Re: NANFA-- River Reef Report 7/18

kahley (kahley7_at_ptd.net)
Thu, 18 Jul 2002 19:56:43 -0500

Roselawn Museum wrote:

> Kahley
>
> Welcome back, Reefbuilder! You were missed. It would be great to see some
> pix of your reef and its residents. Do you have any?

No. I tried to take some with a disposable camera . Well
actually, my husband took most of them but it wasn't sunny and they
weren't very good. My buddy's wife was soooo intrigued by the
reef, she said she was going to try. I might too if the sunny ever comes
back <sigh>. wouldn't you know.....thunderstorm today and more
tomorrow. And I have picked up my husband's head cold. There is
nothing worse than snorkeling with a headcold. My ears are ringing
something fierce, not to mention sneezing in a mask...such a joy..NOT!

Yesterday, I decided, since the catfish family had moved on, to finish
the clean up on that part of the reef. I know I would have noticed
eggs, but I might not have noticed the nest that the green fish might
have been building/built. In any case, she was a pain in the butt as I dug.
Nipping at the back of my legs and generally being underfoot. It took me,
maybe an hour to dig out most of that section and then it occurred to
me that I had disrobed her nest building. Jeeeze...can't these fish stop
breeding long enough for me to get things cleaned out???? She
was back at it, the nest building, in a flash. They do a shimmy thing
to scoot out a hollow and then pick up any stone or pebble which
offends their sense of order and spit it out, outside the nest. I should
have realized she was building because the area was probably clean
of any silt. I just didn't notice before I started digging.
As an apology and to try and protect her from the SS, I built a roof
of branches over the nest. come to think of it, when I pulled up the
plywood from the catfish nest, there was one of those fish in there?
Could be she was going to use the same spot as Moe and I messed up
that nest too? No wonder she was so mad at me. Her aggression
should have been a tip off too. They are usually more shy of me.
I can't ID these fish. I loaned my fish book to my buddy and besides,
it only had drawings, not pictures and real fish don't look like drawings.
A sun fish...greenish mottles with a red eyeball. There are quite
a few of them on the reef this year. If they 'pair up, I think I have
two adult pair plus assorted smaller.
Anyway Xena.....named for her fierce attack on me <g> should
be safe and I'll give her lots of space for her duties. One thing
though..she choose a spot very close to where the biggest bass
usually lay, which means they will have to vacate and I'll have to
wait to try and get a look at them and see if Leftie is one of them.
These fish have always been a pain as their breeding always seems
to coincide with the end of the clean up and they love to nest in the
concentrated clam shell debris that results from my digging. The
current washes the lighter shells off the top of every shovelful and
they really seem to like that for nesting..
My head is killing me. I headed to bed to try and sleep this cold out.
I've taken so much vitamin C, I'm gonna pee yellow for sure.

Oh ...Moon...it's the West Branch of the Susquehanna River!
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