Heir Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 Smelt is a small silvery fish found in most lakes and waterways throughout NZ and Australia for those who don't know Now I'm just curious has anyone attempted to keep them in aquariums and how do they fair?? And what species are they compatable with as they are quite easy to catch :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 I didn't know they were also in Australia! Just looked on one of my books.... they are but not sure if it is the same species or not. Shall have to look further I have not kept smelt and keep tossing up whether to put them in my book or not. I think I am going to have to put in a brief bit at least. The problem I have with keeping them is the roll over and die at the faintest suggestion of stress. Thus to keep them you may wind up killing a whole lot in the process. I caught some in mixed school of inanga and smelt recently, first time I had seen them properly. (I will upload a photo later). They look identical to inanga from above (in a bucket) but side on (in a net) are obviously deeper, scaled, have a forked tail and a brilliant pale purple sheen along the body. While looking at them I noticed they were stressing heaps already and some were beginning to roll. Some may have died after releasing them.... They are just that sensitive to stress. All I know is they make a good aquarium fish provided you can adjust them without killing them. The trip home is probably the worst bit. I have heard of people doing this successfully in a small portable fridge thing that plugs into the car cigarette lighter! (brilliant idea for any native fish!). At a guess I would make sure they were in a tank away from too much scary external movement or vibration. No idea about habitat, they are shoalling mid-stream fish so I suspect hiding is irrelevant, but they might when stressed like that.... From what I saw they would be at least compatible with inanga. If I tried keeping them I think I would have the tank blacked out for the first while, and definitely be able to keep them cool (catch in winter?). Oh, and make sure the catching location was as close to home as practical! But yes, apparently they are very nice in aquariums...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted February 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 They're also in north america but I don't think they're in the same family. The australian ones are from memory. We have two kinds here but I don't have the foggiest how to tell them apart I knew they sensitive to pollution etc but didn't know they stressed so easy! So thanks for that will keep that in mind when i capture some! I'm hoping you can find them in McLaren's Lake in Tauranga. I've only ever seen them in Lake Taupo when i was snorkling about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 Their is lots in Taupo. They are really hard to catch because they are REALLY REALLY fast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted February 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 Their is lots in Taupo. They are really hard to catch because they are REALLY REALLY fast Thats why you use those cheap plastic bait catchers and traps. I've caught them using a bread bag! They're not the sharpest fish in the lake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snookie Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 http://www.niwa.cri.nz/rc/freshwater/fi ... mmon_smelt 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted February 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 http://www.niwa.cri.nz/rc/freshwater/fishatlas/species/common_smelt 8) ....... cucumber smell?? did u read that? lol how bizzare Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snookie Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 do they taste like cucumber ? :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 They really do smell of cucumber, we could smell it in the bucket, so weird! Not sure about the taste..... I think they also get mixed in with whitebait and are considered a less desirable fish. (Bullies and torrentfish have similar lifecycles and are often caught by whitebaiters. I think bullies are supposed to be gritty to eat or something...) The common smelt is found all over the show, and stokell's smelt is found along the canterbury area of the south island (though common smelt are also found there. The name has nothing to do with the smell, it is from and Anglo-Saxon word meaning smooth and shiny. They have been introduced into many lakes etc as trout food. The stupid thing is at the time there was no evidence whatsoever that trout actually ate them. There was also little recording as to whether smelt were there already or where the introducees came from. Thanks for making me learn more about these little fish! Smelt caught with a school of inanga. The shiny scaled ones are smelt. The unscaled ones are inanga. It is actually hard to tell which is which here (apart from the two main shiny ones), but I know some were inanga... Smelt. Note scales, bluish sheen, forked tail and dorsal/anal fins being much further up the body than inanga. (for comparison a few of my inanga photos are here, not particularly great ones: http://picasaweb.google.com/nznativefish/Inanga Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaNs Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 I think its illegal to remove them from Lake Taupo........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 mmm, true, my brain is shutting down tonight, but at least the crayfish and probably the native fish belong to the iwi. I can't remember. Ironic, given that the smelt were (probably) not there originally, and were put there to feed trout... but no one knew if trout actually ate them before they were introduced.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajbroome Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 Stella said... > They really do smell of cucumber... They do. My job is 'flavour chemistry' within the dairy industry. I was with Stella as the fish mentioned were caught. They do smell of cucumber. The chemical involved, I'd bet, is nonadienal (either the 2,4 or the 2,6 version). I bet I could work it out given a sample of water they were kept in (I'm leaning towards 2,6-nonadienal - the 2,6 di-unsatuated C9 aldehyde for any organic chemists). Interestingly, I remember as a child (from a family sourced from the East Coast of the North Island, specifically Gisborne and environs) that cucumber was called 'inanga'... Not the same as Galaxias maculatus but the two (ie smelt and G. maculatus) occur together at least sometimes... Andrew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 yay, someone geekier than me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaNs Posted February 17, 2008 Report Share Posted February 17, 2008 Stella said... > They really do smell of cucumber... They do. My job is 'flavour chemistry' within the dairy industry. I was with Stella as the fish mentioned were caught. They do smell of cucumber. The chemical involved, I'd bet, is nonadienal (either the 2,4 or the 2,6 version). I bet I could work it out given a sample of water they were kept in (I'm leaning towards 2,6-nonadienal - the 2,6 di-unsatuated C9 aldehyde for any organic chemists). Interestingly, I remember as a child (from a family sourced from the East Coast of the North Island, specifically Gisborne and environs) that cucumber was called 'inanga'... Not the same as Galaxias maculatus but the two (ie smelt and G. maculatus) occur together at least sometimes... Andrew. LOL Use the quote button them you can be uber geek Interesting non the less Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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