small culvert pond and it is now residing in the larger of my two mostly native tanks (with a few other smaller crays and various fish etc). To be honest I was too scared to measure it (i.e. go near it with my finger) before plonking it into the tank, so I'm only guessing the carapace to be about 4cm long, with head to tail measurement of maybe 12.5cm and 16-17cm including nippers. As you can see in the photo his nippers (one of which is deformed with what looks like a second pincer) are much wider than the 10mm glass of the tank. The 20c piece is probably half as far from the camera lens as he is so it won't be in proportion. Has anyone here ever kept a big koura? I will see how things go and if I start loosing minnows or whitebait/inanga then perhaps he will have to go back to from where he came... Does anyone know what the largest p. planifrons on record is?