Black Mudfish translocation

An area in Mangaiti Gully has been identified as an ideal habitat for black mudfish (see map image). They do not live in flowing streams but inhabit slow moving small ponds, swamp and even bogs. In the past they have inhabited farm drains among other natural wetland areas, but due to drainage programmes habitat loss has become quite a problem, putting pressure on these quite remarkable little creatures. Their conservation status is “At Risk – Declining.” The thing of significance is their ability to survive dry periods by burying themselves down into mud (known as to aestivate in mud). They are not large rarely exceeding 90mm. We have done all the significant amount of paperwork which has been submitted to DOC to obtain a permit for this translocation. Once approved the next step will be to locate a source of the mudfish. This could well be challenging.