Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Creek Chubs?
dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
Date: Wed Nov 24 2004 - 10:11:36 CST
Just curious to know why you said the following? "Came back 24 hours later to find not a single minnow but had over a dozen creek chubs!" Last I knew, _Semotilus_ was still retained in the Cyprinidae, with no proposal to move it to another family.
I have kept creek chubs without the kind of behavior that you mentioned. However, they were smaller when I collected them. Though large ones eat a lot of fish, crayfish, and grasshoppers, they readily accept almost any food, live or dead, natural or prepared. Larger individuals tend to be solitary in some circumstances (not always), but medium sized individuals like yours readily aggregate in streams where I have experienced them.
So far as the tubercles, breeding condition is regulated hormonally, under the influence of light regime and temperature, and yes, creek chubs mostly are in breeding condition in spring - early summer. But I have found a good many different kinds of minnows, including creek chubs, with tubercles in every month of the year. That doesn't mean that they will spawn soon -- that takes a complex of conditions and behaviors, including nest building, which are unlikely to converge in fall.
Dave
David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
telephone: (405) 466-6025; fax: 405) 466-3307
home page http://www.lunet.edu/mcneely
"Where are we going?" "I don't know, are we there yet?"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dean A. Markley" <damarkley-in-earthlink.net>
Date: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 9:21 am
Subject: NANFA-L-- Creek Chubs?
> Last Saturday, I had dropped my basket style minnow trap into a
> local (Lancaster County, PA) stream to collect some feeder minnows
> for my longnose gar and redeye.
>
> These boys ranged from 4-9 inches long. I
> thought, what the heck and took six of them back top toss in my
> tank. Well, let me tell you, these fish are wild! Everytime I
> walk near the tank, they go bonkers, shooting across the gravel,
> even digging into it! Has anyone here any experience with this?
>
> Oh, and to make matters even stranger? One fish has tubercles
> (horns) all over his head. Isn't November kind of late for this?
>
> Dean
>
>
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: Fri Dec 31 2004 - 12:42:53 CST