HandS Posted January 14, 2007 Report Share Posted January 14, 2007 As some of you would of read, Helen and I have started a native tank. It measures 76x40x36 and is filtered by a Fluval 3 internal filter. It has no lighting at the moment. Current occupants are 4 Freshwater cray's (hoping to rehome 2 of them), 2 suspected Crans Bullys, and 3 unidentified bullys They were all collected about 30 minutes west of Huntly on a farm where we were staying The creek Bullys in the wild I know it is hard to see but at the end of the red arrows is a cray, just seconds after the picture was taken it walked straight into the net Crans Bully back in the tank This Cray wasent going to let be get a pic of the others I will post pictures of the full tank and other fish as soon is i can get some decent one's.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 AWESOME!!!!!!!! I love the pic of the cray's head. That is so cool Looking forward to an overview pic of the whole tank! A quick look in my books, it could be a common or crans bully... don't know either of them too well. At least that narrows it down to two... So good to see others doing natives! :bounce: Stella Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HandS Posted January 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Thanks Stella, it is really hard to get a pic of the tank, it is very dark, and every time i try to use the flash, open the curtans or turn the light on, all i get is reflection off the glass the bully pictured above was the smallest of the 2 suspect carns, here is the largest one (note the size of the unidentified bully in the background) Unidentified bully Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Nice pics! The only trouble is I'm colour blind and it took me about 2 mins to find the red arrows! :oops: If you are want to try and identify your mystery bullies there is a really good native fish book you can get for only $15 from book shops - I think its called the Reed guide to NZ native fish... There is a hardback version for $40 but the soft is just as good! I know Whitcoulls always has it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 As of yesterday I now have both books :oops: I thought the bigger one was much bigger.... it is a bit more user-friendly, and it has several photos of each fish, and the little maps of the distributions is really useful. It has a bit more info at the start though I havent read it yet. If you can afford it, go for the bigger one. If you cant, the smaller one is still really good. www.reed.co.nz Stella Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Yeah... I'm a student! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PETEYPLECO Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Cool. Do you have a cooler? If so what / how? What water conditions do you have, PH, temp? Any plants? Substrate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted January 15, 2007 Report Share Posted January 15, 2007 Shane, I have just emailed a mate of mine, who just happens to be the writer of that article on the Taupo Mollies and this is what he says about your fish All look like Common Bullies to me. Gobiomorphus cotidianus So there you go, nystery solved for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raul Posted January 16, 2007 Report Share Posted January 16, 2007 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HandS Posted January 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2007 Cool. Do you have a cooler? If so what / how? What water conditions do you have, PH, temp? Any plants? Substrate? no cooler, but i am looking at making a glass frame, with mesh in the middle to keep the temp down..... ive been able to get it down to 22-23, but has been as high as 26. WAY to hot i know, but im hoping the mesh top with a fan would sort it out. Anyone know if i built 4-6 computer cooling fans into the lid extracting air would work??? PH 6.2 (due to 2 large pices of driftwood) Substrate is similar to bughtwater, but finer, with some slightly larger stones mixed through No plants, but there were some in the creek that i liked the look of Thanks for helping ID them Alan, i dont really mind what they are, it is just nice to know, they are great fish eather way Yes Raul i would love to get some red finned bully's, all in good time... i think i would like to get this temp problem under control first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HandS Posted January 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2007 Full tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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