Going on a native hunt.

[Mikey]

So,

I am keen on all things native... I have got a tropical tank and thought it would be cool to do a native tank... Didn't know anything about NZ natives, so I starting looking on DoC websites, signed up to these forums... bought an awesome book (thanks Stella!) and have recently been doing some recon of my local area.

My idea is to try and work out what is around my area and then plan the tank around that... I'm really hoping there will be some crays kicking about, because that would be an awesome pet for vistors to get chatting about, but if not that's ok too

I was walking the dog the other day and I found this bit of stream which looks like it could be well suited to some form of life. I did peer into some pools and around the shallow areas, and saw some life there... problem was my fox terrier promptly leapt into said pool because he wanted to know what the fuss was about.

So here are some of the pics. I'll be going back there at some stage at night armed with light and camera and see what I can find under the surface. (and the dog is staying home!)

[blueether]

Looks promising, keep us in formed on how the spotlighting goes - with pics

[Stella]

Oh what a beautiful stream! :love:

Looks like a good spot for banded kokopu, and the streams up your way seem to have lots of them.

If you don't have any nets yet, check out the $2 shop or similar. Their butterfly nets can work really well. A long-handled net and the handle end of another net are my main spotlighting tools, after the spotlight of course. The trick is to put the net next to the fish then shoo it in with the handle.

Though I guess you have already read that in my book... Sweet, future posts shall consist of page references! :lol:

Go on, go tonight! :bounce:

[Mikey]

So last night I was driving home at about 9pm, and I realised I had a camera and my LED headlamp in the car... the weather was nice, so I decided to head down and visit the stream... and I had A LOT of fun down there... was there for about half an hour, started low, and worked my way up the stream. I was a little bit limited by where I could go due to the water level being higher than normal due to rain over previous days, however I managed to get where I wanted mostly.

It was awesome down there! :happy2: :happy1:

Few things I learned:

1.) My camera isn't the greatest, it is just a day to day average point and click digi... so next time I'm going to get my mate to come along with his expensive flash camera and get some really good pics!

2.) The stream is full of life... there was stuff everywhere! I got photos of some, others I took photos, but when I got home they were very blurry.

Photos:

Shrimp:

These guys were literally everywhere... there were hundreds of them, every single pool had shrimp cruising around...couple of the good pics, first one is a single shrimp that came up to say hi (you can see some others in the pic too), and the second is lots and lots of shrimp all chilling out.

At the edge of one of the deeper pools there were a lot of fish hooning around, problem was, they would skip away from the spot light and swim off, although they did zip down a very narrow flow going down some rocks, so when it comes to catching, I can put a net in that flow and scare them down into the flow and therefore the net... Could be Inanga? But really could be anything Galaxid I spose. Here is the two best photos I got... first one the fish is at the top centre of the photo, and second one is towards the left corner... like I say the fish were running off which made photos hard. (In both photos there are more shrimp around edges too)

Then came this guy... I was about to head back when I looked into a still part leading up to the mini waterfall and found the highlight of my night...a fish that was just sitting there, not moving giving me a chance to take heaps of photos with flash on, flash off, different angles of light...and here are the best three I recon... two without flash, and one with. Looking at Stella book... I'm not really sure what type of fish it is... I was thinking torrent fish, but the stream and patterns on the fish doesn't seem right?

There were some bullies in the lower part of the stream where I started out, however the photos I took were rubbish, so I need to go back and get more

So I headed back to the car, and found a cat using it's laser eyes (those two orange dots are the cats eyes) to try and zap me!!!

So in conclusion... I will definatley going back there and I'll be taking my mate/his camera down with me, and will see what I can get next time... I'll also take a something that I can take a water sample with so I can test the parameters, ph etc, and perhaps a net and a square jar so I can catch some stuff and put it in the jar for easier I.D and photos

Enjoy, comments and thoughts on the above are much appreciated!

[Stella]

That is a lot of shrimp! and I love the pic of the cat's eyes! :lol:

The big fish you couldn't identify is a bully of some sort. They can be confused with torrentfish when seen from above, but when you see a few more you will get used to the shapes.

The other one could indeed be a juvenile galaxiid or a smelt. These guys are SO fast and very hard to catch.

If they are in the midwater, I have found the trick is to hold the net flat (horizontal) and come up underneath the fish - they don't seem to notice the net so much that way.

Of course if it is very shallow or the fish is sitting fairly still, the usual trick of putting the net beside the fish and shooing it in with another net works well.

With using the jar for photos, also take a small towel or similar so you can dry it off, trying to take photos through a wet jar is hopeless, and tshirts are less absorbent than I thought...

Looks like you had a fabulous time :)

[Mikey]

Yeah I was blown away by the number of shrimp that were in there... I was expecting to see some... but they were everywhere I looked I saw the little orange/pink eyes reflecting back....

There were groups of them playing in the areas with higher flow, groups just hanging out, and others motoring around the edge of the pools... was actually pretty impressive to see them all.

I wonder if that is normal amount of shrimp for the area? Or whether due the full moon and full stream they were having secret meeting? I guess I will find out over time... I plan to go and visit this area many many times more in the future... mostly just to observe the area and the life in it and see how everything is going...

Thanks for the clarification on the bigger fish as well... I was sure it wasn't a torrentfish, but looking at it from top on it didn't look like a bullie... but now I have seem them from top it will make things easier...

Rain predicted for Auckland this weekend... so I guess it will stay full for a while longer yet... I might try go have another go at spotlighting this weekend weather depending and see if there are any eels or crays hiding away

[phoenix44]

wow. That is a lot of shrimp.

I would like a couple of dozen shrimp, but can't find any here.

[Mikey]

Well this stream is just up from a big estuary system, so I guess that helps in the shrimp production department. It's also another reason why I thought It would have native in it, because they can get to and from the salt water from here.

Didn't get back there over the weekend though... weather has been rather interesting to say the least!

This Thursday night is when I'm planning to go back... hopefully it isn't as full and churned up from the rainfall by then.

Will keep you all posted.

PS: I'm really hoping to find some Koura!

[Mikey]

**This is not the stream in above thread, this is another random little one that I thought I would share... I'll be going back to the above stream in the next few days and will provide an update and photos**

Well I was walking dog on Saturday and peering into streams as I went... wasnt expecting to see anything when I noticed this fish just sitting there... if you look closely it is sitting in centre of photo.

When I approached he took off under a rock... this little pool is just down from my house, so at 11pm that night it was hot muggy and I wanted to go for a walk... so I decided to go see if I could meet the fish and any other life... I got there, and it sat there for the whole time, so I got some great photos, once I finished taking photos, I put my hand in to try and touch fish... it moved away from my hand at a sedate pace, so I just left it alone. I believe it is a Banded Kokopu, and it is about 10cm long...

There were a few baby ones kicking around in the pool too, but I was getting eaten by mossies by this point so decided to travel downstream and see what else was around... if you don't like spiders look away now

I also found a small eel...

I found nothing else down stream at all... I'm not sure if it just because it is summer, but I was very surprised to find the fish where it is... it is a small pool, directly upstream is all orange and very cruddy, the water quality isn't the greatest (as you can see in the photos) and downstream there are parts which are dried out, and there is some pretty major obstacles... So I hope the eel and four fish I saw are all ok where they are. Hopefully come winter with good rains, everything gets a good wash out and "renewed".

So anyway.... that is some photos of a little pool near my house... like I said in top "disclaimer" there will be more photos of the big main stream coming soon

Cheers

[Stella]

Nice! Correct identification too 8) I love spotlighting kokopu, really nice to watch.

The spider is probably Dolomedes aquaticus, beautiful spiders.

You can get perfectly healthy streams that are orange and cruddy, but that it is dried up in places downstream doesn't sound great.

[Mikey]

Update:

So I went back to the stream on Saturday night to have a look. Was very full and water was a dirty mess due to heavy rain on Friday night... I didn't think the rain was that bad, but clearly I was wrong :facepalm:

So I couldn't see much at all, however around the edges of the pool I found some Bullies, a lot more Shrimp, a small fry fish and an eel... pics:

So I packed up and started walking home, then I remembered another stream nearby in another part of the bush so I thought I'd go check it out while I was out and about. The water was much clearer and I saw a bunch of Banded Kokopu, and then as I was walking along the top of a steep embankment I shone my torch into a pool below and noticed something take off backwards and start scurrying around... I found Koura! :happy1: :happy2:

I carefully got down the bank, and then took some photos, also got some video footage of one of the crays rearranging his home I noticed one of the mid size ones was missing a Chelae (pincer)... here are some pictures (and yes I removed the pump bottle) silly litter bugs!

First pic is the big guy (7-8cms) that I was videoing.

Second pic, look closely... there is camo cray!

Third and fourth are overview shots, where you can see a bunch of them chilling out, and the one missing a pincer.

So yeah, I am very happy to find Koura in the area... I am now working out whether I have enough room for another 3ft tank in the house, or whether to break down the tropical community into a smaller tank and convert the big one to NZ native... Koura charging around the bottom with some inanga schooling mid/high levels.

Do the pincer's grow back? My wife wants me to help out the one that is missing a pincer and move it into the native tank when I get it set up...

More to come in the future

Cheers

[preacher]

Fantastic photo's

Love those Koura, they are so cool.

P.

[ajbroome]

Mikey said...

> Do the pincer's grow back?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranephrops

"Koura use their Chelae for both attack and defence and when one limb is lost the Koura will divert energy for overall growth to restoring the lost limb."

So, yes. Generally after the next or subsequent sheds.

Andrew.

[Mikey]

Thanks for replying Andrew.

I found the same information you did.

Could be cool to collect the one armed Koura and pop it into an aquarium, then I could observe the growing back process first hand...

At this stage I'm leaning towards getting a chiller for the 180L tank I have currently (HFF have quoted between $300-$500 as a rough idea)... I think that might be the most fair on the animals.

Although I am doing some testing of other areas of the house where I might just buy a whole new tank and stand with the chiller as the new home for the Koura... decisions decisions...

More to come

[blueether]

You can get away without the chiller with just a desk fan pointing at the surface of the water, I can normally keep my 400l to 20deg or under (except when the humidity is up above 70-75%).

My natives are currently in 1/2 a wine cash on the back porch as the 400l decided to spring a leek when I rearranged the room. Outside temp is 31deg atm, water is at 23deg with no extra cooling.

[Insect Direct]

Sweet pics, nice to see so many Koura and shrimp together.

Koura and shrimp seem much more resilient especially towards high temp compared to that of native fish....(in my brief experience anyway)

I was looking for a water spider the other week, was poking a bit of grass in a hole (as you do) on the waters edge that i had seen a big spider go in. Anyway put grass in and something grabbed it, so i pulled it and out came a koura....pincer , silly thing held on so hard i ripped it clean off. the Koura is now in my tank and looking ok considering the limb missing

[Mikey]

as the 400l decided to spring a leek when I rearranged the room.

That's no good! Hope not too much of the 400L ended up on the floor and fix it job is coming along nicely.

Anyway put grass in and something grabbed it, so i pulled it and out came a koura....pincer , silly thing held on so hard i ripped it clean off. the Koura is now in my tank and looking ok considering the limb missing

So how did you get the Koura out of the hole? Put another piece of grass in there and pulled it out by it's good arm? Or did it come popping out with the grass on the intial pull

After much thought and discussion my wife and I have decided that I will break down the current 180L tropical tank and put our favourite occupants into a 60x30x30 that I have spare... I will only lose a school of Glolight tetra's and a couple of plants from this move... as I don't have the tank that heavily stocked at the moment and then I will set the 180L tank up for the Natives.

So watch this space for updates on the streams in my area, as I need to go gather rocks and gravel for Native tank, and I will continue to go spotlighting and getting photos in the future, and keep an eye out for a new tank build thread.

Cheers.

[blueether]

That's no good! Hope not too much of the 400L ended up on the floor and fix it job is coming along nicely.

Just curing atm. Was only a small dribble that was noticed before refilling the tank

[Insect Direct]

So how did you get the Koura out of the hole? Put another piece of grass in there and pulled it out by it's good arm? Or did it come popping out with the grass on the intial pull

Cheers.

i just pulled the rocks away from around the hole, it wasn't in a big solid rock or anything thankfully. No more grass for that koura Got the spider out too, was a bit surprised to see a koura and a good sized spider sharing a cave.

[Fruju]

Where is this site? Sounds like a good place to explore Lucas creek is pretty good too and a tributary slightly upstream have inanga and the sort there too.

[Mikey]

These sites are throughout Eskdale and Kaipatiki area...

There is a path which starts at the bottom of Eskdale road, it pretty much follows the stream right round to the Kaipatiki area... I have been walking dog in this area for a while and starting peering into the water... sometimes you have to go bush to follow the little streams that feed the main flow, and thats where the best sites are I'm finding

In other news, my mums place extends down into a great bush area with a stream running through it, and as I kid I used to spend hours down there playing and I remember seeing fish down there, so I was round there yesterday afternoon and thought I'd shoot down into the bush for a look... it has changed a bit down there and the stream is actually bigger and deeper now, and it is full of banded Kokopu. I'm thinking I'll head down there for my next spot light session

[Mikey]

Haven't visited my local streams for a while, so I went out over the weekend to see what was happening in the aquatic world.

I went and looked at a few different streams this time round, and was good spotting... night started off with an eel slowly cruising it's way up a stream, looked very graceful swimming along... I tried taking some video footage but it came out rubbish... here is a photo instead:

Then I travelled up stream and was finding A LOT of decent size Banded Kokopu (up to 15cms in some cases)... they were everywhere... problem was, the silly things would often startle with the spotlight and dart off, which stirred up the clay bottomed silty stuff which means I couldn't get any good pics or see anything else in the stream.

I continued upstream and found a shallow part and noticed quite a cool coloured Koura trying to hide under a stick... pity the stick was smaller than the Koura... So I took some photos, first two are it chilling out under it's stick, third one is it hiding under some fallen vegetation after I attempted to move it's stick to get a better photo... it shot off to play spot the Koura.

I continued to look into a lot of pools and streams and found another couple of pools where kokopu weren't stirring things up too badly so I was able to get some more photos:

Good thing is, there is plenty of life in the streams. I am happy to see bullies, shrimp, kokopu, eels and koura in abundance.

I have started construction of a 60x30x30 tank that will house a single Koura, thus far I have painted the back of the tank, and got a decent filter for it... need to go get some gravel and rocks from the streams, but that will all be shown and explained in the tank construction thread I will start later on with photos

Cheers.

[Stella]

Looks like a highly successful trip!

Apparently a red filter on your torch means you can sneak up on fish easier. I haven't tried it yet, but you could easily make one with some red cellophane or thin perspex or similar.