New Zealand Inanga (native Whitebait)

My Photograph of a New Zealand Freshwater Whitebait – Inanga is the Maori name for them – This one is a mature adult about 3 and a bit years old.
These freshwater fish are found in one of the local lakes and thrive in captivity on mosquito larvae and good quality goldfish flakes, however you have to be very careful to keep the water 100% contaminant free as they are very sensitive to pollutants of any kind.
They are surface feeders and have tiny spry that seem to be all eyes and no bodies. Not sure if they are egg or live layers.
They do best in a tank with fine fine gravel or sand as anything else traps the fry and the do not survive.
The fish change colour depending on their environment. At the lake i collected them from they were quite transparent to a creamy white, changing colour to adapt to whatever I used in the tank.
An easy, practical fun fish to rear. Photographed April 2009

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The painting that stemmed from the subject in question...not sure which way up to put it nor whether to call it :Three Well Dressed Gentlemen" or : Tap Dancing Fish" - for a larger version either look at the next post (scroll down a bit) or click on the images.