

Trie Australian Congolty 



HERBERT M. HALE, SoutK Australian Museum 





" ^ m "^ u 9 



The Congolly 



Photograph by the author 



Pseudaphritis urvillii 



) 



-4 



The "Congolly," known to fishermen 

 as the "Sandy Whiting," is popular with 

 Australian aquarists. Living in most of 

 our estuarine rivers, it thrives equally 

 well in fresh, brackish or sea water. Full- 

 grown specimens measure nearly twelve 

 inches in length, but smaller examples 

 are more suitable for aquaria. A wild 

 fish makes itself at home at once and in 

 a few days becomes quite tame. Although 

 a "bottom" fish it is in no way incon- 

 spicuous and a movement at the front 

 of the glass will always bring it to the 

 fore. As regards food it is equally accom- 

 modating, but appears to prefer earth 

 worms to anything else. 



Towards the close of last summer a 

 friend and I obtained some fishes from 

 the coast, at a spot where fresh water 

 from a river mixes with the sea water 

 from Pt. Adelaide. Here we found that 

 the normally brackish creek was but a 



series of large disconnected pools, in 

 which the water, owing to months of 

 evaporation, had become much salter than 

 the sea. The increase of salinity having 

 been very gradual, Gobies, Atherines and 

 Congollies had accustomed themselves to 

 the new conditions and were present in 

 great numbers. We collected dozens of the 

 last-named fish, and "on reaching home 

 placed several direct from the salt into 

 fresh water. At first the movements of 

 the gill-covers were abnormally rapid, 

 but otherwise the fishes showed no dis- 

 comfort at the abrupt change. In a few 

 minutes they were busily feeding on mos- 

 quito larvae and now, six months later, 

 are still quite healthy. After this long 

 sojourn in fresh water, I recently put 

 one of them into a marine aquarium ; the 

 result of the sudden transference was 

 as before, the fish immediately accepting 

 food. 



