The waterway above is Scott’s creek in south-western Victoria it has water all year-round and has some nice deep holes and as you can see it has good habitat for River Blackfish and yet there are none, talking to people who have lived in the area longer than me and before the Heytesbury forest was bulldozed ( 1950s ) I have been assured that there were Blackfish and platypus in this creek and some of its tributaries such as the Cooriemungle creek.

We have a duty to put those fish back and assist the platypus as well, do some rehabilitation works and improve habitat along the waterways. I note the work done by CMAS and Landcare where trees have been planted along some stretches of the creek.

Note also the trees that overhang the creek they are mostly Blackwoods and a few gums, that is a hint for those of you who would like to try and breed Blackfish, the second photo from the top shows an undercut below the tree that is where Blackfish like to hang, the top photo shows some gravel left over from bridge works and it is acting like a small runnel this is good for the water because it adds oxygen to the water and stirs up potential food for fish further down stream all good.

Food is essential if you are going to successfully farm fish especially natives so I spend a part of each day collecting food, the food can be anything from earthworms, cricket, moths grubs etc however there is one food that I don’t have to dig net or chase and that is Copepods, Copepods make up a large percentage of Blackfishes diet even larger fish have been found to have vast quantities in the stomachs. The water that is coming out of this pipe comes from a dam at the bottom of my property about one hundred metres from this tank, it is pumped via a windmill the windmill does not have an impeller so it does not damage the Copepods on the way up the pipe and delivers them into this fine net so I can distribute around the farm.

I finally got around to making a the deck for pond 4 it will be put it in place today and then some legs underneath and planks on top so people don’t keep falling through.

On a serious note the deck provides access to the deeper water of the pond to do things like test water quality hang breeding boxes and feed the fish it also provide the fish a sense of security these fish like to be under things. The frame is 9.5 metres long and 1.2 metres wide I will put 1.4 metre cypress pine on top to make a nice wide platform, this design has proven to be both strong and durable.

The hoop iron straps provide lateral support mainly for transport to the dam site.

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can you see him?

These fish live in the bottom not on it and that is why I believe they are more susceptible to heavy metals and other toxins in the substrates of rivers, if we want these fish to be there in the future   we must make sure the rivers are clean not just the water but the mud and detritus that forms the bottoms of our rivers.

Blue gums are becoming favourites for the killing off of these fish if the run off of pesticides or herbicide’s is not killing the fish it could be killing the food i.e. plankton and other invertebrates which the fish rely on as there staple diet, in the cold waters of the southwest yabbies are not as common as in northern parts worms and insects play a part but plankton is by far there biggest food source.

I believe this to be one of the greatest videos of fish ever taken, captured at a moment in time and the bigger fish looking on was it thinking of eating the smaller fish I don’t know.

These fish must be saved and I call on the authorities to carry out the work necessary  ie toxicology test on river substrates to determine if there are toxins in the rivers that are killing these fish.

Find the cause reverse it what  ever it is, these native fish deserve a future and it is up to fisheries to do this work no one else can, and then implement the findings after all fisheries can take your boat off you if you catch a fish under size but cant stop whole sale slaughter by toxins entering the water system.

These fish were they runts of the crop so I isolated them and hand fed them, just look at them now, runts of the crop would have a hard time in the wild but here they thrive .

The middle fish is between 5/6 inches long and I will keep him until fisheries have had a look and then I will sell him, I would like to get $100 for him given his size.

This is my one hundredth blog post and I was trying to think of something impressive to post but on thinking about it I would just like to reemphasize why I am breeding and now growing river blackfish or if you like Gadopsis Marmoratus  I have spent tens of thousands of my own money to first find a way to breed them and second to grow them out I have had no help from anyone except my family and local farmers, I expect to have over three hundred fish this year enough to re-establish a breeding population in a local river or lake but so far the permit  from the authorities is not there i will keep trying.

I did however find some winter yabbies for the fish,

photo below.

Today I travelled along the length of the Mount Emu Creek from the incredible swimming hole at Panmure to the head waters beyond Mt Emu  what a great waterway and what great people, I was asked back to look further by a busy farmer and further along I bumped into Peter who has fished the creek for years and was full information about the creek and the blackfish in it,  you will not find this information  in books, thanks Peter. hope the dog is ok.

I found this yabbie while getting some muck out of the no 1 pond as you can see it could only be days or weeks old, it shows that nature provides food for the fish that are coming and also that the environment that I have created is working well and is as close to natural as possible all good signs for a bumper crop of young blackfish in a couple of months. It also shows us that while we thinks every thing switches off during the cold that’s not so , the mother of this yabbie must have mated around mid winter interesting? 

The top photo is a aquaculture tank that I bought from poly tank, they have a sloping bottom to allow leftover food and other waste to leave through the outlet pipe located at middle bottom and they work fine however the one issue I had was scum on top of the water was not being extracted so I extended the pipe to a level above the water line and put some holes where the scum could then leave.

The second and third photo,s show a black pipe near the roof of the green house this pipe has a hose bayonet at each end this allows me to fill it with water this water in turn warms from the sun and I can then use that water to warm the water in the ponds outside.

The people who read this blog and would also like to breed blackfish must keep in mind when you are trying to do something for the first time  like breed blackfish you must keep an open mind and be willing to try different things.

Don’t forget these are native animals and permits are required so talk to your state authorities before you start, in particular places there could be a different strain of blackfish so make sure you know witch one is yours.

And if I could give you one more piece of advise aerate,aerate,aerate.

[wpvideo R4cP5baF]We got thirty two mils of rain overnight and rain is lways welcome as well as helping out fish farmers it also puts much needed water into lakes and rivers around the area.