Catfish are nesting
WE have a ripper catfish nest on the edge of our great Moulamein Lake. I have always heard that they make nests, but just thought that they dug a hole to lay eggs in.
The male does dig a very neat hole, as you can see in the photo, then he goes and collects sticks and stuff to fill it with.
Beer cans have even been used in the Deniliquin Lagoons if they cannot find enough sticks.
The female then lays her eggs in it and he does whatever catfish do to fertilise them.
You would expect a good one after building a nest like this fella has.
He then patrols this nest, chasing away anything that can eat his babies.
We have all seen Finding Nemo – he might swim away when you first turn up to have a look, but it does not take him long to come back to look after the nest.
He would be around the 40cm mark and a great asset to our Moulamein Lake.
Just hope he does not eat too many of our Southern Bell frogs.
Black death
OUR Edward River and Billabong Creek are looking very dark at the moment.
The Dissolved Oxygen (DO) levels were looking a bit ordinary at the top of our Edward for a couple of days getting down to just over two per cent.
Over four per cent and above is ideal, under two per cent can start to cause problems for our native fish populations.
In 2016 the levels got down to zero per cent, and that caused heaps of our fish population to die.
This black water event is about as natural as it can get in our modern river system.
We had too much rain and the water had to be let out of our weirs as they were full.
We cannot help that, but this event should be a good lesson for those in charge of our water.
Do not send environmental water down our rivers after November when it gets hot.
The gum trees drop their leaves, the floodwater picks them up, and bang – black water, and maybe dead fish.
Luckily for us and our rivers and fish there are over 20 people monitoring the DO in our rivers.
They have most of the escapes from our channel system open to put fresh water back into our rivers to try and stop a fish kill.
I was talking to one of the scientists the other day, and I commented that it was not very common to have so much common sense in our water job.
Yep, he said – in our job, common sense is not very common.
But thank you to Professor Dan, Professor John and Troy who is head of the Edward Wakool Angling Association (EWAA).
I don’t know yet whether Troy is a scientist or not so I can’t call him Professor Troy just yet, but he knows his stuff.
I also see that Tanya from our Yanco Creek and Tributaries Advisory Council (YACTAC) have also been on the job to get some fresh water into our creek system, as the water is going very black.
This is when those in charge of the environmental water should be throwing as much fresh water by whatever means possible into our rivers to save the millions of native fish that have bred over the last few years. This could be a disaster or they can save the day.
Keep up the good work, those that are keeping an eye on those that do not have a clue.
They may be able to be taught.
Heritage Village opens
WE had our local member Sussan Ley here last week to open our Moulamein Heritage Village.
This has been a mammoth project for those hard-working volunteers that had a vision many years ago.
So far they have the Jeraly Shearing Shed up there, full of interesting equipment, and the old Dhuragoon School and a new amenities block.
There is plenty more going up there as funds become available.
This will be a great asset for our town as everyone loves looking at old stuff – they don’t make it anymore, that’s for sure. Pennant bowlsWHAT another week in bowls.
Both teams were supposed to be home this week.
Unfortunately, Tooleybuc had to forfeit so our Division 4 got a win and hold their second spot on the ladder.
Because of the forecast, Division 1 started early to avoid the heat.
This did not help the game because we have to knock off if the temp hits 40, and it hit 40 around smoko time.
So, the rules state that we must wait an hour to see if it drops, and at the time of knock off, Kerryn’s team was up.
The other two rinks were down, but unfortunately at knock off time we also had one teammate vomiting and another feeling a bit wobbly.
Luckily the Racecourse team did not spot the Bunsen burner under the thermometer to get to 41, so Division 1 got 6 points instead of 2, and we stay in the 4.
Rice growing
THE old saying of just keep throwing money at it until it goes green could not be any more real than in a cold start like we’ve had.
There seemed to be a plane tethered over the top of our rice crop, dumping almost every chemical you can use to grow rice.
I rang Kylie (the brains behind the planes) today just to make sure that the job was done.
Yep, of course it was.
I like talking to Kylie, but I told her that I did not want to talk to her until top dressing time, before signing off by wishing her Merry Christmas.River levelsTHE Edward is around 4,900 megs at Moulamein and this should be about the peak.
The Billabong is still rising, but without a rainfall event., the Edward at Moulamein will start to drop very slowly.
