Interest in Aussie Fish

[Pat093]

HI
i was just interested to know what australian native are good aquarium fish?
Is there like a top 10, etc.

[Jake]

In no particular order, my personal top 10:

- Longfinned eel
- Saratoga
- Flathead
- Archer
- Murray cod
- Blueye
- Tandanus
- Barramundi
- Mudskipper
- Lungfish

[Juls]

Well Jake is into tank busters short of the blueye-'s and mudskipper!

We have several rainbows that are very nice,

I suggest you visit www.aquagreen.com.au and look at the catalogue you will see plenty of Aussie fish to buy at super cheap prices to choose from.

My personal favorites are threadfin rainbow, and spotted blue eye, Swan River Goby, Chameleon shrimp, Darwin red nose shrimp, Zebra Shrimp.

There is also a number of other small interesting fish that are suitable for aquarium use, but are not readily available at this point in time.

Juls

[Crackers]

Natives are the best

my fav are Purple spotted Gudgeon, bass, aussie smelt and pacific blue eye types

[Jake]

Well Jake is into tank busters short of the blueye-'s and mudskipper!

They're all interesting fish to watch. Eg, a flathead is just a pair of eyes in the sand until food sails by. I do have Crimson Spotted rainbows too, but the blueeyes have more character!

I suggest you visit www.aquagreen.com.au and look at the catalogue

Wow, thanks - what an awesome range. Does anybody know what shipping to NSW tends to run to?

[bluepursuit]

There is a section on his site listing freight which can be found here: http://www.aquagreen.com.au/freight.html

I put through another order today and I'm already excited to see it when it arrives :-)

[ChrisG]

Dave from aqua green is awesome he will help you out heaps. Send him a pm and ask him a few questions i am sure he will be more than happy to help

[Jake]

Thanks for that!

[peanuty]

I currently keep
purple spotted gudgeon
flat head gudgeon
empire gudgeon
desert rainbows
Aussie smelt
and various marco species.

I cant recommend the gudgeons enough! they are great. just watch the flat head gudgeons and the purple spotted gudgeons, they got crazy big mouths and will give anything a shot. I had a flat head gudgeon that i just could not catch out of main tank, so i left him in there after i did a catch of smelts from a local river.
I figured that may be ok for a few days till i can get the gudgeon out. Now the smelts were the same size as the gudgeon, but that didnt stop him smashing one. saw its little tail flicking around hanging out the gudgeons mouth.

so if your thinking about gudgeons, be sure to do your research haha i learnt that one the hard way.
although I have found the empires to be very nice natured toward all my other fish.


good luck mate! australian fish are in my opinion that best fish to keep, really interesting and theres nothing like watching my gudgeons hunt the poor little shrimp in my tanks.

have fun

[briztoon]

What, no ones mentioned the ubiquitous guppy?!?

[Dave]

Guppy is from Venezuala South America. No way should anyone consider them a native Australian. Thanks to the others for the kind words about Aquagreen.

Cheers
Dave

[samh]

Haha guppy... native... guppies are the arch enemy of all small natives, in australian freshwater they're as much of a pest as cane toads, probably worse. nothing worse than finding a beautiful creek to go collecting in after you've driven an hour just to find it swarming with filthy guppies (gambusia - aka mosquitofish) not the nice little ones in aquariums with fancy tails.

[aquaholic99]

Australia does have a few interesting fish but they are not very well promoted or too regulated to ever become popular I suspect.
To illustrate my point, you can buy saratoga and rainbow fish in retail stores overseas much cheaper than Australian wholesale prices.

Did you know we have our very own shovelnose catfish? - Ariopsis paucus

Freshwater sawfish would be nice for some people with very large ponds.

King / Giant mudskipper - Periophthalmodon schlosseri has a tonne of personality

Brackish Frogfish - Antennarius biocellatus is an interesting oddity

[AEW]

Brackish Frogfish - Antennarius biocellatus

I WANT I WANT
How much do these retail?
Any profile? tank size? What do they eat? tankmates?

[Dave]

I though the genus for those catfish was Neoarius, I have a shovel nose catfish here for photographing. I caught it in the Roper River a few months back. I would have liked to catch the smallmouthed catfish but was not lucky enough. There is a picture of Neoarius paucus or perhaps Ariopsis paucus on the thread in Aquagreen. Here it is again.

Cheers
Dave