# Native, fresh water fish.



## Australis (Jan 30, 2008)

Does anyone here keep Australian native fresh water fish?
( i dont mean PNG/LFS ones either )

Here are a couple based on one creek locality.

Anyone keeping _Glossamia sp_ - *Mouth almighty*?














Should of wiped the outside of the tank first.. oh well.









Er.


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## IsK67 (Jan 30, 2008)

Being totally ignorant of these things...What size are these? Do they get to an edible size?

oh and Thanks for sharing.

IsK


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## froglet (Jan 30, 2008)

Love the gudgeon, is it a putple spotted?

Had two of those in with my cichlids when i still ahd my tank running


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## Tsubakai (Jan 30, 2008)

I've got a purple-spotted gudgeon (bought from the LFS though). Pretty cool fish


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## CGSwans (Jan 30, 2008)

I don't keep fish, but one day I'd love to have a big, multi-species enclosure for a freshwater croc, pig-nosed and northern snapping turtles and some freshwater tropical fish, such as lungfish, barramundi, perch and eels.

Sigh. Maybe one day some of these dreams will become real...


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 30, 2008)

we have a murray cod, sleepy cod, Jade perch, and yellow eel-tailed cat fish. Dan really wants a lung fish but they are expensive nad hard to get


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## Pinkenbah (Jan 30, 2008)

Yes I keep fish. Nice photos. What locality did they come from?


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## kwaka_80 (Jan 30, 2008)

pppfftttt my cichlid tank will own all of our native fish...


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## Pinkenbah (Jan 30, 2008)

I saw a lung fish for sale at Cairns Ultimate Aquarium the other day. Not sure on price, but would hazard a guess at around $1500.


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 30, 2008)

no cichlids will own my fish 

hahaah my jade perch will smash your oscars


dan


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## CGSwans (Jan 30, 2008)

Pinkenbah said:


> I saw a lung fish for sale at Cairns Ultimate Aquarium the other day. Not sure on price, but would hazard a guess at around $1500.



About $500 according to this article - http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23002311-3044,00.html

www.ceratodus.com


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## Australis (Jan 30, 2008)

kwaka_80 said:


> pppfftttt my cichlid tank will own all of our native fish...



Well, you havnt seen many native fish then.

Exotic fish are rubbish, anyone who says
otherwise is wrong.


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 30, 2008)

sleepy cod

and my 4ft murry cod tank


had these fish for two years and both were less then 5cm when we got them


dan





i have better fotos some were theses dont do them justice


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## Pinkenbah (Jan 30, 2008)

CGSwans said:


> About $500 according to this article - http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23002311-3044,00.html
> 
> www.ceratodus.com



Young = $500 according to the article. The one I saw was about 400mm.


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 30, 2008)

thats one fish id love to own 

ill just have to wait till i have the money

last time i saw these on the net thay said thay wont be available for another five years 

but this is good news 



what other aussie fish do u have there Australis 
what size tanks do u own


cheers dan


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## CGSwans (Jan 30, 2008)

Pinkenbah said:


> Young = $500 according to the article. The one I saw was about 400mm.



Ah, fair enough.

Still, going by the article it would appear that the breeders want out. It might be worth buying a couple of young soonish if they're on your list.


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 30, 2008)

any1 on here keep perch?????


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## wicked reptiles (Jan 30, 2008)

I keep Barramundi, they are awesome!


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## expansa1 (Jan 30, 2008)

CGSwans said:


> I don't keep fish, but one day I'd love to have a big, multi-species enclosure for a freshwater croc, pig-nosed and northern snapping turtles and some freshwater tropical fish, such as lungfish, barramundi, perch and eels.
> 
> Sigh. Maybe one day some of these dreams will become real...



I wouldn't be keeping Pig-nosed with other turtles. They can be extremely aggressive
to other turtles especially as sub-adults and adults. Someone we know had an adult rugosa torn apart by a Pig-nosed turtle (which was much smaller than the rugosa) while he was at work.

We have a 10,000 litre tank that has native fish that breed in there. We have rainbows (Crimson spotted-M.duboulayi), large Empire gudgeons, Eel-tailed Catfish, Purple spotted Gudgeons, Olive Perchlets(glass fish) and Fly specked Hardy Heads. The tank also has Irwin's turtles (which are the best looking snapping turtles in Australia), Eastern snake-necked turtles and Macleay River turtles. Mr Spike just recently had a dive in it and hand fed the turtles which is my favourite past-time. The water is crystal clear with a sand and river rock substrate with lots of logs for the turtles and fish to hide amongst.
Expansa1


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## herptrader (Jan 30, 2008)

Lungfish even have morphs ;-) http://www.ceratodus.com/special.html

We have a native black brim in our turtle pond. We think we have a sole survivor of about 6 we put in a number of years back.


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## Magpie (Jan 30, 2008)

I've kept mouth almighty (very briefly  )


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## CGSwans (Jan 30, 2008)

expansa1 said:


> I wouldn't be keeping Pig-nosed with other turtles. They can be extremely aggressive
> to other turtles especially as sub-adults and adults. Someone we know had an adult rugosa torn apart by a Pig-nosed turtle (which was much smaller than the rugosa) while he was at work.



Fair enough then.



> We have a 10,000 litre tank that has native fish that breed in there. We have rainbows (Crimson spotted-M.duboulayi), large Empire gudgeons, Eel-tailed Catfish, Purple spotted Gudgeons, Olive Perchlets(glass fish) and Fly specked Hardy Heads. The tank also has Irwin's turtles (which are the best looking snapping turtles in Australia), Eastern snake-necked turtles and Macleay River turtles. Mr Spike just recently had a dive in it and hand fed the turtles which is my favourite past-time. The water is crystal clear with a sand and river rock substrate with lots of logs for the turtles and fish to hide amongst.
> Expansa1



That's awesome. 10,000 litres. :shock: Do you have a camera?


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## expansa1 (Jan 30, 2008)

CGSwans said:


> Fair enough then.
> 
> 
> 
> That's awesome. 10,000 litres. :shock: Do you have a camera?



Yes I have a camera.


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## CGSwans (Jan 30, 2008)

Hmm. Perhaps I'll be a little more forward. Want to post some pics?


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## expansa1 (Jan 30, 2008)

CGSwans said:


> Hmm. Perhaps I'll be a little more forward. Want to post some pics?



Sorry, you'll have to give me a few minutes. I'll go take some.


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 30, 2008)

lol whats that saying

pics or it didnt happen

is it a glass tank? if so how big is it? 12ft by 4ft?


what sort off filters are you running 


dan


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## lil_ben (Jan 30, 2008)

my mate has a lung fish pretty cool little guy


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## expansa1 (Jan 30, 2008)

Here's 6 pics of my 10,000 litre taken with my underwater camera. The lighting isn't terrific as it's raining up here at the moment. The 10,000 is 1.2 metres deep X 3.6 metres wide.
Fish feeding frenzy




Adult Male and female E.irwini




Closeup female irwini


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## freerider (Jan 30, 2008)

expansa1 said:


> Sorry, you'll have to give me a few minutes. I'll go take some.



I think I have seen a small photo of one of your tanks years ago with the Pig-nosed in it, very very impressive!
Cant wait to see the new one!


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## Australis (Jan 30, 2008)

*errr*



dansfish4tea said:


> what other aussie fish do u have there Australis
> what size tanks do u own
> 
> 
> cheers dan



Ive only got two tanks.. with..

Hardy Heads
Eel-tailed Catfish
Purple Spotted Gudgeons
Olive Perchlets
a single Empire Gudgeon
couple of Carp Gudgeon
freshwater muscle
shrimp/prawns
Rainbows... etc atm

Had some spangled perch 
but as soon as they got a little
bit of size on them they raped my 
other fish, bloody mongrels!








Magpie said:


> I've kept mouth almighty (very briefly  )



Ive kept them for around the same length of time then i imagine! 



*Expansa1*

Good looking turtle/native fish set-up.


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## CGSwans (Jan 30, 2008)

Thanks for the pics expansa. Do the turtles prey upon the fish?


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## expansa1 (Jan 30, 2008)

dansfish4tea said:


> lol whats that saying
> 
> pics or it didnt happen
> 
> ...




It's a poly Aquaculture tank. Only cost $1,300 delivered. We're running a 3/4 horsepower pump (on off peak so it's cheap to run) with a large system 2000 Pond filter, skimmer and 70 Watt UVB steriliser. All of this is done on tank water as we don't have town water.

Craig


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## expansa1 (Jan 30, 2008)

CGSwans said:


> Thanks for the pics expansa. Do the turtles prey upon the fish?



No the turtles don't have a chance of catching the fish. The only ones that could possibly are the Eastern snake-necks and they're too well fed and reliant on what I feed them to even worry about the fish, or long clawed shrimp that live in there.


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## Magpie (Jan 30, 2008)

Expansa, is that a water tank with some perspex panels fitted to view through?
Never mind, you answered it.


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## expansa1 (Jan 30, 2008)

Magpie said:


> Expansa, is that a water tank with some perspex panels fitted to view through?



Not a water tank but made from the same material so it's UV resistant and food grade. Specifically made for the aquaculture industry.

No we haven't fitted the clear acrylic curved panel yet, but will in the near future.


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## CGSwans (Jan 30, 2008)

expansa1 said:


> It's a poly Aquaculture tank. Only cost $1,300 delivered. We're running a 3/4 horsepower pump (on off peak so it's cheap to run) with a large system 2000 Pond filter, skimmer and 70 Watt UVB steriliser. All of this is done on tank water as we don't have town water.
> 
> Craig



So could you use one of those as a saltwater aquarium as well? How big is the acrylic viewing panel that you're going to fit?


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## expansa1 (Jan 30, 2008)

CGSwans said:


> So could you use one of those as a saltwater aquarium as well? How big is the acrylic viewing panel that you're going to fit?



Yes they can be used for saltwater as well. Would be great for a shark don't you think.
I was going to put in a small curved acrylic viewing hole approx 45 cm wide, just to keep an eye on what's happening.


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## JasonL (Jan 30, 2008)

I've kept Australian Bass, Silver Perch, a few Gudgeon sp. and Bullrouts. I'd rate Bass as my favorite sp by far to keep, followed by Bullrouts. Silvers bullied the bass and where removed as they got bigger. I used to love holding worms 15cm above the water ( even better getting someone else to do it) water would go everywhere!


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## Australis (Jan 30, 2008)

How did the Bullrouts go for you JasonL?

( which reminds me i should wear shoes more often )


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 30, 2008)

hahaha we get them at work
the get inside the floating dock when we go down there we have a work method statement just for these 
Bull routs didn't no u can get them for ya tank sweeet


cheers dan


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## MatE (Jan 30, 2008)

Yeh love aussie Bass had a pair in a tank that grew to 2 1/2 kilos each,but they eat you out of house and home.Also had a eastern cod who was around 2 kilos until i put him in my mates dam.Used to feed them whatever i could find they loved mice.We get heaps of rainbows in the local creeks which are pretty cool.


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## mungus (Jan 30, 2008)

Untill a year 1/2 ago, I had 2 ft murry cod, two 40 cm bass and one 55cm yellow belly.
The the 3 species I fish fly for - it was awesome, but a hand full.
They ate heaps and they were all in the one tank - 8x2x2.
Miss them heaps


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 30, 2008)

how long did u have the cod for ive had mine for only 2 years and hes a very slow grower howed u find your

cheers dan


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## JasonL (Jan 30, 2008)

Australis said:


> How did the Bullrouts go for you JasonL?
> 
> ( which reminds me i should wear shoes more often )



found them to be a very hardy captive and never had any problems with them at all. they are quite spectacular looking fish, esp their eyes, and I highly recommend keeping a few in any native tank


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## Renagade (Jan 30, 2008)

cool gudgen. we had the odd sleepy cod, few others. we used to (in wa, and my brother still has) weaned black bream to fresh water, i always had it on the slight brackish side, but at xmas i went back to perth, and my bro had one in a tank, completely fresh, about 20cm long.


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## hornet (Jan 30, 2008)

i love native fish altho my collection is pretty small at the moment, when i upgrade turtle tanks will get a few more. I love the larger predators but smaller species are cool aswell. At the moment i have a barcoo grunter, coal grunter and some rainbow fish. In the past i have kept Tandan catfish, some of the smaller eel tail species, Empire gudgeons, purple spot gudgeons, about 7-8 species of rainbowfish, pacific blue eyes, mouth all mighty, thread-finned rainbows and other random gudgeons i have caught in the past. I'm after bullrout but can never find them when i want them lol.


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## Renagade (Jan 30, 2008)

hornet, you have all the fun stuff, i don't even know what an empire gudgen is...but i think i want on now.


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## hornet (Jan 30, 2008)

empire gudgeons are an awsome native species to keep, easy to look after and when the males are in breeding mode they are stunning, bright red over the head and belly


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## Chrisreptile (Jan 30, 2008)

Ive got lucustris rainbows, boesmani rainbows and "goyder river" banded rainbows in a community tropical tank..

we have a lung fish up at work, hes probably 400mm long and i hand feed him occasionally lol.


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## callith (Jan 30, 2008)

Love the Purple spotted Gudgeon, ive got two as well


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## norris (Jan 31, 2008)

I had a mouth almighty once. I read some where that they will breed (they are mouth brooders) if you have a male and female. It would be pretty cool to see them mouth brooding.


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## Australis (Jan 31, 2008)

Norris & Hornet,

Did you ever manage to get the mouth-almighty
onto anything other than live food..


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## norris (Jan 31, 2008)

No, but I never tried. I gave mine worms, shrimp, feeder fish. I wonder if you could just go get some frozen prawns from the local bait shop. Would it matter that their salt water prawns? At least you wouldn't have to go find live food all the time. Maybe you could go down to the nearest fresh water creek/damn and catch like a hundred shrimp and freeze them yourself. I'm sure they'd eat a defrosted shrimp.


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## hornet (Jan 31, 2008)

Australis said:


> Norris & Hornet,
> 
> Did you ever manage to get the mouth-almighty
> onto anything other than live food..



nope, as with norris i never tried.


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## Magpie (Jan 31, 2008)

Australis, at Late Tinaroo we regularly catch mouth almighty in our redclaw pots using potato as bait and the kids catch them on fishin lines using bread. Processed foods should be a breeze for them.


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## hornet (Jan 31, 2008)

i caught the ones i used to have in the mary river. Used poly pipe frames with shade cloth as the net and scooped through dense weed beds.


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## Australis (Jan 31, 2008)

Magpie said:


> Australis, at Late Tinaroo we regularly catch mouth almighty in our redclaw pots using potato as bait and the kids catch them on fishin lines using bread. Processed foods should be a breeze for them.




Thanks Magpie, thats the kinda 
thing i was intrested in knowing
Ive only netted them.


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 31, 2008)

i thought bullrouts were salt water??????

if not were can i get them???

(besides the floating dock)


dan


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## hornet (Jan 31, 2008)

bullrouts inhabit fresh and brackish water but not sure on salt water. Occasionally see them for sale but most of the time you need to catch them yourself


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## norris (Jan 31, 2008)

Dansfish, maybe your thinking of barred fortescues (they are similar to bullrouts but exclusively salt water). Bullrout live in fresh when their young and move into brackish when they're older. They are often caught in salt water too. They prefer to be brackish in an aquarium but would be ok in fresh. I had one not long back which would only occasionally take processed food (only because he would take it so fast that he didn't have time to realize it wasn't alive, but if he saw a pellet, for example, just sitting there he wouldn't even think of taking it).


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## dansfish4tea (Jan 31, 2008)

so u guys got any pics and how big do they grow


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## norris (Jan 31, 2008)

Of Bullrouts? 

I don't have picks but they can reach sizes of about 30cm (pretty unlikely in captivity). I think they're more common at about 15cm.

Their colour depends on the colour of the gravel/log they're sitting on and can also be effected by stress etc. Apparently they becomes less attractive as they get bigger too, although I saw a 15cm in a book that looked really nice.

Occasionally mine would be sideways on a log or even upside down under a log. They can eat heaps of food and I read where a guy had one die from eating too much - it had fish sticking out of its mouth.


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## norris (Jan 31, 2008)

I was trying to get some picks in google but none of the pictures do them any justice.


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## cris (Jan 31, 2008)

I have kept mouth almighty before, they are fragile in transport/capture but otherwise very hardy. They generally eat live food but you could probably train them onto other stuff. They are very common in the upper parts of the brisbane river.

I keep quite a few other natives. From the brisbane river i keep the following
a silver scat
a silver batfish
flat head gudgeons
carp gudgeons
some unknown(to me) goby species 
pacific blue eyes
banded grunter
olive perchlets
some sort of shrimp species
Varuna litterata(crab)
also in the freezer i keep a heap of gar and mullet.

I also keep
gulf saratoga
common archers
sleepy cod
murray cod
red claw crays


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## cris (Jan 31, 2008)

Does anyone know if there is a size limit on bull sharks? Im thinking about keeping a small one.


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## Australis (Feb 4, 2008)

Cris,

What size did you catch the Mouth Almighty that you kept..?
And did you net or trap it, or other method of capture?

I captured one around 2cm long in a flood zone over the weekend
and it didnt make it, i think the net caused damage, unlike the 
spangled perch which you could just about run over and they would
still be fine!


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## cris (Feb 4, 2008)

I would have caught hundreds over the years, sometimes you can get 10-20 in a trap or scoop. Varying in size from about 4mm to about 150mm. Using a trap would be best as far as not hurting them or just be very careful with a net. I think they only go into trap after other fish though.

After catching them add some salt to the water and some plant cover to stop them getting damaged in transport. 

They seem to be good community fish, much like barra they wont bother what they cant eat.


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## Dinoizmadragon (Jul 7, 2008)

Cris what part of the river did you catch all your fish from? How did you catch them?
Do you think I could catch some down here?


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## Ned_fisch (Jul 7, 2008)

I used to have a Mouth almighty, nice fish, I gave mine a fish nearly twice the size, ate it easly, wonderful creature, I've also kept:
Scats
Baramundi
Spangled pearch
Silver pearch
Australian bass
Yellow bellie
Rainbow fish(still have one in a pond from 10 years ago)
Gudgeons
Freshwater shrimp
Yabbys


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## Ned_fisch (Jul 7, 2008)

Oh, I forgot to add, mine grew to about 18cm, as said above, can grow to 30cm.


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## Dinoizmadragon (Jul 7, 2008)

Did you catch them yourself?


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## Ned_fisch (Jul 7, 2008)

Me and my father caught the:
Silver pearch
Australian bass
Yellow bellie
Freshwater shrimp
Yabbys.


We brought the rest.


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## scorps (Jul 7, 2008)

i used to own native fish before i go into herps, i have kept most species lol.


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## Dinoizmadragon (Jul 7, 2008)

Ohkay, a website I was on said it was good to catch your own rainbows but I have no clue where to try. What types of rainbows do you have, and are they outside?

Also, what is the verdict on crays in plastic lined ponds?


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## Ned_fisch (Jul 7, 2008)

Dinoizmadragon said:


> I have no clue where to try. What types of rainbows do you have, and are they outside?
> 
> Also, what is the verdict on crays in plastic lined ponds?



I got a few from a place near Dalby, Qld. They didn't live to long. I have one in a pond, its been in there for nearly over 10 years. Its going good.

With the yabbys, you'll probley find that they'll chew up the platic, thats why you don't use live plants, they just mess the tank heaps.


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## ssssmithy (Jul 7, 2008)

i have kept heaps of fresh water fish too many to name, and crays aswell, most of them outside, in big tank some lined with plastic, the only prob iv ever come across is rocks and logs puncturing it, as long as u have hides and gravel for them to dig into they will be fine. as the years have gone on iv just stuck to keeping my favourite fish,and have almost as much herps as i do fish now. here are a couple pictures anyways of just a couple....


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## Dinoizmadragon (Jul 8, 2008)

Does anyone know of good places to catch some native fish? I want somewhere as close as possible to the Gold Coast so I can get the fish back quickly.


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## Kyro (Jul 8, 2008)

Bit off topic sorry but how big do lung fish grow?


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## imalizard (Jul 8, 2008)

If i had a large plastic tub could i put a window on the front to see the natives? If so how?


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## Dinoizmadragon (Jul 8, 2008)

I've seen some pretty big ones


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## trogdor1988 (Jul 8, 2008)

i keep mouth allmighty, well i have we catch them in the creeks and all around my place. i also catch scat and batis batis and sleepy cod and bullrout (freshwater stonefish) in the river near me. and i catch native rainbows and honey blue eyes all around places near me.. dont keep any atm just a big tank with about a 40cm sailfin plecostumus and lots of little crap my mum keeps buying and putting in lol..

steve


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## Kyro (Jul 8, 2008)

Dinoizmadragon said:


> I've seen some pretty big ones



Do they grow as big as 1.5metres? I'm curious because we have a huge big fish in the creek behind my place thats really slow moving & it blows loads of bubbles then it comes up for air. My kids are convinced it's a monster of some sought:lol:


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## Ned_fisch (Jul 8, 2008)

Dinoizmadragon said:


> Does anyone know of good places to catch some native fish? I want somewhere as close as possible to the Gold Coast so I can get the fish back quickly.



Just about any fresh water creek/river. You'll probley only find the smaller species, like the Rainbows, Gudgeons and other similar fish to them.


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## imalizard (Jul 8, 2008)

Would any glass work for a window?


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## ssssmithy (Jul 8, 2008)

yeh iv seen them work with big tubs like mine in the picture at top of the page, using perspex as windows but alot of work goes into making it water tight, i think they used silicon used for boats, stuff that is salt water resistant.

as for the lung fish iv caught heaps of them up around 1.5mtres long in wivenhoe.

and as for good places to get good fresh water fish id say the very upper brissy river is the best iv found all around here around the weir walls ect is tops for all your tropical native species... like mouth almighties, rainbows, scats,pacific blue eyes,bass,perch ect.


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## Pythonking (Jul 8, 2008)

I used to have a saratoga, now they are an awesome killing machine


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## ssssmithy (Jul 8, 2008)

yeh mate iv had them and iv got a huge barra and some other eating machines, and its hard to keep the food up to them, thats why i breed and catch food for them....cost ya a fortune in goldfish otherwise.


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## cosmotiger1 (Jul 9, 2008)

i have a 10x3x3ft tank with

3 x peacock bass ranging from 35cm-50cm (american cichlid)
1 x Mangrove jack 60cm
1 x sleepy cod 40cm
3 x bullrouts 20cm
3 x salmon tail cats 60cm
and use to have a barra pushing 80cm

can tell you now the boss of that tank is the peacock bass.
when they are breeding there is a whole heap of fish squashed into one end and the peacock bass own the other 8 foot


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## cosmotiger1 (Jul 9, 2008)

not my fish but a pic of peacock bass (cichla monoculus)


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## RedEyeGirl (Jul 9, 2008)

i'd love 2 have tropical fish


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## alex_c (Jul 9, 2008)

The only native i have kept was a Mangrove jack - Lutjanus argentimaculatus

He was kept in brackish water though but still pretty easy to look after compared to the Tropical community tank i had before the Jack.


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## imalizard (Jul 9, 2008)

I kept gudgeon, minnows, callop and lots of other little fish from the river. I had a baby carp once but he wasnt native though lol.


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