Re: NANFA-L-- California Natives - They're All Threatened or

Peter Unmack (peter.lists at)
Wed, 24 Aug 2005 10:47:26 -0500 (CDT)

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, Jerry Baker wrote:

> It's almost as if you had read my mind. I had already thought of that,
> and have already began preliminary planning. My plan was to document
> something that has not been documented about one of the native habitats
> of these fishes - the diurnal and seasonal variation in various water
> parameters in their native streams. I don't know which parameters will
> be most important to document in terms of getting something published,
> but I was figuring on-in-least pH, temperature, dissolved O2, and
> hardness to begin with.

I'm not so sure that I'd worry about measuring every parameter as most of
them don't matter. In the west, where ever there is water that is cool
enough, one can usually find speckled dace, thus most water parameters are
not limiting. Temperature however would be a great thing to measure. As
I mentioned in my last email, talk this stuff over with other fish
people working on the species. They might suggest what type of
information and or data would be most valuable. And if there is something
you are lacking, they may well lend you the equipment, thus I wouldn't
rush out and buy stuff like an O2 meter unless you have money to burn.

> I suppose my only concern-in-this point would be to find a place where
> Catostomus and Rhinichthys osculus occur together naturally so that I
> can keep them together as I would the local endangered fish. Does anyone
> know of such a locale?

You could always try another "Pantosteus" species (some consider them a
full genus, others a subgenus of Catostomus, but they are ecologically
quite distinct to other Catostomus species, thus you must use a
Pantosteus), but I doubt you'll manage to keep them alive in the long term
as feeding them is problematic, but few have really tried. Usually,
where ever you find Pantosteus, you usually also find speckled dace. The
suckers also tend to need to be much older and larger to breed as well.
Another thing to consider is you might need chillers to have much chance
with breeding either species as they typically live in more headwater type
environments.

Cheers
Peter Unmack
Canadian River, Oklahoma
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