--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A
>From: "R. W. Wolff" <choupiqu_at_wctc.net>
>Reply-To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
>Subject: NANFA-- Hybrid Fundulus?
>Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 18:17:32 -0600
>
>I have a developing killifish that ain't right.
>
>In my killi pond ( 9 feet by fifteen feet and about 30 inches deep) I keep
>several killis and a few other odds and ends during the warm months ( which
>this year was not very long ). When I harvested this fall what I thought
>was a small F. sciadicus ( plains topminnow) looked sort of strange. It was
>much more stout. I also had what I am pretty sure are F. rubrifrons (
>Redfaced topminnow) since they look different from cingulatus I have from a
>location that only has cingulatus, where as this fish came from the overlap
>of the two. I only had a couple young retrieved from these. Both species
>spawn in the same manner, use the same displays, and the males will display
>to each others females. The females always seemed to be able to know who to
>follow to the weed clumps after the display, as long as I was watching them
>anyways. The display consists of fighting another male, fins and gills
>flared, and the color turned up to 10. Then the male that wins this open
>water match will stay there and fling droplets of water across the surface.
>This is much the same thing many topminnows do when scared to divert
>attention from themselves. Anyways, the odd looking one is now developing
>colors consistent with being in between these two fish. Old literature I
>have say sciadicus is in subgenus zygonectes ( spelling?) along with the
>rubrifrons and others. Newer stuff I read puts sciadicus in xenisima (
>spelling?) the studfish subgenus. I would say how they act would make them
>more like the rubrifrons and chrysotus than caetnatus or stellifer. But
>they
>do look sort of like a studfish up close, but then again they look like a
>topminnow as well.
>Has anyone heard of the freshwater Fundulus hybridizing? (I have read of
>diaphanus diaphanus hybrids with heteroclitus.) These two species do not
>occur together in nature. Both have reddish fins trimed in black, and a
>gold
>stripe in front of the dorsal fin. They are kind of hard to tell apart from
>a distance. Females are really close, with sciadicus more streamlined and a
>longer snout, and rubrifrons females have a gold iridesence on the cheek. I
>will continue to watch him as he grows and see what he looks like at a more
>mature size. Right now he is only just over an inch, but fully colored in
>comparison to a sciadicus, and nearly compared to the rubrifrons.
>Ray
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association"
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org
</x-flowed>