This is the unedited story I am writing for an Australian Mag of my observations, yes there will be lots of mistakes but that is haw I can put it on here as well. in the mag there will be more pictures.
So let me know what you think??
Regards Bob
OBERSAVITIONS OF SPAWNING SARATOGA IN THE WILD
I REASENTLY HAD THE GREAT FORTINE TO BE ON THE STEVE IRWIN WILDLIFE RESERVE SURVEYING FISH AND STUMBLED ACROSS BREEDING SARATOGA.
This is a run down of what transpired on and before that day, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to help the Irwin's with there fight against mining on there Steve Irwin reserve on the Wenlock river Weipa, Garry Moores from ANGFA Melbourne, Kwai Chang-kum from ANGFA Melbourne, Leo O rilley ANGFA Queensland President and myself President of TALE- tropical aquatic life enthuses Cairns, arrived in Weipa on Tuesday 21/10/08, I drove from Cairns the night before What a drive all the collecting gear and a boat not that the boat is big 10 foot punt, still hell of a drive, every body else flew in Tuesday lunch time.
We had spent 5 days documenting fish on the Wenlock, the Springs and Billabongs around the Reserve and on day 5 we were on the eastern end of the reserve at Nimrod creek seeing what was around, when I stopped to look at a bend in Nimrod ck to see if it was survivable, to my complete surprise there were about 20 Saratoga milling around under the shade of a tree, knowing that Saratoga are in no way a social animal the curiosity in me was aroused, so I went back to the 4x4 and told the boys there was heaps of big Togas there so Leo and Kwai grabbed there fishing rods and were off, Gary and I were observing, every cast had a strike and it was not long before Leo landed the first fish, I was able to examine the vent of what turned out to be a female and confirm that they were indeed breeding as this and all other fish landed had ruptured vents, the reason for this is Togas have such a large egg that it hemorrhages there vent. Of the half dozen fish caught here there was only one Male as the rest would have been carrying eggs in there mouth as they are a mouth brooder, the males were for obvious reasons were not hitting the lures. The fish caught were good colour lots of red on there scales, but nothing like what was to come, there size was good to and there condition was as well, not as fat as I thought they might be but since learning that spawning takes place on a number of days maybe not all there eggs ripen at once.
Driving back the next accessible spot just happened to have the same orientation on the bend flowing from North to South in a U bend and away to the North again wow more Togas about the same number, these to had ruptured vents to, no males caught here, as before they were on the chew so it did not take long to catch half a dozed and as with the other spot Barramundi were thick to,
After this we headed back to camp, the boys had there fishing tales to tell and I had made my mind up I was not going to the last Spring, Fan Palm Spring to survey it, I was going back to Nimrod creek to see what the Togas were up to, boy oh boy was I in for a surprise the next day.
Up early to check out the bird life and have breakfast. We were also going out with Barry the reserve's head ranger to check the Mammal trap lines and pit fall traps at blue bottle springs one of the areas that need protection from mining, the plant life there is amazing rare plants all over the places, like the newly discovered Picture plant, walking through here was like walking on glass trying not to walk on anything endangered, we were told that some of these plants in other areas were hard to find yet here there were in good numbers and the number of species that are endangered we amazing, any way there were lots of goodies to be seen in the traps.
At this stage I must thank Barry and his son Josh for there hospitality and the way they feed us it was truly fantastic, I went up thinking I might shed a few Kg's not so Josh liked desert like my self so every night we had desert on top of a great feed.. Barry and Josh cooked fantastic and generous meals, I must thank Australia Zoo as well, Terry should be proud of what Barry and Josh are doing and I know Terry and the kids can not get enough of the reserve, I can see why it's a Wonderful place. Also I will stay of topic and urge every one to sign the pertision on line, go to Australia Zoo and look for the link; I went up with an open mind. I realize that with out mining we have nothing we can not even build a house or dig a hole and worst of all no XXXX in stubbies, This place must be saved it is special and the man him self loved the place to, Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve save it..
Any way back to the Togas, after the Mammal traps were shut down for the heat of the day I was off to Nimrod ck a 48 km drive, I found my desired spot then I spotted a similar looking corner a couple of hundred yards further on with more shelter, apone inspection there were lots of Togas here to and these had not been fished so I decided this was the spot. By the time I set up it was 10.00am. A light breeze was blowing from the north and it was lightly overcast the water was tannin stained so visibility was about 60cm, PH 7.00, 100PPM of general hardness. Settled in to my seat under a shady tree with enough cover in front of me so as not to disturb the fish later finding out it did not matter any way, the first two fish were spotted sitting in the deep shade with there noses on the surface they were both about 50cm long, they slowly disappeared, 10minutes later I spotted 18 or so fish to my right by this time the sun was out and I had a good view of what I thought were brilliant coloured fish bright gold pectoral fins and tails I was still to be blown away, they were doing what I thought Togas should do squabble amongst them selves no bad fighting just push me shove you. Then they were all gone, a couple of minutes later a single fish cursed by from left to right.
10.20 general feeding to my left and right, them the pea in the cranium was really rattled a bright fish was followed by what I can say was a fish that glowed like nothing I have seen before iridescent gold over 3/4s of the body with black fin edges, then I spotted a glowing fish breathing like female African Cichlids do when they have a mouth full, he was sitting in some snags and would defend this spot from all that ventured to nearer. The three fish following went by again and to my surprise the last fish flashed brilliant gold and the other two fish turned on the third one and chased it off, I did not see this happen again
11.00 I witnessed a strange action I was to see numerous more times this day, a fish I was observing gulped air and dived at 45 degree angle letting a bubble of air out of each side of its gills so a pair of bubbles at least four times and up to six times, for the next half hour I witnessed this a couple of dozen times, the reason for this I would like to know maybe next year I might find out when I go and observe again, the fish in the snag was seen shuffling its mouth like F/M Africans do, just to let you know how I could see this I was using small binoculars. Lots more back and fords as well as the odd scuffle but nothing violent, then to my surprise a couple of 60cm Barramundi start patrolling the area around the shady tree, then there was another surprise a fish swam by that really rattled the pea unfortunately my camera gear would not take a descent picture in the deep shade and the water had a tannin stain that limited visibility to about 60cm, so I have made a rough drawing of the fish I was really hard to believe my eyes the fish glowed, I thought to my self that this fish would be fantastic to have in a breeding program, then there was more fish that glowed.,
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11.30am fish were starting to swim in small and large groups both sides of the shady tree at this time I drew the conclusion that the tree played an important roll in all of this, the Barra were still swimming around and there were half a dozen Toothless cat fish ( Anodontiglanis dahlia) moving around the bank, as the spawning started proper they disappeared down in the direction of the dancing fish
12.00pm the fish in the snag turns and swims right in front of me about 3meeters away and as he swam towards me I could see the mouth bulge and it had the tell tail orange stripes on earthier side that confirmed it had eggs in the mouth, he swam around the tree a couple of times then returned to his snag and did not move from it again.
12.30pm the Togas start to move in under the tree and seam to start pairing off, wrong again the colour on all the fish glow like my drawing if you can call it that, then two fish come together and the next mind blower, they tilt head down and tail up vertical vent to vent and start what I can only describe as a slow dance waving there tails side to side. Then another joins in and another, finally there was 7 in this group. This lasted about one minute and they all dispersed to the sun lit area again. Five minutes later they start again two fish then five together vent to vent and side by side, then another group forms this time nine fish together, they stayed a couple of minutes and broke of back to the sun light, I moved over and looked at what they were doing looked to me like they were resting as there was no fighting this time.
12.50 I counted twenty two fish milling around the tree, the first two came together and were quickly joined by seven other fish dancing tail up, a second group started beside the first one about eleven fish, at this time they moved down the water column out of site as did the second group still dancing, about one minute later they came back to the top still grouped together dancing, this time there was a black Toga with them holding its tail in a point, weird, as the tree they were under hung out over the creek I decided to climb out over it and have a close look at the BLACK TOGA yea right, to my surprise they as it turned out were two large Ater catfish ( Neosilurus ater) dancing with them one each side, they moved perfectly with the Togas eating eggs at every opportunity sneaky buggars, this time as the dancers move down small rainbow fish and hardy heads in there hundreds move in right over the top of them in a feeding frenzy eating excess sperm I would think as both groups had swarms directly above them, as the first group moved back up a white egg floated up and was taken by a 40cm Barra before it hit the surface.
Now the dynamics change the groups stay moving up and down in the water but one or two fish break off to the rest area and others from the rest area move in this keeps going for about the next thirty minutes, both groups have large Atar's with them, hundreds of small fish on the surface and Barras hanging around, it is at this time I see fish in the groups lunge ford and pick up what I suspect is eggs, I can not 100% confirm but it was bright orange and there was nothing else in the water that colour, lunging is now a regular occurrence as the groups are near the surface, at this time the activity from all the other fish is intense all wanting a feed, the small stuff on the surface must be in the many hundreds and small Barra up to 15cm are now feeding on the Rainbows but it doesn't stop them feeding. Total MADNESS
Through all this the fish on the snag stays put and drops a lot of colour back the bright Pectoral fins and tail fin.
At this stage a 30 odd Kg pig walked along the track creek side to with in 5 meters of me, when it spotted me instead of running out into the open it ran or fell into the creek this in turn killed all the action as it swam right through the spawning fish.
The spawning fish ranged from 30cm to about 70cm, the largest fish were not the most dominant some of the smaller fish were the most dominant and pushy, with the size of Saratoga eggs and amount of sperm produced it is a feeding frenzy for all, the only predators that did not show interest in the spawning frenzy were the Raptors flying around, this I believe is because the Togas were to big and under a tree out of site.
This spawning and dancing was confirmed when talking to David Claudie and elder with the Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation from the upper Wenlock and Pasco rivers, he said he had seen exactly the same things as I had including the catfish dancing with them, this made me feel a lot better as I thought I was seeing things or had gone mad . As I have not been able to find any other information about Toga spawning I can not say if the spawning is the same in every river system or if this is Wenlock specific. But dam I am going to try and find out
If I ever get a fish tour business on the go this will be one of the must see things, unfortunately it will be a once a year so only one group will get to see it.
DISCLAMER,
It is debated all the time if the Male or Female carries the eggs, I am of the opinion it is the male that carries the eggs because when we catch the breeders from our ponds I always examine the vents and from what I see and in my view it is the males
.,This year I will sacrifice a carrier to see what it is, if I am wrong I will be the first to admit the fact.