Milet Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Anyone know if your allowed to keep mudfish (http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/summary.aspx?id=33210) in aquariums and if you are, how hard they are to find? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 The Chch mudfish is pretty rare I think.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Nice link btw - It must be quite a new section to their site cause it wasn't there when I went looking about a year ago - I like this quote in the "Things you can do" section; "Avoid introducing other fish, such as trout" Haha!! So the Department of Conservation are telling the public that - and yet people still release them by the thousand to fish for each year... nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdspider Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 They're threatened, only found in a few places. Leave them alone, they don't need people catching them for pets, further declining their numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milet Posted June 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 lol fishy_t k then bdspider, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coelacanth Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 the Canterbury mudfish is seriously endangered and the other species are also becoming restricted in distribution through habitat destruction (drainage of swamps etc). I don't think they actually have legal protection, but aquarium-keepers going out and catching them isn't going to be doing the species any good. Leave them where they are. If you want native fish, get bullies, inanga etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milet Posted June 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 no worries coelacanth:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coelacanth Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 lol bdspider beat me to it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 If you want natives I think its best to stick to the whitebate sp. - beat the whitebaters (who eat them) to it and you won't be making much of a dent in the population! (Saw some Giant Kokopu's at Napier a few ago - awesome looking fish ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coelacanth Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 95% of whitebait are inanga. The other galaxiids almost miss the whitebait season so you need to get them beginning and end of season to try for something different (and then wait for them to grow up so you know what you've got!). There are some bully fry mixed in with whitebait as well quite often (blue-gills and others). Its lots of fun growing them up and seeing if there's a surprise in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Sounds like fun! Do they require a big tank to grow them out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coelacanth Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 depends how many you've got. Also they are still in migration mode, so any tiny gap in the lid and they'll be dead on the floor. They grow FAST!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 cool So how long does it take till you an identify them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 I'd definitely be keen to catch a load of whitebait and grow them out to see what is in there. Might be interesting to do an Aquarium World article to show people what's REALLY in the white bait fritters, aye? Milet - the website you gave was pretty self evident on if they're an allowed species or not - "Mudfish/kowaro are regarded as a taonga (treasured) species to iwi." - Maybe it's just cuz most of my neightbourhood is Maori, but that woulda told me something... "There are five species of mudfish all of which are threatened:" - yeah, threatened usually means 'don't touch' That said and done, what a cool fish! We have our very own Birchirs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Better than! Apparently when Europeans first arrived they used to dig them up in the potato fields by mistake - so they called them 'fish and chips'! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 The FISH is certainly with you fihyT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coelacanth Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 cool So how long does it take till you an identify them? not long. Maybe a month or less. The two commonest species, inanga and koaro are easily told apart. Feed them up and they grow like weeds. The fry themselves can be distinguished from one another but you need to know what to look for. There's actually only five species that make up the whitebait run (most galaxiids spend the whole life-cycle in freshwater). The fry of the giant kokopu mainly come upriver after the main season (and not really likely to find them on the east coast); banded kokopu make up a large part (relative to other non-inanga species) in some areas particularly in Oct/Nov; shortjaw kokopu minor part (and not in the east); koaro are common and widespread. Of the two commonest species, inanga are mid-water swimmers as adults while koaro are mainly bottom-dwellers. All the galaxiids and bullies mix well together in tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Yeah we've got lots of koaro around Upper Hutt, Awesome fish We get lots of dwarf galaxiids too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Okay, so who's taken the time to raise and try and breed some of these natives? I've read that the dwarf galaxiids live their entire life in cold water and thinking of giving them a go.We have some darn clean water in NZ and it's going to be tough getting them adjusted to aquarium conditions, but they should be sweet a generation or two down the line... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coelacanth Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 apart for the five I listed earlier, all the NZ galaxiids are thought to be solely freshwater fish, so any would be good candidates for captive-breeding attempts. I'd just go with whatever is found locally to you. Don't actually think it'd be that difficult. Might have to play around with simulating seasons or rains or whatever, but that's nothing new to catfish-breeders right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milet Posted June 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 What about putting them into a large pond/lake type thing? How well would that work as a breeding attempt? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Most of them like a bit of a current, well our locals do anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milet Posted June 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 hmmm...fountain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishy_t Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Haha! Maybe... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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