# The Queensland Lungfish



## grinner (May 15, 2008)

was watching a taped show of david attenboroughs and saw some footage of the lungfish.
apparently only found in south east qld and south america.

the interesting thing was just what an amazing creature it was in evolution and that basicly all animals that walk the earth now have 4 legs due to 4 fins on the fish and the lungfish was the first true fish to develop a proper lung and thus allow us to leave the water and inhabit the earth.

anyway , an amazing critter which i knew little about. funny that the mary river (one of only 2 systems in which it exists) may soon be dammed. i'm sure if you said we should delay the dam because of an ugly little fish people would laugh but youve really got to wonder if a marvel of history on earth shouldnt get a little recognition.

funny how photogenic animals like scooby the wonder dog get quite a bit of attention including media stakeouts and 5 days of fire and rescue attention. ah if only the little lungfish was as cute as a fluffy little dog. by the way they apparently live a very long life. one was sent to an aquarium in chicago in 1933 and is still alive. has anyone ever seen one ?

heres a pic


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## ringo (Oct 3, 2008)

Mr brother caught a monster lungfish many years ago at Wivenhoe. I can't remember what it was caught on but can still remember it hitting the bait off the bottom and then taking off straight to the surface at a great rate of knots before surrendering. As soon as we realised what it was, we got it off the line straight away, without removing it from the water, as we thought they were endangered. It dropped a heap of scales which were the size of tennis balls. We kept a couple to show people how big they were but they shrivelled up. It's certainly an amazing creature.


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

Seen a number down the years

Wivenhoe Dam
Somerset Dam
Brisbane River
Tingalpa Creek
Bulimba Creek
North Pine river

A friend hooked a 6 foot specimen under the spillway of Nth Pine Dame in 91 on 6lb mono #10 ls whiting hook and worm bait
good fight but nowhere for the fish to go
after 30 mins of back and forwards we managed to wade in and dehook it (lip hooked)

awesome fish
give you a fright when you're bass fishing at dawn and they surface to gulp air next to your yak!
a friend thought it was a dead body :lol:


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## Feral (Oct 18, 2008)

They are in plague proportions (well maybe not quite, but heaps of em) in the SEQ dams. They do really well in the dams. If you have an old Grants, he has an article in there about how all the ones in the Pine , Brisbane and Stanley river systems were stocked from something like 8 original fish carted down from the Mary packed in wet straw on the back of a bullock dray.


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## SnakeMan (Mar 8, 2009)

yep well if your ever up a the big W grinner you will see shitloads of them surface to say hello, I would rather think in damed areas where they stock finglings/extra food they thrive much the same as the bass do in wivenhoe, if you look at what washed over northpine dam when it flooded earlier this year http://www.qt.com.au/story/2009/06/25/d ... sh-deaths/ I know everyone put a sceptical face on when it happened but thats just what washed over the wall so if you could imagine what didn't wash over.. I've caught lungfish up near twin bridges before and they are a great fish to land...


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

thanks very much for your input guys, i didnt know any of that, fascinating reading


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## WayneD (Jul 11, 2006)

There was actually one landed at last years convention by one of the guys from Charltons I think. Used to see them all the time last year before the water rose in Wivenhoe. This year with the higher water level there are definately less surfacing for some reason. I have only seen a couple.

Speaking of convention, I better get to bed. 4 am rise for me to be at the dam by the 6am briefing time. Man the beers tasted good tonight......


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## dru (Dec 13, 2008)

Yakking at night in the fresh - nearly scared the life out of me when one took a huge breathe just behind me. Noisy buggers.

Very unique though.


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## abubain (Jun 29, 2009)

Saw one at Wivenhoe the other day, right in front of the campground. Was standing on the stump. I didn't think they would come into water that shallow but.....

The Wivenhoe fish stocking assn also rescued 20 or so recently when Somerset or Wivenhoe overflowed and they went over the dam wall, all of them survived too, must be hardy beasts! They were black with red belly's. and 20-30kg's from memory.


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## tomca (Dec 1, 2007)

they go ballistic when hooked and play up like toga, only thicker and heavier. Dams don't worry them. Beautiful fish and I feel a bit guilty when I end up with one as by-catch.


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## Feral (Oct 18, 2008)

They seem to be quite intelligent, when doing rescues they seem to realise your helping them, and go still in your arms while you carry them.


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

They seem kind of cool. Can you get them for aquariums?


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## ausbass (Feb 15, 2007)

redphoenix said:


> grinner said:
> 
> 
> > has anyone ever seen one ?
> ...


Little fella's!? :shock: :lol:

The two I paddled over at Wivenhoe were about 1m long! Scared the hell outta me cause I thought they were massive eels!
:shock: :shock: :shock:

Once I realised what they were I followed them around for a bit, gracious creatures and its a shame I didnt have a mask and/or a w/proof camera.


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## simonsrat (Feb 13, 2009)

This is just some of the ones saved at North Pine Dam spillway in recent times.










We used to save them back in the 90's as well.

The article in the QT appears to me to be a lot of hype, by people who don't want a dam in their backyard. It did not reflect what I saw after the spillway was closed.

Cheers,

S


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

great pics simon,

it seems that as per usual the doom and gloom story in the paper may well have been just that.
i also came across ferals story of the guy introducing them to the brisbane river though there was some debate over that.
interestingly , nuggett says some barra escaped from a farm near redland bay and he often gets baby barra in his cast net so maybe briz will get a barra fishery


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## Nativeman (Sep 6, 2005)

The lungfish is one of the things the folks up in the Mary river valley are using as ammo to stop the government damming the Mary River, near Gympie.

Apparently they are native to this river system. Captain Bligh came out this week and said the Traveston Dam will save the lungfish among other things...oh that's right the endangered Mary River Cod...yeah like that is helping it, damming the place.

Cheers


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

Mary river cod don't breed in impoundments do they? Or can they if they are provided with viable nest sites in the same way Murray Cod can.


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## SnakeMan (Mar 8, 2009)

you can my friend they cost roughly $500 these days a very different price to what i got about 4 years ago i think the price was 4k



koich said:


> They seem kind of cool. Can you get them for aquariums?


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

Wow :lol:

I might wait another 4 years.


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## ARK (Nov 18, 2008)

Spencer said:


> you can my friend they cost roughly $500 these days a very different price to what i got about 4 years ago i think the price was 4k
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Wow, I'm suprised you can get them at any price, I thought they were completly protected.

Audrey


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