Well after a few thousand kilometers of Queenslands not so good roads over
the past 2 weeks we have finally stopped the daily routine of breaking camp
and moving on. It is quite anticlimactic to actually stay in the same place
for more than one day - even if it is home.
We started with the Running River and the Upper Burdekin at "The Valley of
the Lagoons" and these 2 Rainbowfish are very different to each other.
There has been some confusion in the past and I have been guilty of calling
the fish from Running River the "true Upper Burdekins". More later on this
probably as an article in FOS.
Then we looked at various Gulf drainage rivers such as the Einasleigh,
Lynd, Mitchell and Palmer then cut across through Palmerville to Laura and
Lakefield National Park to the McIvor and up to the Starcke and then down
through Hopevale to Cooktown. Then Gap Creek, Bloomfield River, the Cape
Tribulation/Daintree track down to Cairns and the Atherton Tableland and
then down the coast to Byfield and home to Brisbane.
We found a few new forms of Rainbowfish especially a fantastic new colour
morph of M. mccullochi (Hopevale) and 2 Trifasciatas (Jurassic Park, and
Glenrock) that will interest aquarists as well as some more unusual fish
like FW Pipefish from the Starcke, Ambassis ?miops, Gilberts Grunter, the
"Bonsai Cod" from the Bloomfield River that will hopefully have it's
description accepted later this year and lots of nice plants that
unfortunately didn';t fare as well the fish over such a prolonged trip. 10
days on the road is hard on fish but overall they did well but the plants
are not so forgiving.
Brian Lang earned his spurs as a true "collector" in the upper Bloomfield
when he was carrying the bucket containing our sole "cod" at the time when
he slipped on the algae covered rocks and literally submerged up to his
nose but still kept the bucket held high and safe - we decided to donate
the fish to him as a souvenir and when he gets back anyone who wishes to
see the only one in captivity outside Australia can contact him and buy
admission tickets ;-)
Regards,
Bruce.
Bruce Hansen, ANGFA, caring for our aquatic ecosystems.
Please visit us at http://www.ozemail.com.au/~fisher/angfa.htm