NANFA-- salt pond collecting
Noturus2_at_aol.com
Tue, 19 Oct 1999 13:20:40 EDT
After all the rain and flooding from hurricane Irene, the ocean water is all
stirred up making snorkeling impossible. So I decided to check out the salt
ponds behind my apartment.
There were a lot of puddles of standing water and every one
had fish in them Gambusia, Cyprinodon variegatus, mollies, and in the more
brackish puddles closer to the salt ponds Fundulus similis.
The tide was low so the water was low in the ponds, it's about
12-16'' deep over a mud bottom with a lot of small red mangroves growing
around. The air temp was 87, the water 85 deg. There were schools of
sheepshead minnows, mollies, a few mojarra, and a lot of Fundulus similis. In
the deeper areas further into the mangroves I saw a few juvenile great
barracuda and schools of silversides mostly hard head silversides
Atherinomorus stipes after a few net swipes I realized mixed in were a few
Keys silversides Menidia conchorum a rarer fish. They are smaller and are
more streamlined than stipes and have a yellow tinge to them. It's not a
common fish found only in ponded water in the Keys. So it was good day
collecting.
Andy
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