preacher

I guess that depends on what you can find. Chances are it will be Inanga so I would imagine 4 or 5 would be quite comfortable with some Bullies. What sort of lighting/cover will the tank have will also determine what you want to put in. Koara, Banded and Giant Kokopu prefer lots of cover, where as Inanga are a midstream fish and used to a reasonable amount of light as long as they have plenty of underwater cover to hide under. You wouldn't want more than 1 or 2 Koara or Banded as they grow to to 20+cm, Giants even bigger. Aww Stella! You beat me too it P.

Thanks Stella, I'm glad they have the chiller installed. The fish looked pretty healthy to me when I went down so I presume someone's feeding them. But as a display I have to agree, its a huge let down. I was thinking of emailing them and offering to volunteer to do it up a bit better. Maybe even offer them some shrimp, I would have loved to see a little Koura in there too, but I can understand why they don't. Better yet, if they do allow you to do something about it (oh God PLEASE!), let me know. I would love to help out I am having fun watching my pond the last few nights, I have a very stroppy Koura at the moment. For the most part they seem to get on well with the fish, especially the goldfish (which are just as big or bigger than all but one). This little so n so though cuddles up to them, slides underneath and nips them. Its almost a game for it, the goldfish don't seem to care though. Mind you, I have to be careful going across the garden. My Southern Bell frogs are engaged in nuptials and I keep finding them all over the garden! P.

While at Zealandia I was browsing a book of 'Rare New Zealand animals.' It listed a creature called Tadpole Shrimp. I have never come across this before and it mentioned they were found in the South Island, Wairarapa and several other spots. Has anyone ever heard or seen this species? Is it actually a New Zealand Native? Not looking at anyone specific Stella... Peter

The Zealandia exhibit was free today for the Wellington region. We took the 2 kids (almost 5 and 16) for a walk. We had an awesome time, from seeing the rare Saddlebacks flying around us, to laughing at a comical Kaka which was having fun landing on peoples heads and exploring their hair. I of course was interested in their native fish setup... I was somewhat disappointed, it being little more than a tank about a metre long and about half a metre high, set out half way along a track totally exposed to the elements (I hate to think what the temperature was in there...). For 'nocturnal' fish they had no real shading from the daylight at all. It was essentially a bare tank with some gravel and 2 bits of drift wood. Nothing at all like the 'slow moving streams' which it the information board suggested they live in. Fish species consisted of a bunch of bullies and 2 Kokopu. The largest bully dwarfed everything else except the Kokopu being about 10cm long (I am assuming at that size it is a common). The next largest was a beautiful, and very black, male Crans? Hang on... how come he's black and hiding under the log? Oh, wait... Sure enough there's a large white patch under the log. Their bullies have spawned! Way cool The only Galaxidds listed on the information board were Inanga, Koara and Banded Kokopu for some reason. Though it mentioned Koara and Banded could be found upstream in the reserve. The 2 Kokopu in the tank could have been Inanga or Banded? They appeared to be about 10cm long and had a very prominent yellow/green stripe along the dorsal edge of their bodies. They looked very sorry for themselves, just sitting huddles in a corner and not doing anything. (Hardly surprising since they had no cover to hide behind.) Somehow I think they lack someone of 'expertise' in Native fish there. I give them a 6 out of 10, mainly for effort alone and the fact their Bullies spawned. But they could certainly do better. If you ever do come down to visit Stella I will take you along and you can give them a stern talking too! Peter

They have some amazing patterns don't they. I've seen red, orange, stripes, diamond shapes... Nature is so amazing. But please, photo's of your pond would be appreciated and the Crays if you can catch them without disturbing them too much. P.

The Bullies are from the Hutt River and the Koura from a local stream I know. P.

Thats the hope Stella, get things as close to the wild as possible and see these wonderful creatures breeding. Shame I can't legally put them back to 'restock' the wild though. That would be truly awesome. P.

I drained the little pond at the top of my little garden corner today. I was quite surprised by the amount of Crays and Bullies that were in there. 6 Crays and about 8 Bullies, I removed the larger fish and crays which were 6-8cm to the bottom pond. This was the largest by far, a good 8-10cm Koura. I found 2 partial shells too so they are obviously getting enough to eat! 2 of the bullies had clear pinkish red fins, so at least 2 males there. I believe they were all Crans. The largest Bullie I found was 6-7cm, I could have sworn there was a larger fish there but either I'm seeing things or it hid amazingly well... P.

Hehe, yup fast little critters aren't they. Goodness knows how many photo's I chucked in the trash on the PC. I just kept taking shot after shot after shot and sorted out the best ones. P.

I suspect it was probably carrying eggs when I caught it. None of the shrimp have been in the tub at the bottom of the garden for more than a couple of months. Some barely weeks. Awesome, great to hear on the Bullies. I called them Crans at first but changed my mind (doh!) I have a larger one that is definately a male (pinkish/red tip on the dorsal fins) but the picture was too fuzzy I thought they were Inanga, thats cool. They will be in the pond a year in December and all but 1 are roughly 12 cm long. Strangely the smaller is about half their size, not sure why its been in there as long as the others... There is a tiny Koura in there too, thought hes only slightly smaller than that Shrimp. I have the day off on Wed. I may be able to get some more shots then. P.

Thank you Hellen for letting me use your tank! It was a bit of a mission getting these, what started out as a simple catch and photo ended up with a Galaxidd jumping out the tank and a shrimp escaping into a pool of water at the bottom of the garden (I had to wait till I came home from work at 11:30pm to catch him). Lots of fun though! Heres a shrimp... What I assume to be an Inanga... And I believe a pair of Common Bullies... Which Stella has now identified as Crans Bullies! There were some photo's of a tiny 1.5cm Koura and a pink finned Crans Bully but they didn't turn out well. Shame. I have the day off Wednesday and I hope I can get some more for you. P.

Given the level of technology in 1877 its an amazing feat they were able to keep them alive for so long transporting them. I can't imagine those poor fish had any filtration, pumps, temperature compensation... Just stuck in some sort of water proof (you would hope!) container for weeks on end.... P.

Thanks Stella, nice to know how they compare P.

Awesome idea! Somehow though I don't think my wife would be very thrilled...

Sounds like a fun trip, definately agree with Stellas cry for photo's! Speaking of which that little inanga looks like my ones. I am borrowing a fish tank to try and get some proper photo's of my fish for you all. I discovered trying to use a pyrex bowl tends to distort the picture... doh! P.

Lol, mines not quite that dramatic. Its just plain greedy, all it does is grab it and jam as much in at once. P.

Pond... With all this rain tonight I have a lake. The pond was beginning to overflow earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if I have a 5yr old chasing fish across the garden in the morning. I KNOW those Galaxids can get out because I've found them half way down the garden in the leaf litter puddles before.

Maybe you could promote Kokopu as an ethical and environmentally safe pest control solution for homes Stella P.

I just use a $5 net from the warehouse... P.

Lol, I would hate to see it try to stuff itself with that monster! Mind you, given the way it grabs the ones I throw it I wouldn't be half surprised if it tried.

Typical Greens, "Whitebaiters nationwide were reporting declining catches, and there was no doubt pollution and irrigation was contributing to that." Oh right... so its nothing to do with the catch itself its all the farmers fault. I'm all for cleaning up our rivers and farming sector but idiots (personal opinion) like Russel Norman who try to gain brownie points by politicising problems like this don't help.

I saw my big cray in the pond tonight, patrolling slowly across the bottom. I picked up a slug and dropped it in, it landed just on its back legs... boy did it whip round and grab it! Straight into its mouth munch munch munch. I'm thinking I have a nice large supply of fresh protein for it...

Cool One day I will manage to get a small glass tank so I can catch one of mine and actually get a decent look at it lol (I suspect my wife would not be impressed if I put it in the glass kettle bowl just so I could take a peek). P.

So can we see the pictures... HINT HINT! P.

You lost the riffle tank! Oh Stella, those torrentfish were so cool. Visiting your place was a highlight just for that experience alone. What a terrible shame. I hope you can get one up and going again. P.