Swan river tank (Perth WA)
cyrus roussilhes (cyrus at ois.com.au)
Sun, 9 Jun 1996 18:21:40 +0500
One evening last week, I set out on a 5 minute walk to the Swan River in
Perth WA Australia. I had a bucket, line and the tinyest-sized hooks.
This location was around 10km from the sea and I was told that salinity
ranges within the year from nearly fresh to marine in this location. When
I found a place with a number of rocks and other structures I began
searching for crabs to put in my "quarantine" tank. Turning every rock
gave about 2 to 3 1-4cm crabs which I need to properly identify.
Perviously I had sucessfully kept them totally submerged in tropical
freshwater for months. I went on the jetty and decided to use the claws as
bait and try to catch any kind of blenny, goby or other small brackish
fish. After tying the hook to a piece of line I threaded the claw without
the shell directed on the hook and lowered this down. Depth=1 meter+, very
clear, around 8 degrees C. I quickly caught some sort of goby, lifted it
up, but lost it as it wriggled free in mid air. Next followed the
successful capture of 2 gobbleguts and 1 Japenses goby. They now live in a
sand/rock coldwater brackish 18 inch tank. One hour only, after
introduction to the tank the goby started accepting cichlid pellets, but is
not used to the texture since it always spits it out just to chew it up
again. here's a list of the smallest most suitable fishes (for tanks) to
catch in the Swan estuarine:= according to "The Marine and Estuarine Fishes
of South-western Australia" 1983 False Tasmanian Blenny Parablennius sp,
Bridled Goby Amoya bifrenatus, Japanese Goby Tridentiger trigonocephalus,
Long-finned Goby Favonigobius lateralis.
Gobbleguts Apogon rueppellii (looks like a glassfish Ambassidae)
One question I have for every one near coastal rivers. Has the Japanese
Goby reached your river? Throughout Australia this goby has "settled down"
in many ports. And a second follow-up question, has the fish affected
noteablly its new-found ecosystem? btw the Japanese Goby I think makes a
great "personality" pet.