Collecting on the Equator

[Shane]

Headed down to the Equator today so my mother could get her requisite photo taken there while she is visiting us. On the way back I stopped and got my nets wet a bit.

First collecting location was on the Kampala-Masaka road about 4-5 kilometers north of the actual equator. There is a project underway to widen the road through the papyrus swamp there and it offered great access since some of the swamp had been cleared away. Catch was Ctenopoma, guppies, cichlids, and the day's highlight... a single small Clarias!

Water was in the mid 70s and tannin stained. Not quite Amazon black water, but as you can see from the photos the color of tea.

Ctenopoma and Clarias

Any fishes in here?

[Jools]

It will be fun growing up that Clarias if you kept it?

Jools

[Shane]

Stop number two was a flooded field about 2/3s of the way back to Kampala. It was just boiling with fishes but was deceptively deep (as I found out the hard way). This would have been a perfect collecting site for that rarely used piece of kit the cast net. Because it was the net I needed most it was the one I of course had not packed. This was most similar to a white water environment.

Catch was numerous barbs, some small cichlids, and guppies. Of not, and probably due to the high sediment levels, the guppies were very brightly colored. I would like to sample this place a again with different kit and maybe a second person so as to operate a large seine.

PS All photos by my wife, who I never give enough credit for documenting my adventures.

Habitat

What do I have here?

Barbs, barbs, barbs

[Shane]

Jools,
He is all set up in his own tank. I hope to grow him(her?) up a bit so we can get a positive identification. Ctenopoma came home too as well as a small school of the barbs.
-Shane

[bronzefry, posts: 2198]

Shane,
I always thought of Guppies as a Western Hemisphere species. Introduced?
Amanda

[MatsP]

Shane,
I always thought of Guppies as a Western Hemisphere species. Introduced?
Amanda

Absolutely introduced... To control malaria - but they are not very good at that, they just eat other things instead...

--
Mats

[bronzefry, posts: 2198]

Just like "mosquito fish" in our area. They eat anything but mosquitoes.
Amanda

[Silurus]

Shane,

I noticed that the netting on your push net is not attached all the way around the frame. Small fishes can easily slip through the openings. You have never used the net in an area with fish like Pangio, but I guarantee that if you do, you will lose a great many of them through the openings.

[Shane]

HH,
I built that net some years ago and it has seen some serious wear and tear. I neet to re-string the netting and to do that I need more net material. I am also unhappy with any of the ways by which I have found to secure the net to the frame. Any good ideas?
-Shane

[MatsP]

HH,
I built that net some years ago and it has seen some serious wear and tear. I neet to re-string the netting and to do that I need more net material. I am also unhappy with any of the ways by which I have found to secure the net to the frame. Any good ideas?
-Shane

I'm no expert, but how about folding the netting around the frame, and then tieing the folded netting to the first part of the netting - so basically part of the net is overlapped after going around the frame.

--
Mats

[Richard B, posts: 6306]

HH,
I built that net some years ago and it has seen some serious wear and tear. I neet to re-string the netting and to do that I need more net material. I am also unhappy with any of the ways by which I have found to secure the net to the frame. Any good ideas?
-Shane

I'm no expert, but how about folding the netting around the frame, and then tieing the folded netting to the first part of the netting - so basically part of the net is overlapped after going around the frame.
--Mats

Sounds sensible I have found smalkl cable ties (zip ties) to be the most robust & permanent way of attaching netting to frames, hoops etc. Once pulled tight, the loose ends can be snipped off to give a neat finish & if positioned in such a way no sharp edges will be pointed towards the net contents

[MatsP]

Richards idea seems very good too. As a ex-motorcycle racing team "helper/run-around", I'm quite familiar with cable-ties for fixing anything and everything - that and gaffer tape.

--
Mats

[Silurus]

Shane,

We build our push nets by getting metalsmiths to weld a rectangular frame with handles from solid stainless steel tubing. Using a heavy duty upholstery needle, we sew a double layer of netting directly to the frame using heavy duty thread (utilizing a modified backstitch). The leading edge of the net is protected with a rubber hose that is slit lengthwise and sewn over the netting+frame. This prevents wear and tear on the stitching, since the front edge gets push into substrate/vegetation a lot.

Of course, this is not a permanent solution and the netting will suffer from wear and tear. After about one year of use, we rip the netting out and replace it.

If you like, I can try to take some pictures tomorrow to show how it's done.

[RickE, posts: 438]

Hi Shane

Loose netting in very small mesh sizes was freely available in Mombasa. Do you have trouble getting it in Kampala?

[Shane]

how about folding the netting around the frame, and then tieing the folded netting to the first part of the netting - so basically part of the net is overlapped after going around the frame.

Mats, unfortunately this does not work as it places the wear and tear directly on the net where it encircles the frame. Every time it is pushed against an object, like a gravel substrate, the net will tear/fray a bit more.

I have found smalkl cable ties (zip ties) to be the most robust & permanent way of attaching netting to frames, hoops etc.

Guess you can not tell from the photos, but that is just how the above net was constructed. I am not totally unhappy with this method as I got several years of use out of this net using this method. I have used basically the same method using very heavy weight (30 lb) fishing line instead of cable ties as well with fair results.

I would love to have something like HH describes, but I am not sure the technology is here to make such a net. The rubber hose protector idea had occurred to me as well.

Maybe the best bet would be a combination of the above? Wrap as Mats suggested, then cover all four sides and corners with one piece of rubber hose, then a fix said rubber hose with cable ties.

If you look very closely you will notice a special touch to the above net. There is a PVC "T intersection" in one edge. I can use it is a push net or I can place a handy stick or piece of bamboo in that T intersection and have an instant giant dip net! Works well.

Loose netting in very small mesh sizes was freely available in Mombasa. Do you have trouble getting it in Kampala?

I have not seen any, but can order some easily from the US. One very bizarre thing about Uganda is that there is really no "fishing culture." Kampala sits next to the second largest lake in the world and I have yet to meet any local here that is really familiar with fishing/boating/etc. By strange chance I just hosted some friends from Nairobi today. Their first comment upon exiting the plane at Entebbe was to note that they could not see a single fishing boat in the lake.

Goldschmidt (Darwin's Dreampond) makes the same observations on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria. People grow up a stone's throw from the lake and can not distinguish between even dissimilar fishes. Also, as in Uganda, they do not use the lake as an irrigation source. A farmer will watch his corn dry to dust 100 feet from the lake while he prays day and night for rain to save his crop.
I am not an anthropologist, but I have wondered if the very young age of the lake (12,000 years) plays a part. Or is that the people that live here today immigrated from other environments and just keep practicing what they brought with them (cattle) instead of incorporating new resources (like fishing and irrigation) into their culture?

-Shane

[Silurus]

Shane,

If you want a rough idea of what the push net I use looks like, I have posted a picture of one in a previous post. If you're keen to see a closeup of what the frame looks like, I can snap a picture later this week.

[Shane]

Just an update.
All the fishes collected in the papyrus swamp are doing well and eating.

No surprise but the little Clarias is a glutton! There are three Clarias spp in Uganda that inhabit papyrus swamps: C. alluaudi, C. liocephalus and C. werneri. Seegers (2008) reports that C. alluaudi and C. werneri can only be distinguished by radiographs to allow the counting of fin rays. The juvenile I caught shows a slight pattern in the caudal fin, which Seegers also shows on his photo of C. liocephalus (p. 251). I am really hoping it is not this sp as C. liocephalus reaches 32 cm.

The barbs collected at the second site changed color completely after less than 24 hours in clear (vs white) water. They are the same sp I had captured at Lake Nabugabo, probably Barbus apleurogramma. Coloration is much more attractive than shown in the Baensch photo atlas (p. 179). Males have dusky fins and look very much like miniature bala sharks.

-Shane