NEW FOOD FOR TROUT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3363, 16 December 1919, Page 6

NEW FOOD FOR TROUT.

IN RDTORUA LAKES. T Wjith 'r‘,cferen‘cc 'to~ écontrov-el'sy re gqmall fish founcfi in Lakes Hotoiti and 3B’.otd”rlla for ’the first time this _v~oa.r, §27.i:i'd stated by diifcrenf persons to be :_fjr esll-water WhitCb§li‘th V 01; minnows, or ‘}l;];¢:'M)fofing of Toil;“O_.i,A:A-M or koura, Mr Conservmgmr of ' Inland ;%I::;gzg2e;:ag;?%;geht%a specimen to ‘Mr Al‘.—:m

Thompson, Director of the Dominion Musefimlin Auckland, asking their name. Mr Thomson replied .without doubt they did not belong to the family galaxiidae, which embraces the whitebait of the sea. ‘itlld inland lakes. This particular specie he took to be a form o;E_smelt “petropinna Richardson."" It may prove to be iderfificalv with sea and river smelt. Should this be so, it has been introduced from the ‘Naikato I'iV‘-Cl‘. Specimens of fish were also submitted to Mr McCulloch, of the Australian Museum, one of the fozemost l3.u'Cllol'ltl.Cs_; on larval forms, who sent a, reply, the purport of Wl-iich was sent‘ ‘to Mir Mborhouse by .--Jr

A. Thomson in the follow.-mg memo: “‘vVil'h further I'efel'en-:0 to my rm-nlO, I have_ to "advise {hat Hr Ms(To.lioch sf-.lte,*‘-. thatthe small [l3l you sent me from Lake Rotoiti are smelf belongillg t‘o the genus I'Ctl'o"3-nna. As the whitebait of inland lakes ha‘/: always pxoved to be members uf t‘.r.L.‘ g_;mlus galaxias, and as these fish have .5-ud-

denly gppeared in great numbers, the presumption is very strong .-that they have been recen-tly intl'Od|lG‘(’.d. "Fhe Govel'l'lment introduced these szniuts for trout food, and the .T\‘[a-'J‘.‘iS I'-ave been selling them as 111'.-Inga, or whitebait. Possibly steps will now be xaken 1-o'l-es‘rl'ain them." "