Smelt (Retropinna)

[snorkelboy]

Is anyone keeping smelt in captivity here? I am considering capturing some and keeping them in a 300 liter tank that has a giant bully in it. What would they require?

[supasi]

A nice long tank as they are schooling fish. Need to keep a few to keep them happy. Also a way to keep the water temperature down in the middle of summer.

[Stella]

They can be very tricky in the initial phase. May roll over and die in your bucket as you catch them!

I hear the trick is to keep them *cold* during transport and be as organised as possible - tank fully set up, all steps along the way pre-planned.

It appears that if they survive the first night or two, they will keep on going. I know some DOC people who got a load of smelt (presumably for stocking somewhere) and a number died overnight, but the rest of the shipment survived being transported for many hours the next day.

And what Supasi said

[Stella]

(BTW, nice to see you back! How are those bullies of yours?)

[snorkelboy]

Thank you Super Simon, thank you Stella. I have a 1500mm X 500mm X 500mm quarantine tank setup in my freezing cold garage that has been running for a week now. The water is the same lake water that I'm planning on capturing the smelt from. Town supply here comes from the lake just off the main lakefront beach, so I'm hoping the change will not be to great for the smelt. Planning on getting a dozen or so. Spotlite and a scoop net hopefully will do the trick. Smelt were introduced into Lake Taupo about a hundred or so years ago to prop up a failing rainbow trout fishery. It sort of worked, and now smelt are the main food source for the trout. I have never kept them before and do not know very much about them at all. They do, it seems, gather in numbers at certain times of the year to spawn close to the shoreline. There life cycle I know nothing about. I wonder if any studies have been done on them at all? When rainbow trout were introduced they grew to tremendous sizes, rapidly, and the fishing for them quickly became world reknown. However it did not last, what they were feeding on, was soon exhausted and the trout became pathetic specimens. The trout were culled by netting in the millions in order to bring back a balance of sorts, but it was not successful. In the end, smelt were introduced in an attempt to restore a balance. Apparently this has worked. A interesting ecological balance has evolved in this lake that is completely man made! Trout running up rivers, spawning, dropping back to the lake, feeding on smelt. Smelt spawning along the lake edge. All very interesting. I cant help wonder what those early trout were feeding on that grew them to such tremendous sizes? Will keep you posted on the sucess or otherwise of the captive smelt program. Stella, the Giant Bully is doing great. A well loved fish indeed! Hopefully, the smelt will co-exist with him in a peacefull manner and the smelt will add a bit more interest to the tank.

[supasi]

Smelt should be fine with the Bully.

[Stella]

I wasn't sure of the status of smelt in Taupo so I checked up for you.

Apparently all native species (koaro, koura, common bullies) in the Taupo catchment belong to Ngati Tuwharetoa, but not the smelt, so you can take them.