preacher

Hi museeumchick I can't say I have had problems between my Koura, shrimp and Bullies. Having said that they are all in a pond and have plenty of space to roam. I often see the Koura out at night with the odd shrimp or bully hanging round and the Koura seem very uninterested, possibly they have more than enough to eat that they don't need to hunt. White spot wiped out my first bunch of fish, but I think that was more of a combination of temperature (being mid to late summer) and ignorance. P.

Especially if you never look. I wonder what other nooks and crannies are around? I will let you know when I decide to go, I want the weather to dry up a touch and get a bit warmer first. Plus have the time to persuade my wife to let me go play with a girl... in the bush... at night.... ALONE!!!! Bring on Summer and let the hunts begin P.

Its in Porirua if your happy to travel that far. The beach is a nice low slope into the sea and theres lots of marine life in the rocks. I have seen shrimp, bullies (or similar type), crabs, snails.... When we went last summer there was a small shoal of fish swimming around in the shallows that we chased.

Sounds like you lot had heaps of fun. Now that spring is around the corner hopefully the weather will start to dry up again. I was out having a walk in the bush up near a dam near my place the other day. I found a small 'track' that came off the regular path and followed it out of interest as I know theres a stream that flows into the dam at the back. Theres supposably Kokopu, Trout and eels in the dam although I have only seen eels and trout downstream. I was very pleased to see the 'track' went all the way around to the back of the dam and came out at the streams entrance. It was just starting to get a bit dusky at 5pm so i turned around and headed back followed by a bellbird singing away. The light was just right to see into the shallows and I did see 2 large fish chasing each other on the surface. Too far away to see anything that might have defined what they were... I sooooo need a pair of binoculars! When the weather has improved I will take my torches and head back around one night and see what I can see P.

I did notice a couple of the adult inanga I had in the pond jumping out the water at the shallow end onto the polythene liner and then jumping back in. That was before they all died off from the dreaded white spot They certainly seemed to enjoy jumping out the bucket so I dont know how effective different compartments would be at seperating them! P.

I assume you went on the spotting trip What was it like, did you see anything? Catch any Taniwha this time? P.

I hope the weathers good for you all, sounds like a whole heap of fun P.

Sounds perfect Stella, how many LED's is it and what did it cost? Is it one of the rechargeable ones? P.

Stella your tanks should be named a national treasure and tourist attraction, they are so awesome. I was so grateful to get a lift up there a few weekends back for the tank crawl. A once in a lifetime opportunity and they were awesome. I only hope one day you get a bigger place and lots more tanks to join them. P.

Your the best. No, under the torchlight it wasn't black, the usual light brown/grey. Maybe a female spawning? I know we caught a pregnant one on our last spotlight, I wasn't sure I had brought it home though. I notice its there one day, gone the next, then back again. I haven't noticed any other bullies under hiding under rocks like this one has been. P.

another late night look and the bullies still under that same rock... How long does it take for bullies to hatch? P.

Hey dude Theres lots of freshwater shrimp around. With the weather so bad at the moment the streams and river are a bit too full and fast. I have found them in the Hutt River in Upper Hutt as well as on the back of Silverstream Wier. Mine are surviving fine in my pond. Where abouts in L/Hutt are you? Which stream are you looking in? Peter

Hi all I drained my pond a bit yesterday after all the heavy rain weve had the last month. Since the waters been so deep and murky of late its been hard to spot anything other than one Koura who has made a home under large rock, and lots of shrimp. I was very pleased to see, a second Koura patrolling some rocks, lots of shrimp and a few bullies. Im not sure, but I think I spotted a 3rd Koura duck back quickly. What interested me was a small tail poking out from under a large rock, I thought at first it was a shrimp. A closer look and it was more like a fish, so I gently brushed a stick against it and a Bullie shot out and sat in front of the entrance. It just sat there staring at the stick. All the other Bullies were swimming around in the open, which makes me wonder what it was up too under that rock... The Bullies all seem very healthy, no signs of disease that I could spot. They are beautifully patterened (its a bit hard to tell in the dark with a torch) but appear to had a light stripe across the base of their pectoral? fins (the swimming ones). P.

The Hutt river is full of Bullies, red fin, blue gill, common... not sure about some of the others. Again, low and slow seems to be their preference so now is not really the time to go looking for them. Wait until some fine weathers coming up and the river drops a bit. Often when it drops you find small pools under overhanging trees and small bullies that are trapped. P.

Its amazing where you find these little guys, look in your local 'native' streams at night. Low and slow streams with lots of rocks and vegetation. I would wait a while for the weather to calm down a bit though as the streams are all really full and fast flowing at the moment which makes it hard to spot them. There are several spots in the Hutt Valley where they have been found up near Belmont Park. Peter

Do you mean trout? I thought it was protected, that was why you got prosecuted for taking them without a licence. Or do you mean something else? P.

I love telling people about my night time fishing trips down the river. It is a wonderful opportunity to tell them about native fish, and the stupidity of laws that allow me to be prosecuted for taking a trout, but yet I could take all the native fish I want and walk away..... It is so stupid that any other species of creature, from insect to bird is protected but not your beautiful native aquatics. Peter Upper Hutt

Hi there samstylez, I have caught a bunch in the Hutt River. If you want to know where email me and we can meet up one night. [email protected] Theres 2 spots up near me in Upper Hutt and 1 spot in Silverstream. If you are interested in crays too, I know a couple of spots for them too. Peter

Keep looking, its amazing where you find them. I spent weeks looking in streams and culvits going into the Hutt River. But I think I was too close to the river itself. When I went further back upstream I found a couple. I went back the other night to where I caught one little fella, the ppol is less than 1m x 30cm and barely a finger length deep. I found 7 in that one pool and thats just what I saw. 3 were bigger than 5cm and the biggest had eggs. I also found them in a pool of another small stream further up the road. Small pools full of loose rocks seems to be a local favourite. P.

Well there's certainly plenty of rocks and wood to hide under, I have found several excavations but nothing home. So it sounds like their territory isnt that big, that would make sense. Theres certainly enough to eat in there, lots of algae, dead leaves, and dead slugs/worms.

My 3 seem to have settled in, though I don't see them much in my 3x2m pond. Every so often I go out at night and shine the torch in and see 1. The 7cm and 5cm I have are a lovely dark green and usually blend right with the algae. Last night I spotted the we 3cm one which is a light brown almost white, he was crawling up from bottom of the deepest part to the shallows with a few shrimp 'buzzing' him. Does anyone know what sort of territory these guys have? As I found 2 of these quite close together in the stream I assume it's not very big.

Hehe, that would be awesome. I have noticed you might be doing a fish hunt later in the year... I might have to save up and book some leave . I dare say I would be due a few days off about then. Found 3 Koura the otherday but haven't seen them since I put them in the pond (lol), hope they haven't escaped! Peter

Oh heck, I thought that was next wednesday? I hope so cos I am working this week in the evenings till 11. Peter

I went up to Belmont park in Lower Hutt tonight after I finished work at the hospital. I had to go quite a ways upstream, but I was thrilled to find my first Koura. It was sat on the edge of the stream in a shallow and didnt even move when I put my net right next to it. He's about 7cm long and dark black/green. I found 2 smaller ones too, 1 same colour but about 5cm and a white one about 3cm. Peter

Damned bad luck, especially since I didn't recognise it or find out what it was until I got onto here. I had 120 fish and shrimp, but the white spot got a nasty hold before I realised what I was dealing with and started treating it. I have lost almost 50 fish so far, I expect I will lose a lot more yet. Oh well, we live and learn. It's strange, with all the goldfish and ponds we have had over the years I have never encountered this before. I am looking forward to the coming meeting of the Upper Hutt Society, I hope to learn a lot Peter