Re: NANFA-- nest on demand
BILL HOPPE (zzzzzzbill_at_yahoo.com)
Tue, 24 Jun 2003 11:02:45 -0700 (PDT)
More on green nesting . Now that my computer is back
to 50% functional I will comment on green sunfish
nesting observed while out with Casper and his son
Toby on Sunday . After a long day of
observing/sampling ,none were kept , we made a last
stop.... before dark and a big meal.... at Shawnee
Creek in Yellville Arkansas.Its a small shallow creek
. I had changed from my knee boots to civilian gear
after the last stop and didn't have the energy to get
them back on so Casper and Toby went into the creek
while I stayed on the bank . I will leave the detailed
report to Casper and just deal with the green sunfish
here . Casper and Toby seined the most gorgeous green
I have ever seen live or in photos . After that I just
started walking along the bank and noticed some greens
dash away from the bank . Then I noticed a cleared
area on the bottom next to the bank in about 7 inches
of water .The abandoned nest site was filling up with
shiners . SRB dace were rushing in and looked like
they were spawning .Only a small portion of them were
in good color . Others that were not in good color
came in and seemed to be mainly interested in eating
.Me too . couldn't wait to get to that restaurant
buffet nest . The greens stayed away but even when I
was almost on top of them the majority of the SRBDs
stayed and frantically did there thing . I observed 2
more green nests with the same results .They do seem
to like to make their nests as close to the bank as
they can get and still stay wet .
--- "R. W. Wolff" <choupiqu_at_wctc.net> wrote:
> In the gar river pond, a male green sunfish was so
> interested in spawning,
> he gave up on trying to drive the female to his
> nest. He had built a nest
> next to shore in about four inches of water. The
> female came up there a
> couple times, and I think they spawned. Later on she
> just didn't seem to
> want to budge from less than a foot of water. The
> male gave up, and started
> spawning with no nest right there. Later I came
> back, he had dug somewhat of
> a pit and they were spawning in that. This was
> pretty interesting behavior,
> since in a way, the female picked the nest site. The
> fish were evenly
> matched in size, but the female much more robust.
> One other reason I can see
> her not going to the nest was he was not a very
> colorful male, in comparison
> to other non nesting males in the pond.
>
> Ray
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=====
Bill Hoppe
Yellville Arkansas
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"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