The blackstripes will swim in pairs . When approaching likely spawning
material, the male will go over, and display. If no other males come out to
challenge him, the female will approach. They then get side by side, and
quiver and form S shapes with their bodies. This lasts a few seconds, with
the female pulling away and then the male from the spawning material. The
male then picks another spot, the female approaches. This all happens in a
very small area and is repeated a handful of times. After that the females
moves off, she goes well away. When the male is done, he follows her out and
the pair again cruises around until another spawning site is chosen.
I measured water temps, and in the area the spawning was taking place it was
72 degrees. The conditions on that particular day were mid day, with sun but
very hazy.
There spawning is much like other topminnows ( golden - chrysotus, banded -
cingulatus, plains-sciadicus), and much unlike the killifish whose common
name have killifish in it ( banded - diaphanus). The banded killifish
started spawning much earlier, and this was hidden in the weeds all
together. Part of it is these fish stay deeper in the water spawning more on
the substrate, and the topminnows are aptly named.
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