Fish tanks part of the furniture

[phoenix44]

Go on Stella, tell us more ahahha

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/features/5313963/Fish-tanks-part-of-the-furniture

While most little girls were squealing with disgust at the thought of going anywhere near creepy crawlies or slimy fish, a young Stella McQueen was fascinated, with jars of mosquito larvae and fish tanks littering her room.

Now 31, the Massey University student and native fish expert is using her skills and knowledge to help the Department of Conservation by collecting native fish for projects in the North Island, while she studies ecology.

Miss McQueen caught 60 dwarf galaxias fish in Hawke's Bay to contribute to the new freshwater aquarium in Turangi that opened in March.

The $750,000 Turangi National Freshwater Aquarium held nearly all the North Island's native freshwater fish species within 10 tanks.

The threatened dwarf galaxias, small freshwater fish that grow to about five centimetres, were taken to the aquarium earlier this month.

Miss McQueen said it was an amazing opportunity to work on the project.

"It was such an exciting project to be involved in. It was so big and so different from anything else," she said. "Some of the species have never been shown in live display before."

She also provided the expertise on native fish for the project, and spent much of February inside giant fish tanks, creating habitats.

Miss McQueen's obsession with native fish began as a child and found her returning to university to study freshwater ecology.

"I've just always been interested in things that live in water," she said.

She has already written a book on native freshwater fish species, a project which came about by accident. "I got interested in the native fish and found there was no information on how to look after them.

"Being an obsessive researcher, I obsessively researched, and it expanded into a book."

She said people did not know a lot about New Zealand's freshwater fish, and the massive depletion of the country's wetlands meant that 60 per cent of native fish were threatened.

She started to keep fish in her Palmerston North home about five years ago.

"I've had some insane numbers of fish here at different times," she said. "I think I had 10 tanks going at once."

Her home is a sprawling tribute to native fish.

A tank dominates the living room and a side room is home to three more tanks that are filled with native fish of every description.

She was aware she had a unique obsession. Compared with tropical fish, most native New Zealand fish seemed dull to the outsider.

"They're small, brown, nocturnal and they hide a lot," she laughed.

"I just find them fascinating. Their behaviours are really cool. The shapes are just so different."

She sourced her fish locally and unlike exotic coloured fish from afar, these ones could be collected on the cheap. She often went spotlighting at Turitea Stream, where she captured fish in a net.

"It's just fun, going fishing. It's great," she said.

"It's the luck of the draw what you'll catch."

- Manawatu Standard