Thanks Shane :) I'll look through all the airlift stuff later this
evening. Would you mind emailing me that pdf? I can put it up on my
website and anyone else could look at it then too, if they're interested (if
you don't mind).
The studfish is from Alabama at the Convention. Jeff Riebe brought back two
pair and the males were getting medieval on each other. So we played "pass
the fish". I know I said I was gonna only keep local natives... But there's
just no way I could say no... So don't anyone get any ideas about running
redline or tangerine darters under my nose... ;)
There's a great population of fantails in a very hilarious spot. Remember
under the I-75 bridge over Riley Creek at Village Park where copious amounts
of the Mennonite forbidden "nectar of youth" was consumed in college?
Yeah... We were "breaking the seal" on the poor buggers. :) Monster sized
orangethroats in there too. Riley Creek, despite it's reputation is
actually pretty decent quality. Good spot for longear sunfish too. We need
to get down there and hit it. Also found blackstripe topminnows in the pond
at Village Park, but I haven't seen them there in the couple trips I've made
back by there.
However... This weekend... We should encounter droves of the topminnows in
Sandusky county in at least one of the streams we sample. I spoke with Dr.
Cavender at OSU yesterday about species assemblages in the county...
Blackstripe topminnows are pretty much new invaders to the area (last 15
years... He's watched them move from stream to stream). As they move into
the empty niches that were formerly the habitat of the western banded
killifish (now state endangered), their populations explode (like with any
"exotic"). I saw this in Muddy Creek, I expect to find the same in the
other streams (as did he). So if you can't make it up, I'll bring you back
a couple. Very rewarding fish to keep :)
I'm feeding the same stuff. I think you've nailed it with the color of the
gravel. I've found that darker substrate always inspires any species of
fish to light up those chromatophores better than lighter substrate. I get
a really nice effect by having the dark substrate and then patches of open
sand (serious contrast), but I've yet to catch a good shot there yet. It's
seriously cool to watch them dart into the open :)
Todd
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shane Graber" <SGraber_at_sauder.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 9:17 AM
Subject: RE: NANFA-- heh -- Now Improved with Reason (tm)!
> Looks seriously cool Todd! :)
>
> Where did you find the black stripes, fantail, and northern studfish
around
> here? I've wanted to collect a couple blackstripes and fantails since
I've
> seen pics of them. The northern studfish is one I haven't seen in our
> seining trips and if they're native to Ohio I'd love to get a couple. :)
>
> The one thing I notice is that your darters seem to have much better
> coloration than mine do for some reason. What are you feeding yours? I'm
> feeding all of mine Sally's Frozen Mysis, which seems to have a pretty
good
> nutritional profile. One other thing that comes to mind is that mine may
> not be as colorful as they're trying to blend into the tank bottom and I
> used a light colored pea-gravel overlay for my soil substrate and you've
> used a much darker gravel in your tanks. Can and do darters and other
fish
> change color based on their environment?
>
> In regards to the shrimpery: Here's how I employed airlifts on my ghetto
> coral prop tub:
>
> http://www.liquidreef.com/equip/proptub/proptub_cat.html
>
> I found that you really don't need the extensions that run along the
bottom
> of the tank like you've got. It tends to increase frictional head loss a
> little which will end up dropping your flow thru your airlifts. Also, you
> may want to try removing the airstones and seeing how much that increases
> your flow as larger bubbles will tend to "drag" more water with them as
they
> float to the surface. If you'd like, I've got a .pdf of Spotte 1979 that
> deals strictly with designing airlifts for use in aquaria. Seriously good
> read and I'm guessing that Tropicorium probably read the exact same
chapter
> when they setup their airlifts on their coral vats.
>
> Also, I thought I'd throw out these articles in case you haven't seen them
> yet:
>
> http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/breeder2.htm
> http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2002/breeder.htm
> http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2002/breeder.htm
> http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug2002/breeder.htm
> http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2002/breeder.htm
>
> Shane
>
> <snip>
>
> > Also threw in some shots of my latest project after the
> > holocaust... Gonna try my hand at raising amphipods
> > (gammarids) and the like
> > in my tank stands for food source. Wanted to make this as
> > electricity free
> > as possible. Man you can move a lot of water with air! If
> > it doesn't work
> > out (not efficient enough), I'll just add some salt and rear
> > brine shrimp in
> > it. No love lost... Had everything I used already, so I
> > didn't have to go
> > buy anything...
> >
> > http://www.farmertodd.com/Freshwater/Natives/070803natives/
> >
> > Enjoy!
> >
> > Todd
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