Hi. Does anyone know the leagalities on keeping Inanga (common whitebait) as pets in a tank? What kind of set up is required for them to be happy and healthy? Cheers. Sam. :happy1:

If you get caught catching them out of season don't call them white bait Have a read of this http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=49106

Legal to keep them, there is a section on here about keeping natives in aquarium, have a good browse through it.

They like cooler water ie under 20deg, might be hare to do that up north. My native tank has a fan on it all the time to try and keep it cool.

They also like shoaling, and mive very fast so a long tank is best.

See here for more of my natives, on Flickr

Thanks Charles. I will check that out fully before I set anything up. I LOVE how they move fast. I just finished a small fry up of them and freshwater shrimp rolled in flour. I had them in a bucket for 24hrs and they were all swimming around fine, exept for the one that I accadently squished a bit when I was seperating the baby bullys to let go. There are heaps of Inanga in our river as noone catches them here. I keep it quiet to keep it that way. I think I can keep the temp down but do you know if I will need to run a pump all the time, or could I just turn it on for an hr a day? CHEERS. 8)

If the fish were in a big enough tank (low stocking) then no filter could work, just water changes.

The problem with only running a filter for an hour a day is that the bacteria wont establish/survive, and they do all the real work in a filter.

Sorry to come in on the bacteria side but if a filter was turned off for around 3 hours every 24 would the bacteria survive ok? Also what if the filter was run for 6 hours a day would that be sufficient, I am working on a similar thing at the moment and am unsure on how much to have my filter on for the purpose of the bacteria. thanks

With filters as small as 4-6watts i dont see any reasoning for turning it off, lack of oxygen is what will kill the bacteria so even a small filter or pump would be sufficient to maintain at least a small amount of bacteria.

one of the local native keepers here lives with no power

he has the tank set up outside in a shady area with good airflow

he has 2 200 litre containers as a header tank

he fills these once a week and slowly lets it trickle through the tank for a period each day

collects rain water as well in the tanks with an overflow for excess

has now setup a generator and pump to pump up to the header tank when needed

has been running for 18 months no problems so far

8) cool. Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm thinking, I might make part of my little creak into more of a natural place the natives would like to be, feed them up and encourage them to stay. I may look into a trickle system in the future. 8)

I have priced out a little 12v pump, costs $25 and an airstone is $2, so I will buy them next week. I have scored an old bath tub that I was thinking of putting in the shade with some mesh over it. I thought a bath would be good as it is long, easy to clean and I would imagine that the cast iron would help keep a consistant cool temperature. I will keep you posted. Do you think that Koura would be able to climb out of a bath?

It is 33.5C outside and my cast iron bath water is sitting at 27C in full sun.

Another option is to dig a hole and sink the bath as far as possible below ground level. That will keep the water cooler too - as will the shade you say you will have.

I filled a large plastic water trough (about 5ft diameter) an hour ago and its temp is already up to 19C.

Another option is to dig a hole and sink the bath as far as possible below ground level. That will keep the water cooler too - as will the shade you say you will have.

Thanks for the advice. Wow! Thats hot for down south. I will defnatly sink the bath into the ground then. I don't want to cook these fish. :lol: I will check that I have the temp right before I put anything in there. How many Inanga would you think is a good amount for a bath tub, without overcrouding?

CHEERS.

koura won't climb out of a smooth sided bath

but can climb on plants and if bath is full to the brim climb out then

watch for over flowing in heavy rain

you could drill bath below the rim and attach an over flow with strainer to stop inhabitants escaping

cast iron rewires slow drilling with heaps of grunt

number of fish will be dependant on how clean you keep the water

water changes and moderate feeding

had my eels and kokopu etc in this

Drilling holes is a good idea. I am trying to find a way to run a pipe upstream to run constantly into the bath. The only trouble is my stream doesn't have much fall, so I may need a longer pipe or place my bath below my waterfall. This is tricky to find a suitable place out of the flood level. I can't see how it would work without the flowing water. Im hoping to keep a couple of Koura, a dozen shrimp, a small school of Banded Kokopo, and a few Common Bully, Bluegilled Bully and Black Bully fish.

Whyle I was collecting a few freshwater shrimp from the stream, I caught a big Common Bully. I put it in my container with the shrimp. I planned on admiring him and putting him back afterwards. When I went to check him out, he was gone. It wasn't until lunchtime when I found the poor thing laying in the sun on the carpet at the back of my mates 4X4. When I picked him up, to my surprise, he was still well and truely alive. So I put him into a bucket of water and let him go back in the pool where he came from. They are touf little fellers! I'm impressed.

same,my glass ell spent the night out off the tank,coming along now though..

Had a cray of mine do that once. Startled mum finding this thing crawling down the hallway. After travelling over the carpet it was spikey AND furry.