Barney Springs North Tropical Queensland

[Baccus]

I was away recently on holidays up in Cairns and Kuranda in Northern Tropical Queensland. Part of the trip was planned around going on a shrimp finding expedition in the highlands up around Atherton with a fellow member from here and another friend who also lives in Cairns.
 
So our day started off early heading up from Kuranda to a meeting point in Mareeba then on to the collecting site near Tolga.
 
At Mareeba we saw a lovely site of some early morning hot air balloons.
 
 
Once at the collecting site we all paused to take in the magic of the place, an oasis nestled in surrounding dryland country.

 
Once at Barney Springs this was the sight that greeted us.

 
In the second pool

 
And there was subwasertang growing on the rocks

 
The rocks in the valley where covered in moss which will grow both above water and submersed

 
more moss

 
Some of the resident horses that came to say hello

 
Some of the shrimp which are most likely a caridna species

 
And one tiny dwarf species of yabby, this guy is so small he looks like another shrimp except for his front nippers.

 
And another surprise was these tiny fresh water mussels that where white


 
There where also a few snail species in the pools which will need to be identified.

 

[dredgy]

Ahh great spot, we used to head up to Kuranda from Rocky every year or so growing up, the nature you find around the tablelands is just amazing, though Tolga itself leaves a bit to be desired...
 
Those mussels are  especially really cute, I'd love to have a couple of those   

 

[Baccus]

Thanks.
If we do the trip by road from Rocky again I think we will not do it in one day again, 13hrs drive one way was more than enough each day.
Yes Tolga wasn't exactly awe inspiring, which is why I think Barney Springs was such a great little oasis, the water was also pleasant at 23 degrees around 8:30am and probably stayed cool all day thanks to the surrounding large fig trees. It was also great to be out with some fellow shrimp freaks.

 

[Baccus]

Some slightly better pictures of the Barney Springs shrimp that have found their way out of the holding net and into the tank. But they seem to like the net and hang around on it.



 
And some of the native fissiden that was growing in the water.

 

[frothhelmet]

thanks for posting this. It's so interesting to see what you have over in oz. Btw, did you ahve to worry about salties?

 

[Baccus]

Thankfully salties only go so far inland and where we were was up in the tablelands, too far for saltwater crocs with steep terrain. Where we caught the riffle shrimp down at Cairns there was a risk of crocs as we got closer to deeper water. The bloke with us knew of a very territorial female a bit further down stream from where we were collecting.

 

[Baccus]

Finally a decent picture of the Barney Springs Shrimp, I will have to play around with the new camera some more.

 

[TallTree01]

cool! About how big are they?

 

[Baccus]

These guys are only approx. cherry shrimp size, so another dwarf species of shrimp.

 

[Baccus]

After having had my Barney Springs shrimp for a while and not noticing any breeding happening, this evening I decided I was going to catch some of them and move them to another tank that houses other native shrimp and fish. I knew the Barney Springs shrimp hung out in a thick clump of Java fern so I did a lucky dip sort of scoop around the leaves and caught about 10. When I double checked the ones I had netted I discovered much to my amazement and sheer joy and excitement I have a berried female

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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You should be able to see in the pics that the eggs are large which means they young should be easy to raise in a tank environment.

 

[DrRob]

 
Are you allowed to export livestock from Australia? I know you're not allowed to import.

 

[Baccus]

I think you can export with the proper permits etc, I have never tried but I have heard of other people sending our shrimp overseas.