Australian Eastern Water Dragon eat my Goldfish?

[pythoninfinite]

I have a half-grown Gippy here, and the feeding response to anything that moves is electric. I have no doubt that it could grab a fish or two, especially in shallow water or on the surface. I'll ask my friend Peter Harlow who did a lot of work with them for his PhD if they are known fish predators...

Jamie

 

[Scutellatus]

@baker I believe was involved in a study of them in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. He may be able to shed some light on whether they are known to take fish in the wild.


Something unrelated to eating fish, but very interesting was said to me by Dr Hocknall from Queensland Museum, the population of juveniles there were found to be congregating under a waterfall at night, with water running over them under 10c in winter. They would come out from under it in the morning no worse for wear.

Definitely some pretty tough reptiles, but I suspect this may the norm across many species.

 

[Smittiferous]

@baker I believe was involved in a study of them in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. He may be able to shed some light on whether they are known to take fish in the wild.


Something unrelated to eating fish, but very interesting was said to me by Dr Hocknall from Queensland Museum, the population of juveniles there were found to be congregating under a waterfall at night, with water running over them under 10c in winter. They would come out from under it in the morning no worse for wear.

Definitely some pretty tough reptiles, but I suspect this may the norm across many species.

Fairly certain they've been observed spending the night in much colder water than that. I can't for the life of me find the source though, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[baker]

So I managed to totally forget that I was even tagged in this thread.

I am not aware of anything in the literature about whether they would take fish in the wild or not (I was primarily just a research assistant). It would certainly not surprise me if they did though and from my personal observations I would not discount it. Throughout my time assisting with the project I saw them eat a wide range of things, with them feeding primarily on flowers/plant matter and insects (which sometimes required very impressive acrobatics). Along with this and the random stuff people would feed them I have also observed them feeding on roadkill ringtail possum, juvenile dragons and one observation of an adult male who seemingly crushed the head and began eating one of his females.

From these observations and how agile they can be when they want to be, I can certainly see them sitting in shallow water and nailing the occasional fish and tadpole. However, I would be sceptical of their ability to capture fish in deep water while swimming. Could be possible, but that claim would certainly need some evidence to back it up.

To the worry's of the OP, I would advise that it is possible, however if you provide your fish with a deep area to escape and places to hide you should be fine and suffer negligible at worse losses.

Cheers, Cameron