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