Juls

The boys at Murdoch where able to spawn salamanderfish but had no success raising the juveniles. Although my understanding is they may not have really tried that hard.

Juls

This is good news if true, it needs that level of protection.

There's no difference, 

It wouldn't be illegal to buy some salamanders from someone who bred them from broodstock obtained before on the do not take list. 

It would be illegal to buy/obtain for free wild caught specimens.

 

it's not illegal to posses these fish in your own premises, assuming it can't be proved you removed them in the wild since they where added to the do not take list.

 

Capture rules for freshwater fish are, rod and line, Nothing else is legal. IE: no practical method of capture is legal. (traps illegal, hand nets illegal, anything that ain't a rod and line, is illegal)

 

I'm on your side here, i think it's a little crazy the way things have gone with this sort of thing, but just pointing out the reality so you understand the risk should you decide to take it.

 

Its important to also understand fisheries are the only government agency that does not need a warrant or even a decent reason to enter and search your property, they did a sting on cherry shrimp a few years ago, all pretty heavy handed (overkill really achieved nothing), entered propertys, siezed livestock for disease testing, nuked all tanks that "might have shrimp in them" with straight bleach, some lost all there aquariums, all fish the whole lot, nothing was spared.

 

But really, regardless of all that.. Salamanders don't make a good aquarium fish unless you have many many many years experience keeping very difficult to keep fish, every other native we have in south west WA is crazily easy to keep comparitively. 

 

All of our native fish I would rate maximum 2/10 difficulty to keep, Salamanders are 11/10.

 

Put simply, salamanders don't travel well, they are hard to get to eat, they don't tolerate trace amounts of ammonia found in above neutral water, they jump out of the tank and die if you try to do a water change or alter the water conditions even slightly, they spook easily and hit the walls, lids. they escape from tanks even with airtight lids and die, they won't eat dead foods without many many months of training.

 

if you get it right it is a really special thing, but chances of success for most standard aquarium keepers... 01%.

 

its one thing bringing fish home from vebas or aquotix and they last a week and die, it's another thing taking a near threatend highly specialized fish species from the wild and killing them in less than a week.. 

Please note this tanks location is Albany, You would need to find your own delivery method.
 
Dimensions: 5ft wide, 2ft deep, 2.5ft high. (150cm x 60cm x 75cm)
 
Glass Thickness: 12mm Bevelled edge, Black silicon
Condition: Very Good, All parts single owner.
Age: 2-3 yrs
Stand: Solid Pine Cabinet and hood, Golden Oak stain, good quality clear coat. (waterproof basically)
Lids: Included and all original from the new tank.
 
Equiptment Included: Tank, stand and hood and Hopar 2200LPH Canister Filter with UV.
Price or ballpark figure:
Shipping available: No Sorry.
Photos: Yes
 
 

BALSTON'S PYGMY PERCH Nannatherina balstoni
SALAMANDERFISH Lepidogalaxias salamandroides 
BLACK-STRIPE MINNOW Galaxiella nigrostriata
MUD MINNOW Galaxiella munda

TROUT MINNOW Galaxias truttaceus 

LITTLE PYGMY PERCH. 

 

Are all on the DO NOT TAKE LIST. 

 

So collecting nigrostriata and salamandroides is illegal.

 

Nigrostriata is not a bad aquarium fish if kept in a group of it's own conspecifics. It is easy to feed, does better in acid water, only 1 fish in a group will hold maximum colors, the rest will be more drab, generally not very long lived though.

However they are still illegal to take, and they are near threatend status so really just leave them alone. 

 

I do not reccomend anyone trying to collect salamandroides as they are very difficult to keep alive,

they won't tolerate PH above 7.0 (forget about tap water without owning a RO unit) and all the things that go with that. They also will not touch dead foods and generally die before you'll have any chance of trying to train them otherwise.

 

If your absoluently must catch them and break the law, then please only take large adults 5cm+ 

and only catch them around october/november when they are at there strongest and have already spawned for the season.

 

It is extremely unlikely you'll be able to keep smaller salamanders alive, in my experience its easiest to keep a single specimen, if you have multiple specimens together this can make it much harder to get them to eat and you'll suffer loses rapidly. In other words, if you gotta get one, just get one of a reasonable size and no more.

 

setup a cycled tank around 60 litres, with soft (about PH6-6.5 is ok) clean water and plenty of live daphina/mosquito larvae/blood worms. there habitat is generally devoid of aquatic plants, sandy to loam bottom that on the surface is usually rich in decomposing organic matter making the substrate black giving the fish a place to hide by simply sitting still. A handful of sticks and a rock isn't a bad idea.

 

This should only be attempted by a well experienced aquarium keeper with proper understanding about water quality, and good live food culture skills, and lots of dedication, its not a fish you can get your mum to look after while you go on holiday for a week and the fact that you would remove it from the wild means it is a very big responsibility that isn't to be taken lightly.

 

That being said, if you get it right, it can be a pretty special experience for many years to come.

Livestock
Name: turq leopard discus
Size: 12cm
Number: 1
Sex: female
Price or a ballpark figure: free pickup Albany only.
Shipping: no
Photos: below

Discus is healthy, male partner died months ago, had laid eggs multiple times. Now surplus to requirements. Free to suitable home, meaning someone equipt and experienced enough to look after it.

Unfortunately Sally did a jump shortly after a water change one day. I don't even know how she got out the tank was virtually sealed.

I'm looking at a tank setup where I can change the water without dropping the water level.

I'm waiting till the end of the wet season when they have stopped breeding and I will collect a few more pairs and try again.

As for substrates I'm havnt bothered to try any substrates as I'm using RO and filter peat with success. But its clear I need to be more careful with water changes. Keeping them in captivity is tricky because in order to maintain a successful biofilter i have to keep them in there upper ph range.

In every place I have ever found salamanders it's been on fine white sand (with the top being brown from broken down plant matter ect). There is one place that's more clayish I find them but that particular spot is a stream that rarely stops altogether and is home to a healthy group of galaxiella Munda. (Also a place I recently found gambusia after a depaw burnoff)

Later on I will give some soils a go, I would like to try exceed my record of keeping these guys going for more than a year and hopefully spawn them.

Juls

I've been watching various populations of salamander for many years now, late last year I found gambusia on one of the brooks that traditionally only houses galaxiella Munda and lepidogalaxias salamadroides. I was really upset by this as it is the only salamander habitat I'm aware of that runs all year round.

Since then I've not found a salamander in that waterway. Something that was different was that the bush land surrounding the brook had recently been burnt. Its possible I guess this could have contributed in gambusia being introduced to this particular waterway that traditionally it did not occur in. It could also have contributed to the losses of much of the salamander population. The entirety of the brook typically is only 1" to 6" deep with occasional ponds that are up to 12" deep.

Salamanderfish is particularily fragile in the aquarium, don't be fooled by there ability to survive harsh conditions, in aquaria they are very tricky to keep Alive. typically they won't take dead foods but sometimes can eventually be weaned onto frozen but never dry. This is due to there feeding response which is essentially sit, wait, attack.

They dont do well with other fish in aquaria as they don't compete for food, even if kept with galaxiella nigrostriata which they are natively found in pools together it doesn't work as nigrostriata isn't fussy they just eat everything where salamanderfish needs a set of rules to achieve a feeding response.

Water changing is complex as any sudden water drops sends them into burrowing, if they can't burrow they just jump out of the tank and perish.

If one is to keep salamanderfish they are best kept singular or as a pair. This enables you to train different feeding resposes and eventually tame the fish.

Water wise they are virtually never found in water much about ph 6. Most of the places I have found them have been around 3.8-4.5. This ultimately means there tolerence to ammonia with a ph close to or above ph 7 is essentially nil. Don't confuse this with the average fish not tolerating ammonia above 7 as most our aquarium fish can handle a bit of ammonia in short undetectable doses, salamanderfish cannot.

My advice would never try to maintain more than 2 wild caught salamanders in a single tank.

As for captive bred variants, scientists have bred these in captivity although I'm uncertain if they raised any juvies.

This time of year many of the undamaged salamander habitats are full of juvenile fish around 10-15mm in size, without predators these are actually quite safe but there skinny little body's would be no match for gambusia.

Salamanders spend much of there time just sitting and waiting for a tasty cyclops, copepod or mosquito larvae to get too close. They also sit still in order to appear as a stick from above, they can be really tricky to spot unless they spring off like a coiled up spring and wiggle like a snake as they swim fast. All other swimming motions are like a goby in that they propel with there front fins only.

Fisheries are not interested in salamander fish, there is no gain for them there. Dpaw don't really have the expertise or funds to be messing with them either.

Gambusia is a big problem as there range is increasing every year. Salamanderfishes drying ponds are its only hope but if the dry seasons become too hot and too long then these places are no longer a safe haven.

If you must wild catch this fish to keep then please limit yourself to a pair, and don't bother unless you have access to very low ph water, and never ending live foods. They don't like black worms and generally not that interested in daphnia and brine shrimp.

Juls

I've been using Purigen in all my filters for more than a year now,

I'm gonna take a wild guess that either you havn't read the instructions included, or you don't have them.

To recharge, i just use Home brand (any brand basically) plain bleach. (not scented, needs to be pure bleach)

I keep soaking in bleach and turning it over regularily until it's back to new colour again,
I prefer not to use the bleach totally neat or it can be difficult to get it out again.

In order to remove the bleach, you need to use Quite a bit of dechlorinator,

Seachem suggest using there PRIME which is there dechlorinator at a 1:5 water/prime ratio, and soak overnight,
repeat if there is any bleach smell remaining.

The thing is Prime is rated at 5ml of product per 200L of water.

your dechlorinator is only 5ml per 50L, so realistically it's not going to be strong enough
unless you use it neat (not mixed with water), not knowing how exactly the dechlorinator works however
it might not work at all if not mixed with some water.

i've recharged my purigen successfully more than 5 times,
but i have to admit sometimes it's a bit iffy when getting the bleach out and i end up using quite a bit of prime.
either way i wouldn't live without it, and i keep a spare handy so when i do the filter maintainence i just wip out the old, bung in the spare
and there is no rush to recharge the one i took out.

Realistically it takes 2 days to properly and safely recharge your purigen, you have at least 6-12 weeks use before recharging,
so save up and buy a extra satchel ready for your next filter clean.

Juls