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Hi from New Zealand!

Started by Guest_NZstella_* , Jan 01 2009 08:39 PM

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12 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_NZstella_*

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Posted 01 January 2009 - 08:39 PM

Hello!

As the title suggests, I am from New Zealand. I am rather obsessed with our native fish, so much so I am writing a book on keeping NZ native freshwater fish. I have not been keeping them for very long (maybe three or so years?) and there is almost no information out there about them.

You guys are so very lucky to have this association! There is nothing like that in NZ. Our national Aquarium Society has just recently added a native fish section to their forum (mostly from me harping on about them all the time!), but you guys have a whole FORUM to yourselves!

Hopefully when my book comes out there will be a whole lot more interest, and there seems to be a lot more people discovering our native fish anyway.

It is amazing how some fish look so similar despite being continents apart! Your darters look so much like our bullies!! I have attached a photo of a male redfin bully (the females don't have the red). There are five or six species of bully. Really active and interesting in the aquarium. The redfin is without doubt the most colourful of our native fish.

If you are interested in seeing more photos of NZ fish I have some here: www.picasaweb.google.com/nznativefish

Looking forward to trawling the threads here

Stella

#2 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 01 January 2009 - 08:58 PM

Welcome. I thought there was a native fish association for Australia and New Zealand? Or perhaps it was just Australia.

#3 Guest_sandtiger_*

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Posted 01 January 2009 - 09:10 PM

Welcome to the forum, that bully really does look a lot like our darters. I browsed through some of your photographs, NZ looks like it has a lot of really interesting fish. Welcome to the site and hope to see you around.

#4 Guest_teleost_*

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Posted 01 January 2009 - 09:38 PM

I'll bet you dislike salmonid introduction more than we do!
I also looked through your images and I think it's pretty cool your darter equal are Gobiidae and that Kokopu are Galaxiidae! Get a forum going and I'll have a few questions :biggrin:

#5 Guest_NZstella_*

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Posted 01 January 2009 - 09:56 PM

Ashtonmj: yes there is a decent Australia native fish group. There used to be a NZ native fish group that seemed to go quite strongly for a number of years, but it seems personality issues ended it

Sandtiger: I was stunned when I first saw photos of your darters! So familiar! I think ours are stockier in the front of the body, and much less colourful. Mostly our native fish ARE little brown fish...
I think we have something like 35+ freshwater species, '+' because they keep finding more and more galaxiids in the South Island, mostly ones that look so similar to koaro that they were presumed to be that, until people started playing with DNA....

Teleost: Trout are a blight on our waterways! Or so says I..... a lot of fishermen disagree. Would you believe our (govt) Department of Conservation is also charged with looking after the salmonids!
What do you mean about the Gobiidae and Galaxiidae?
Gobiidae comes from some goby.... the giant bully is Gobiomorphus gobioides
Galaxiidae comes from the circles and crescents littering the giant kokopu. Ironically its full name is Galaxias argenteus. Argenteus is 'silver' and these fish have gold speckles on a brown background.... no silver in sight! Perhaps the guy who named them was having a Bad Latin day?

#6 Guest_sandtiger_*

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Posted 01 January 2009 - 10:07 PM

are a blight on our waterways! Or so says I..... a lot of fishermen disagree. Would you believe our (govt) Department of Conservation is also charged with looking after the salmonids!

Our government is also charged with looking after salmonids, granted we have a lot of native species but some like the brown trout aren't and others have been transplanted to parts of the continent they weren't previously native to. Western rainbow trout now live in the east, Eastern brook trout now live in the west and Atlantic salmon live in the Pacific. Its a mess.

#7 Guest_rjmtx_*

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Posted 01 January 2009 - 11:16 PM

Cool stuff. I really enjoyed your album; it's refreshing to see some new fish every once in a while. Also refreshing to see someone else who appreciates what they have in their own backyard.

#8 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 02 January 2009 - 01:02 AM

Those fish are very cool. It is quite interesting indeed to see so many similarities between fish so far from each other. I hope you enjoy our ramblings

#9 Guest_NZstella_*

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Posted 02 January 2009 - 08:31 PM

I was just poking through some articles on the NANFA site and found this one on the Johnny darter spawning: http://www.nanfa.org...nnydarter.shtml

Our bullies do exactly the same!

The male establishes a territory under a rock and goes a velvety black (he can change back to normal colouration very quickly, only uses the black for display) and the coloured stripe on the outer edge of the first dorsal becomes very prominent.
Eventually a ripe female approves and lays her eggs on the ceiling of the cave. The female goes pale yellow when she is laying.
The male defends the next and fans the eggs until they hatch, after this he has nothing more to do with them (or eats them...).

Very very very similar!

#10 Guest_Ouassous_*

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Posted 04 January 2009 - 12:08 PM

Do you have any experience with NZ freshwater shrimp, Paratya curvirostris?

#11 Guest_edbihary_*

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Posted 04 January 2009 - 12:42 PM

I particularly like the torrentfish!

#12 Guest_NZstella_*

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Posted 06 January 2009 - 02:40 AM

The shrimp are cute. You find them in streams near the sea. THeir eyes glow orange when you shine a torch on the water! They are only little, 2-3cm long, and not really coloured. As you may know but probably others don't, they are the only species in the world that use 'protandry' (meaning roughly 'first male'). Basically first the shrimp are fertile males, then they grow up to be fertile females!

They can be incredibly hardy sometimes.... I put some in my kokopu tank as food. Fish paid no attention. One was seen now and then. Then the kokopu got a really nasty disease and I threw the medicine cabinet at it. Afterwards (without the fish) I gave it some massive waterchanges, stirred up all the gravel to get the mulm out in preparation for moving house. Yesterday was moving day and the tank was nearly empty.... and out popped the shrimp!

Edbihary: Torrentfish rock! I love them, really really neat wee fish. They are so streamlined and actively seek out extremely fast flowing water (ie sitting right in front of a 3500lt/ph pump....). THey are very sensitive to raised temperatures, low oxygen and poor water quality.
Common and widespread but never seenin the wild due to living in such tumbly water.