Quarry Fish

[el_carpo]

Thanks Paul C for the picture and explaination. Very neat to see and read.

Good luck in all your future shrimping/fishing outings. I hope your spots keep producing for you.

E.C.

[Tuna_Pie]

yep i got about 3 of em in my fishtank it is a swordtail but if i remember right only the males have the long tail bit

[Jim_Tait]

EC and others are difinately right - it is a female swordtail - lacks the black dots on the belly of gambusia - the closest other thing you'll will find to it feral in some waterwys is platys - but they're much shorter and thick set.

EC is also right in saying stocking gambusia is bad news - although most larger native predators will eat them they do impact on larvae / fingerlings of manay species, and there are a bunch of natives that make better prey species i.e. bony bream and empire gudeons (northern NSW - Qld + parts of MDB) and smelt for southern temperate waters.

Regards - Jim

[Fitzy]

Well there ya go. I stand corrected.

Fitz..

[aussiebasser]

It certainly looks like a Xiphophorus helleri to me.
It may be a Poecilia sphenops but these (Mollies) are slightly shorter and deeper, similar to Xiphophorous maculatus (Platy). Yep definately a female Swordtail, which doesn't have a sword.
All are live bearers and prolific breeders.

[agnes_jack]

Sorry guys for the misleading
I think you are dead right after further investigation.
I too stand corrected!

Regards, Tony

[michael_Brewer]

El carpo, we do use very strange methods. The cage that paul posted is a very similiar design to the one I caught my first drop-bear with! We've been very successful!

mick

[jewies]

hahahhaahahah mick lol

[el_carpo]

....Nice try mister Brewer, but you're too late! I'm very aware of the "Drop Bear" and it's mischievious origins!

Now who's up for a good old-fashioned snipe hunt? We use traps like those to catch them too. I think they have a shared ancestry, the drop-bear and snipe.

As far as being sorry for being misleading, Tony and Fitzy, don't be. If I had a dime for every time I've been wrong, I'd be a millionaire, a billion times over! --I'm kind of dumb. Well, a little.

Like I said earlier, I have raised a load of them over the years so I had a little head start on this. This has been the first time in my life being an aquarium nerd has come in handy for me!

Drop bears indeed! >.....

E.C. --Aquarium nerd and snipe-hunter supreme! 8)

[Paul_C]

El Carpo
Is this what a Snipe looks like


Note this image is copyright of 'Darius' @ http://greendash.deviantart.com/

Daniel - *cough cough*

[Paul_C]

Sorry about the double post but its daniel again I just have another interesting thing to show off check this out for a shrimp (Its just not normal)

[el_carpo]

Well, sort of Daniel. The picture only confirms what I've already suspected. The two animals are definately related. The Australian "Drop bear" is quite a menacing animal alright, but it's American counterpart is, as you would suspect, a larger, louder, more ferocious and less laid-back beast. Same thing goes with women, I think. I'm now being hit in the head by my sister who is reading over my shoulder. Ah well, one must suffer for one's art.

That shrimp looks like he fishes for tuna. Stretched arms and all.

[Jim_Tait]

Daniel,

how close is you quarry hole to a creek and does it have connections to estuarine waters?

The shrimp looks larger than your average Macrobrachium australiense which is our most common freshwater shrimp in eastern drainages and looks a bit more like M. tolmerum which is a freshwater species but never found far from (~10km) from estuaries are you in tropical or subtropical Australia?

In teh north we have a couple of humongous shrimp species including M. lar and M. rosenbergi (ohoto attached) - you only need a couple of these to have a feed - and they're generally way to good to eat to use for bait - although barra love em!!

Regards - Jim

[Paul_C]

Daniel - Theres no question about there been a creek within 10k's it was a sand quarry and they were digging out the creek. So there is no little possibility that its a M. tolmerum hopefully I will catch some more and figure out just what else is lurking in those muddy waters.

[Cloud_9]

thats just a normal freshwater shrimp. have caught heaps of them in the albert River ,
up past the dam.
bass luv them.

Cheers Cloud 9