NANFA-- community sunfish tank, spawning
R. W. Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Tue, 29 Jan 2002 18:44:56 -0600
In one of my 75 gallon tanks I have a community of sunfish. A trio of red
spotted ( miniatus) , a pair of dollars ( marginatus- the Mississippi valley
strain) and a warmouth. Early last week the red spot had a nest full of
eggs. I videoed his neat gravel moving. I have not seen other sunfish do
this with eggs in the nest. My guess is the gravel had something on it he
could not clean off. So he would take the whole mouthful of gravel and carry
it far from the nest and spit it out. Apparently fatherhood was too much,
since he ate the fry when they hatched. Meanwhile the dollars had spawned
and this male is tried and true, producing young inside last winter and
outdoors this summer. He is a good father and gaurding his now wrigglers.
The tank has 80 watts of light, is around 77 degrees, brown gravel, balls of
java moss on driftwood chunks , and two double penguin power filters which
are plugged mostly with moss so they just trickle the whole time. The fish
are fed primarily game fish chow, some shrimp pellets, and on occassion get
a treat of night crawlers or frozen salad shrimp.
Ray
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