Freshwater Sharks

[Sam Newman]

Hi. Does anybody here keep freshwater sharks?

[livingart]

if you are talking a true shark there are none in nz

freshwater sharks here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_shark

[Fruju]

yup, good fish, cheaps as chips :lol: and good looking, easy to keep.

[Sam Newman]

COOL 8) Link. Im supprizd there are none in NZ. Would have thought there would have been small ornamental ones.

[livingart]

there are ornamental tropical fish called sharks

a bala or silver shark

you could always do natives

[Sam Newman]

Very nice collection. My friend has a couple of Bala sharks. They are prejjy. Like your eel and Kokopo. There are lots of friendly natives in my river. I feed the Kokopo cecadars with a wing pulled off. Impressive to watch them gulp it up. Up in the swamp by where Im camping there are eels the size of a dog. 5 times as big as your 1. They straighten a snapper hook. You could never lift it. A 57pound eel was caught there but there are much bigger 1s that that up there too. I think they are beautiful. How hard is it to get a licence to sell eels?

[livingart]

the big ones are all females that haven't gone to sea to spawn yet

maybe 60+ years old

[phoenix44]

why do you want to sell eels?

are you going to breed them?

[livingart]

why do you want to sell eels?

are you going to breed them?

maybe he is that good a possum hunter they are getting scarce :happy1:

needs a new income now

sad to see people catching the big eels as these large ones are the future of the species which is under threat in most parts of the country

[phoenix44]

That's exactly why I asked.

Not impressed at all. Pick a wild animal that is threatened and sell it to make a quick buck. Zero effort, zero initiative, and hope to reap rewards that were never intended to be yours.

Total downer I know but it's absolutely unethical in my opinion.

[Nymox]

I think there should be a max size on fish too, with fish such as snapper the huge females produce far more young then the pan sized. It would be one way to help sustain the populations. I think the eels should be the same, minimum and maximum size limits, in fact many species.

Sports fishermen won't like it much though, its all about size, but tag and release is working well for other species.

[Stella]

Not impressed at all. Pick a wild animal that is threatened and sell it to make a quick buck. Zero effort, zero initiative, and hope to reap rewards that were never intended to be yours.

Total downer I know but it's absolutely unethical in my opinion.

Absolutely wholeheartedly agree.

The native eel populations are crashing in a major way due to commercial fishing. They are a quota species but the quota has only been caught once in one region. They just can't find enough to catch so the catch rate has been plummeting since the 1970s.

Exporting our native wildlife to countries that have already driven their eels to the brink of extinction.

:an!gry

[Fruju]

^^Thats a big eel LA, is it at yours?

[livingart]

it was returned to the stream system as it wanted to go to sea

have shut down a lot of the big tanks in ready for the move

[Sophia]

I have been a fisher-wo-man and I admit I have never caught a snapper over 42cm, but it pains me to see them catch the big old snappers on those fishing shows - yes it's a big trophy fish, but it seems unnecessary unless you and your family really are starving and are going to eat it all for tea that night. I think there should be an upper limit size too

[Sam Newman]

I don't believe how you guys could get it SO wrong! :facepalm: The eels I am talking about are bigger than me. They are SWAMP TANIWHA'S. They have such a slow heart rate and metabolism that they don't eat much. They will never go out to sea to breed. They are retired, you could say. They stay in the swamp holes permenently and some may be over 120yrs old. Much different to snapper. I feel priveliged to be one of the only people to have ever seen an eel so big. To clear it up, I would never kill one and I would never sell eels for meat. I was only interested in selling small eels to people who wanted to keep them in an aquarium. I spend my whole life helping the environment. I actively take part in conservation work in our waterways and I am looking after one of the biggest wetlands in the North. Looking after native species including Teal duck and Scaup. Trapping and shooting pests including Possums, Rats, Stoats and Ferral Cats I am one of the only two rep's in the Far North for the Waterfowl Rescue. Nursing sick or injured Ducks, Swans, Parradise Shelduck, Turkeys, Pheasants etc and reliesing them back into the wild. I police bushlines to ensure nobody shoots Kereru or out of season birds and I am actively taking part in Kiwi recovery. I have a natural affinity with nature and wild animals have made friends with me everywhere I go. Please don't give me a hard time for asking questions. Thanx

[livingart]

we sometimes tend to judge people by the way they post :oops: :oops:

do you know k evans

nice work by the way

if you had introduced yourself like that at the start Sam no one would have passed a judgement on you

most on here care about the hobby and our environment we live in, especially our native flora and fauna

as most of your posts have been about keeping illegal stuff people have made assumptions based on that

so don't be too hard on us

[Sam Newman]

I understand that Mark. Im just being myself. I was only asking about koi etc because I was interested if people had special licences to keep them. No hard feelings from me. :love:

[livingart]

[Ira]

we sometimes tend to judge people by the way they post :oops: :oops:

do you know k evans

nice work by the way

if you had introduced yourself like that at the start Sam no one would have passed a judgement on you

most on here care about the hobby and our environment we live in, especially our native flora and fauna

as most of your posts have been about keeping illegal stuff people have made assumptions based on that

so don't be too hard on us

Like for one I'd have thought you were about 15 or 16.

[Sam Newman]

It is human nature to judge people. If you ask me a question, I am happy to answeser str8 up. LOVE THE GROUP HUG SMILY.

[Sam Newman]

Havnt had a lot to do with Keven. Hes more in the Hokianga area. Does a lot of DOC work.

[Fruju]

Where are you moving to L.A?

[Carlos & Siran]

We're hoping to the north....at least that was the rumor

[Sam Newman]

Come up Carlos and Siron. Okaihau is cool, but we have both coasts and bush. 8)