Snorkel Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 This is a bully I caught last night in a slow moving local creek. Hard to measure but somewhere around 130mm in length. It was much bigger than the other bullies that were there, anyone know what it is and how big do they get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLB Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 My guess....Female Common Bully, Gobiomorphus cotidianus They get to around 100mm but have been known to 150mm + I say female because the males are stouter and have a blunter snout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snorkel Posted August 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Well done!!! Now that is a lovely example of a big COMMON BULLY. The reasons for this: Note the tapered head. It tapers from the front of the first dorsal right down to the snout. Other bullies have a much blunter profile, except the giant bully, who looks very similar. Why I say it is a common and not a giant is the number of spines in the first dorsal. It is not exact unfortunately, but giants 'always' have six spines and commons 'usually' have seven but 'occasionally' eight. (There are the odd exception to these rules.) I can count seven spines on your chap. I say 'chap' as the males are usually bigger and darker than females. On the other hand, the belly is kinda swollen, though it is probably a bit early still for that sort of thing. Confirmation would be is you see a coloured stripe on the outer edge of the first dorsal fin, probably orange. If it gets the stripe it is male. With the size, according to McDowall (you have to get at least one of his books if you want to learn to ID natives) for commons they often reach 10cm, and the biggest was nearly 16cm long. Giants often grow to over 15cm and have been recorded to 24cm. You have a really lovely specimen there. Take care of it, I have found big ones can be a little harder to adjust than little ones, but bullies are pretty cruisy anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 ah ha, you beat me to it! Will be interesting to see if it is male or female Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snorkel Posted August 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Thank you for that info. Very interesting. I'll give it the good treatment dont worry. Now to get Mc Dowell's good book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLB Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 ah ha, you beat me to it! Will be interesting to see if it is male or female :lol: It will be I was comparing Snorkels pic to McDowalls pic in 'Freshwater Fishes of New Zealand' I think McDowalls pic is of a male. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 The same photo is in his slightly bigger "New Zealand Freshwater Fishes" and it is indeed listed as a male. There is also a female there, with the tapered head like in Snorkel's photo. You might be on to something there.... I wish McDowall was a little more imaginative with his titles, it it easy to confuse them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snorkel Posted August 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Closer shot...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLB Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Nice pic and a cool looking fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supasi Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Don't we have some awesome underrated fish in this little country of ours! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Don't we have some awesome underrated fish in this little country of ours! Bingo! Interesting, this shot seems to show six spines in the first dorsal, the first one looked like seven to me. Snorkel, can you confirm? How is it doing? What is it up to? Had a go at any food yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snorkel Posted August 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 I can count 6 spines in the first dorsal. Definately 6, would be hard pressed to claim 7. The fish has settled in nicely, but has not started to feed yet. It was caught on Sat. night, so I'm not too worried yet. It is in a 300liter 1500x450x450 tank with approx 10 other much smaller bullies that have been in captivity for a week. The small bullies are all feeding well and are interesting, cute little fellas. I found them in in slow moving creek that drains a small local impoundment in a urban area here in Whakatane. The water quality is really bad, fouled by ducks, wild goldfish, road run-off, etc. Interestingly, out of the 10 bullies i caught, 3 had a mild case of ich! The big boy was found with its head very close to the surface and I positioned the scoop net ($5.00 wharehouse special) behind it slowly and I knelt down and gently touched it on the head which caused it to spin around and quickly take off.... straight into the waiting net! Anyway, it seems to be doing fine and has taken to captivity surprisingly well so far. I'll keep a close eye on it, try and get some decent pics, and keep ya all posted. Snorkel out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Sounds like everything is going well! I love how you caught it! Though that is a rather odd position for a bully to be in... Regarding the whitespot, I was talking with Preacher about something similar last night, have copied and pasted the appropriate part: "As I said, it is normal for wild fish to have a natural loading but it only causes problems if the animal is weakened or stressed, which tips the balance in favour of the parasite. I had a delivery of five large mudfish straight from the wild, each one had about five whitespots each. Amazingly, despite the stress of being captured, they fell off and were never seen again! A lot depends on the state of the critter. Sometimes only the one weakened fish who had its own personal issues gets sick, sometimes the lot are weakened and they all get it." Studies have been done on mate selection of bullies (uplands?). A heavy loading affects the females 'taste in men', while the males tend to avoid spawning with well-parasited females. Six spines and it could be a giant bully. They are not normally found far inland, I think Whakatane is on the coast, isn't it? What are the other bullies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snorkel Posted August 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Yes, said creek is just a couple of k's from the sea. Your a powerhouse of knowledge on these fish! I just gotta get clued up with a trip to the library soon as. A giant bully! Thats exactly what I thort it was when I first seen it! Haha. The others I'm not sure yet, but most likely "common", as thats what they are. About 50-60mm in length and real characters too! Two are darker, almost black, with a hint of a stripe on the dorsal. Imagine a 240mm bully..... just imagine that.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 I saw a photo once of a typical large giant bully caught at a 'local' beach. Imagine a young woman's hand. She is wearing a watch. The bully's nose is touching the watch and the tail is hanging over the ends of her fingertips! Oh I just remembered, giant bullies can wind up eating everything in the tank that is slightly smaller than themselves... keep an eye on him! (I have even heard from a reliable source of bullies eating whitebait longer than themselves! ) Stella McQueen, Powerhouse of Knowledge.... mwahahaha! I shall let that one go to my head It has been good writing this book, it has forced me to learn about all sorts of things I never would have otherwise. To be honest I first heard of native fish three years ago! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteS Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 Nice photos and nice fish. I do hope it is a giant bully. I have never seen them in the wild. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snorkel Posted August 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2008 Yep, it is "almost definately" a "giant" bully. I had my doubts at first, but since I got it on Sat night I've been watching it and can now say that is quite different to the common bullies it shares the tank with. It looks different to them, but more importantly it acts very different. It is quite the predator, the 3 gambusia and half dozen shrimp that were in there have dissapeared! It spends all day in its lair under a piece of wood, (interestingly it "dug" the sand out underneath the wood), and in the evening it comes out on the hunt. Earthworms dissapear down its throat at an alarming rate (hope the compost bin can keep up). Its got its normal colours now and is quite an impressive fish. The other bullies keep well clear of it, but so far I've seen no sign of aggression from it what-so-ever. Hurry up with that book Stella, I borrowed McDowell's book from the library and was surprised that it was the only one in there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.