The heavyweight enforcer of the estuary. A fish that looks like it belongs in a different era. While most bullies remain palm-sized bottom-dwellers, the tāne reaches for the upper limits, growing to over 25cm in length. Nearly double the size of the common bully, giving a physical presence that is more small eel than typical fish. Exceptionally large muscular head dominating the silhouette with a huge wide mouth and a protruding lower jaw that gives a permanent distinctly grumpy expression. A fish that looks like it is always annoyed. A master of low-light survival. Thick well-defined rugged scales appearing in deep somber shades of olive-brown, charcoal or dark bronze. Heavy armour provides perfect camouflage for life in silty brackish waters of coastal river mouths and tidal lagoons. Disproportionately large eyes positioned to pierce through the murk of the estuary squeeze where salt and fresh water collide. The king of the snags. The giant bully spends daylight hours jammed deep into shadows of sunken logs, undercut mud banks or tangled root systems of overhanging flax. Does not hop or dart nervously like smaller cousins. Instead moves with slow deliberate power, confident in its status as the boss of its immediate territory. As a nocturnal interceptor, the giant bully's diet is as impressive as its size. A true carnivore targeting juvenile eels, freshwater crayfish and even unsuspecting whitebait that migrate through its estuarine hunting grounds. The estuary is murky. The giant bully waits under a sunken log, grumpy and still. A whitebait drifts past. The mouth opens. The whitebait disappears. The bully does not know it is a taniwha. It just wants dinner.