It's whitebait season again and if you're looking for something different for your tank i recommend you go fishing.

here's one of my banded kokopu whitebait from last year all grown up.

http://render2.snapfish.com/render2/is= ... 50,590,428

hi there the link doesnt work for me

hey,

i've tried putting the link in again. it seems to be too long. but if you copy the whole thing into your address bar it seems to work.

They look awesome!

You have to copy & Paste the link Shiuh:
(I fink the link was too long)

Ours look different - different whitebait in different areas - bit still pretty. Ours are pale cream and bluey/green and catch the light beautifully.
We had 8 of them - all called called Patty.

sounds like they might be inanga, a different species to the banded kokopu. but still a really cool fish, i used to have a few but they ate me out of house and home.

do they look like this? this is one of my inanga that i used to have
http://images1.snapfish.com/3479%3B%3C8 ... 3696nu0mrj

why do think that whitebait are whiteworms with eyes?

Yes Raul, they were inanga. That is what we get here, not the kokopu.

so inanga is white bait?? the same stuff that we buy to eat i've got few of them in my pond biggest one is about 14cm.

i thought they all died over the winter but i've seem them out again they seem to breed like nuts.

according to our local regional council who make a study of these elusive fishes they have identified is excess of 20 different varietys. would make for an interesting exercise if you wish to record a breeding.

Our local DOC rep gave a talk to our club at one stage and said that there were only seven (shows how little they know) varietys from the common to the more rare. They asked that we check them as we catch them and kindly put the rarer ones back. The regional council said that the only true way to identify them was by microscope. Can you just see a line-up of whitebaiters all equiped with their microscope checking each fish as they caught it. I deffinately wouldn't want to catch a big shoal at that rate.

Inanga is indeed whitebait and is the main species that get caught in the whitebait runs. Whitebait traditionally (and correctly) refers to the young of five species of Galaxias. Many other species can be caught while whitebaiting as NZ freshwater fish fauna is dominated by species that migrate between the sea and freshwater to complete parts of their lifecycle. Some, like the smelt (Retropinna sp), look superficially like Galaxias whitebait and probably often end up in patties.

90% of the whitebait caught are generally inanga, then the rest is mostly koaro and banded kökopu. Giant and short jaw kökopu make up less than 1% of the whitebait run. These are the ones that have a nationally threatened classification.

A large number of inanga do die after spawning each year but some survive to spawn several times and survive for several years. Similarly if they don’t spawn (e.g. kept in a pond or a tank) they will survive several years.

And remember,

Native fish kick butt!

I think the inunga is also called stinky or cucumber fish (smells like cucumber)

The fact that all of our rarest fish have a whitebait stage in their life cycle is the reason I could never eat whitebait or support the catching of it for food - the giant kokopu might only make up around 1% of the run - but considering how many whitebate EACH person who catches them pull out of the ecosystem each year - I'm sure you'll agree that numbers wise that is allot of the rare fish being eaten - before they even get a chance to grow up!! I don't see how people can justify eating baby fish - It makes absolutely no sense eating any animal before it gets a chance to reproduce. And as we have destroyed most of our native fishes habitat as well as constantly introducing trout that eat them, I don't understand how anyone who loves our country and wants to let the next generation enjoy it too can kill SO MANY of its native animals at one time! Just because fish don't sing like a tui doesn't mean they aren't important!!
Ok - rant over

Go the rant!!!!