Native collecting!

[supasi]

I love reading the fish collecting diaries in the old '83-'95 Tropical Fish Hobbiest Magazines i aquired a while back.

SO.....

I done my own more simplified version,LOL

Collecting Koura and Red Fin Bullies, 10 Kms north of Wanganui.

My brother who always comes with me on my little jaunts into the wilderness. :lol:

The stream is silt/papa rock/shellrock based.

The flow varies greatly with rainfall as typical of streams in the Wanganui area. At a guess, 30-40% of the year in flood.Grasses around stream flattened by flowing waters.

The Steel reinforcing in back gound is holding up an old part of state highway 4 (parapara road)

At first glance the stream looks bare of life, but with some staring and rock moving, lots of life is present

Cran's bullies!(As corrected by stella)

Nets were placed downstream from a chosen rock, and the rock is gently lifted and the current alowed to sweep any debri or aquatic life into the net.

.

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The tank

Quickly set up as trips was not really planned properly.

120 x 40 x40 with gravel, stones and driftwood

Koura

Cran's bullies!(As corrected by stella)

Well thats all for now.

Have added more rocks to accommodate the bullies.(gives them more hidey holes)

To Be Continued.........(possibly)

[Stella]

COOL! Thanks for posting this, it is great to see what other natives enthusiasts are up to! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

I regret to inform you that your redfin bullies are not redfin bullies The cool thing is it is something I have read about but not seen before (I will get to why later).

They do indeed have red in the fins, but I believe they are Cran's bullies!

Reason:

Male redfin bullies do not have a red stripe in their first dorsal, it is blue-green.

Redfin bullies have three very conspicuous diagonal lines on the cheeks (yes there is a hint of a diagonal line through the eye in your pic, but look in my photos of the redfins, the lines are really obvious and on the cheeks below the eye).

However Cran's bullies do have a red/orange stripe in the first dorsal (males), and on the cheeks they have kinda random spotting.

Now the reason I say Cran's on this fish rather than uplands, who also have the red/orange first dorsal and facial spotting, is that the uplands have really distinct SPOTS, compared to the slightly blobby and irregular pattern on the Cran's. Also the upland ones are slightly orangey.

(note there are peculiarities within species: the only uplands I have ever caught were from the Manawatu and have bright green dorsal stripes. I have seen ones caught in the Wairarapa that had yellow ones, the literature only ever says bright orange for uplands.)

Common bullies are also supposed to have the orangey dorsal stripe, but if they were commons there would not be the obvious spotting and the head would be much more tapered.

Now also the two photos (not sure if it is the same fish, I think it is) show a MALE Cran's. Only the males have the coloured dorsal stripe. Female will be similar but without any red/orange.

Why am I excited? I have two Cran's bullies, both female so never seen the colouration, and those are the only Cran's I have really seen. Not that they are rare or anything, just not seen where I usually go.

Adding to this huge reply... note the grammar:

uplands

commons

redfins

bluegills

giants

Cran's

Cran's bullies were first described(?) by a Mr Cransfield. It is capitalised becasue it is a name and apostrophised because it denotes possession. The other names are merely descriptive.

Cran's bullies and uplands are incredibly closely matched. They can be hard to tell apart at times, and the females of almost any bully are even harder to tell apart. The upland bully is like the southern counterpart of the Cran's, check out the distribution maps on the NIWA site http://www.niwa.cri.nz/rc/freshwater/fi ... eleotridae

(actually that is a perfect example of what a redfin bully is, when at its most obvious!)

Oh, and the fearsome bug is a dobsonfly larva. It wasn't titled so I don't know if you knew.

Again thanks for posting these pics, really cool I hope you are not embarrassed for getting the species wrong, this is how you learn. I have certainly been there done that, we all have

[supasi]

Im not embarrased one bit.

I had read that red fins have a disinct diagonal pattern on their face, which i didnt see on these.So there was a small amount of doubt on my behalf too. But the red fins really were the deciding factor in my naming.

Oh well, thats what the forum is perfect for.Learning!!!!!!

Cheers for the info though. Keep it coming if you want. I never get bored of reading bout unusual fish. Especially when i own some :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Dixon1990]

I might have to get some bullies once my tanks are sorted out lol.

WOuld 1 species be alright in a 40x20x20cm tank?

[Ianab]

Great you found a good spot. Small rocky streams like that, or even smaller seem to be ideal. I'm sure they live in the bigger streams too, but there is no way to catch them in a 6ft deep pool.

My stream is probably only 1/4 of that size, but still has a 3ft eel living in it, some Koura, and I guess I should take a torch down there and see what else comes out at night. 8)

Ian

[supasi]

Yeah there are plenty of eels in that stream too.

spent about ten mins chasing a biggish one.

heaps of small ones hiding amoung the rocks, but could never find any while i had the net in hand.(murphys law)

I am going to go back there some time this week at night with my spotlight and camera.

the only trouble is access at night is a bit dodgy. You have to climb down a ten metre slip to the stream.

[Stella]

Hi Dixon,

Should be ok in a tank that size. Just make sure you have decent filtration and cooling for summer.

I have recently got rid of my 2foot tanks, they were too small. Partly because I had too many fish and not enough (any?) filtration.

But a few small bullies in a tank that size should be fine Just remember plenty of places to hide and males can get aggressive.

[si_sphinx]

I catch big bullies over 10cm in our river down here in Manapouri.

I get a pin and bend the sharp end round like a hook and tie thread to it and put a wriggly earth worm on the end of the hook. I then lower it into the water where they come out from under the rocks and and they see the wriggling worm and they gulp it straight away and i rip it out of the water.

I'm not sure on the type of bullies they are, we always called them cocka bullies.

Me and my brother would catch heaps in 1/2 an hour and then let them go or put them in our mothers fish pond (and of coarse get told off for doing so. she didn't want them breeding in there).

They were a brown or black or grey in colour, always different.

the smallest 1s were easiest to catch. biggest were hardest which i suppose is y they are so big.

biggest we ever caught was around 12cm at a guess. I think he is still living under the same rock. for about 2-3yrs i alway looked when i went past and sometimes seen him sitting out in the sun

So much fun though

we couldn't keep them with the crays tho as the crays would eventually eat them

gave up on the crays tho as they kept crawling out of the tank, even with a lid on it, and found them halfway thru the house the next morning if the cat didn't get them.