preacher

Today...

I can't find any older photo's at the moment, one of the problems of CD's lol. January 09...

I so have to update the photo's of my pond now P.

Will do Aquila, do you prefer email or phone?

Thanks friends, they have had a fair bit of water changes recently and I wondered if it had washed in from there. There were some new arrivals, but with the heat maybe I put them in too quick. Oh well, such is life. I didn't have the camera with me when I saw the crays so sorry, no picks. Though your right my big female was carrying eggs late last year, I hadn't seen her in a while. Funnily enough my bullies that I had in the tank in the house all died too, but I have noticed little babies in there also. There are mountain minnows in there, so it will be interesting to see if/what they grow into. The tank got a bit warm for them I think

Hey all, what a lovely start to the year. Hot sunny days, awesome times down at the beach exploring rock pools with the 5yr old. And then you come home to find your fish in the pond looking like salt... I thought some of them looked a little odd. Where on earth the white spot has come from I don't know, but so far its taken 2 big inanga and all my bullies. However, draining the pond to catch the fish I did make some wonderful discoveries. Tiny baby fish and even better tiny baby crayfish! Not sure if the fish are baby goldfish or bullies, but the crays are so tiny! Barely a cm long as they crawl through the mud. Oh well, hopefully I don't lose anymore fish.... Still the pond could do with a breather for a while too.

How big is the tank and how warm is it going to get? 2 big Koura usually mean one ends up lunch unless theres ALOT of room and places to hide. As I understand it they are detritus feeders, algae and plant matter for energy, protein for growth. I have fed my Koura in the pond raw chicken and beef and it doesn't last long! I've seen Koura scoop up chunks half their size and RUN! for their cave. So funny to watch. P.

Too late... and I haven't even read it yet! P.

Ooooh please! That's something I have been thinking about for quite a while. Unfortunately there is no access to the opposite side of the weir so it is near impossible for me to see what its like that side. Given the river rarely floods above the level of the weir (I have no idea why it is even there... I assume its something to do with flood management.) It must be very difficult for the fish to pass upstream. I wait with baited breath for your idea... P.

Hey all, I had the wonderful pleasure of hosting NZ's best kept secret to a spot I know on the Hutt River the other evening. It was a great night with lots of fish and shrimp around, and even a few small eels to boot. In all our excitement I forgot to take photo's though, I don't know if Stella got any. So I went back last night for another round. If I remember correctly Stella identified : Adult Inanga Baby Inanaga Baby Koaro Smelt Shrimp Short fin Eels Common Bullies I can't remember if we spotted a Crans that night? and evil of evils... baby trout. Here's some shots I grabbed last night. Shrimp... Baby Koaro (about 30-35mm long) Stella, do you remember I asked you a question about a year ago. I had some Galaxidds sitting out the water on a piece of wood... Here's 2 that were sitting on a rock at the river. And an Eel that was trying to get up the falls. Peter

No, the tank isn't dirty at all. Probably because of the sand on top of it. The bark did turn the water into a rich tea colour for a while though A few water changes sorted that out.

I have a tank with 10 shrimp and 4 bullies, I just use ordinary tap water. I haven't had a problem. Temp can spike to 25 and I feed tropical fish flake to mine. No heating or cooling and a single pump. The tank is set up with garden soil, topped with river sand and coloured stones from the Warehouse. Some plastic plants (all I have at the mo) and some left over bark slabs at the back from the firewood. They have been ticking along for about 2 weeks now. I add fresh water every few days. I've not had a tank before so this is something of a learning experience for me. I am adding some mountain minnows tomorrow, see how they do too. P.

Evil Trout... Roughly 60-70cm (Guessing, its no puny baby for sure). I've seen it lurking in the same spot 2 different nights. I'm wondering if its lying in wait for the baby galaxidds that are swarming the area at the moment. P.

Lol, Stella I just had this lovely vision of you starring down a microscope trying to attatch a GPS device to the back of a shrimp so you could track it! Thinking about it, if Shrimp do migrate back and forth to the river mouth to breed that would have to be one of natures truly great journeys given how far inland they can be found. I've seen Shrimp with eggs and young in the river where I am at Totora Park, thats around 30km from the river mouth. I can see it would be fairly easy for them to get downstream (ie drift with the flow), but thats a huge journey back home for such a small creature. P.

Not necessarily a Giant Bully, its not unusual for a common bully to be over 12cm, specimens of 15cm have been seen. The only real difference between the 2 species is the Giant has 6 spines in its Dorsal fin, the Common, 7 so it's almost impossible to tell without close examination. P.

Hi Jaimec, if your willing to come out to the Hutt I can show you where to get some. Any plans on the night of the 13/14th November? Peter

Awesome! Im free Stella, I'm working this weekend but the following I'm all yours. I hope the weathers nice for it, I would also love to show you my Koura stream re growing Wetland. I was up there last night with the loppers cutting what I believe to be Blackberry... I counted about 6 - 8 large crays in the main pool where the waterfall comes to the valley floor The stream has diverted around the rocky wall rather than into the ground and if I am right has formed quite a large water feature on the valley floor. I noticed the Koura have started to spread out from their stream into the pool itself so hopefully it will become a permanent feature. Pity the fish can't get to it, it would probably make an ideal environment for the mudfish. Ron, your more than welcome to join us if your free. There are lots of baby Galaxidds around at the moment, I caught a few the other day and I am seeing lots of gravid bullies around so hopefully I will see some fry in the river soon. If you can't make it, we can always catch some for you and deliver them. How many are you looking at? 10? 15? The ones I have seen are 3-4cm long and about the size of a toothpick.

Awesome, I can't wait. Just in time for Christmas too... I feel a desperate phone call to the in-laws coming lol. P.

I'm thinking about the membership thing for the family Ron, Karori makes a great place to go for a family day out. I would also love to go on the night tour one day, mind you I would mostly be interested in the waterways lol.

I love it! Gutsy little fish, typical Kiwi.

Thanks Ron, uh one point. It's HE not she, the male turns black and guards the nest while she goes off partying. Kind of like Kiwi's I guess, doesn't the male sit on the egg... hehe. Shame we don't know when they were spawned, otherwise Stella might have been able to give you the heads up on when to expect them to hatch. Oh Stella!!! What sort of time frame are we looking at for Crans? Its 2 weeks since I was there. P.

Lol, I love it Stella. That feisty lil fellow looks like it could take on the ~60cm trout I saw in the Hutt River last night. Awesome P.

Hi Ron How are your bullie eggs? Did they hatch? I can understand you face many issues with such an exhibit, as you can see Stella and I are some what passionate about our native fish. Have you considered low level lighting of your tank and using a blind screen of some kind that people duck under to see the fish to reduce the natural light as much as possible? Stella and I have no issue with the tank itself, it seems to be well maintained. For I it was the presentation that disappointed me. Having observed these species both in the wild and captive in my ponds, day and night, I can appreciate your wanting to present the fish as best as possible. Though typically nocturnal, I have noted that Inanga can be quite active during the day, albeit ducking from weed/surface cover to cover. Fixing some fern fronds on one side of the top of the tank might just give them the cover they need to be a bit more active. In open water they duck in and out of the rocks on the bottom and try to hide if they can't swim away. That explains why they hid behind the rocks in the corners. Inanga are midstream schoolers, where as I understand Banded and Koara are loners who like to hide in slow, covered streams. If you want some more Galaxidds, let me know. I can take you to a spot in the Hutt River that I often see them schooling in October - December, Bullies too. I know several spots for Koura in the Hutt Valley, so their no problem. Also have you considered native freshwater muscles and shrimp in your tank as algae/filter feeders, it won't solve your algae problem but it might help and it gives you some more species to boost your diversity. The shrimp are certainly very active little critters and the fish won't bother them. I am more than willing to help out in any way I can. Peter

I knew you would be able to answer the question Stella

I would contact MAF and enquire first, as Stella pointed out back in 2005 they were seized. But at the time their new organism status was undetermined. It would be interesting to know if MAF have since made a determination on that status. P.