this fish is eating a worm nearly as long as itself, you would not want to be a worm near these fish.

A friend of mine wrote this letter which tries to find a solution to the yearly fish kills that occur at the mouth of the Gellibrand river and other rivers along  the southwest coast .It may be relevant to other estuarine environs around Australia also.

Once again I am in debt to my neighbour for water in this very dry year.

If we would like to have places like beaches and river banks to swim and play then we must learn to put our rubbish in bins or take it home. The pictures above show a glass and a glass sliver that I found by the side of a river where people swim and fish they would do a lot of damage to someone’s foot should they step on this and just take the fishing line home.

The water in the tanks is about 23 degrees the p/h is between 7.5- 8.5 and the ammonia level is 0.5-i.0 that’s close to perfect , however I am expecting a spike in ammonia as the fish age and eat more food, with night time temps getting cooler I don’t expect water temps to be an issue going forward. You can see in this photo that the water has a tannin look about it that’s because I placed dried gum leaves it the water, I believe the eucalyptus in the leaves and branches can help in the fight against bacteria.

To say its dry is stating the obvious. Without the help of a local farming who lets me use his spring water I would be sunk (or not).Note the green garbage bins these bins are for small fish to find protection from both birds and bigger fish.

My comments about a name change has stirred some debate among readers of this blog, my reason for a change is simple it is acceptance, the name black fish is a good description most of the time, it is true when you catch a fish out of a over grown river or stream they are black however in a world where perception is everything cod is a far more appealing sounding name and might engender more good will towards the  fish, southern cod is probably not correct because there range extended far outside the southern reaches of east Aust perhaps eastern cod or as I said in a previous post marbled cod .

Eventually these fish will need to be graded so that one fish does not get an advantage over the others. the above and below photos show the size differential. It is also worth noting the tiger stripes on these fish which I believe are badly named,Cleary they can change there colour to suit the background there in. I would welcome others opinions on this topic I would prefer something like southern cod or marbled cod please let me know weather they should be renamed or not or offer your name.

This fish looks really  healthy and is thriving .