Pleased to see that somebody is putting on a display of Australian native
fishes for the public over there. Are you trying to do a biotope set-up
with plants too ?
As far as lower level inhabitants are concerned, a small school of one of
the Eel-tailed Catfish ( e.g. Neosiluris hrytlii, or Porochilus rendahli)
plus some of the smaller Gudgeons (e.g. Hypseleotris klunzingeri, H.
gallii, H. compressus etc) would probably do the trick. There are also a
couple of species of freshwater sole that are available at times and you
can';t get much closer to the bottom than that :-)
As far as a good book goes - both of the general books on Australian FW
fishes are out of print but you may still be able to get the TFH
publication "Freshwater Fishes of Australia " by GR Allen. Also there is a
lot of useful info in back issues of "Fishes of Sahul", especially the
collecting articles.
Cheers
Bruce Hansen
ANGFA
email: bhansen at ozemail.com.au
Don't miss the ANGFA web pages at -
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~fisher/angfa.htm
----------
From: Aleksei Saunders <asaunders at mho.net>
To: rainbowfish at pcug.org.au
Subject: [RML] Display Suggestions
Date: Tuesday, 25 February 1997 13:46
Hello,
I've got a quick question for those more familliar with Aus. fishes
than myself. I looking for suggestions for a display tank I'm currently
caring for at the Denver Zoo. The display contains a number of Rainbow fish
species, all from Australia. It is a fairly shallow tank (approx. 45cm)
holding roughly 300 gallons. It is at waist level and, unfortunatly, the
public can lean over the top of the front glass.
I'm looking for a species of fish that I can use to fill the bottom
zone of this tank. I've got top and midwater fishes up to kazoo, but my
lower zone is sorely lacking in activity. These fish should obviously be
non-aggresive toward rainbows, and be fairly brave (as I've said, members
of our public sometimes think this is a petting tank!).
Any advise on a suitable fish would be great, as would the title
for a good Australian Native fishes book (Sorry, my specialty is mainly
South American and African).
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Alex
asaunders at mho.net
Denver Zoo,
Denver,CO
Any fish is a good fish
(especially with a little butter)