Re: NANFA-- Ascetic appeal of mudminnows and sticklebacks

DasArm_at_aol.com
Mon, 18 Sep 2000 21:50:52 EDT

In a message dated 9/16/00 10:02:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
darterman_at_hotmail.com writes:

<< I think that the fact that the mudminnow looks like that,
is what makes it worth our attention. A stickle back, for example only has
earth toned colors, of which in my opinion are nice in that they are able to
camoflouge in their habitat... also, the way they ambitiously build nests,
makes this little fish interesting. Most people won't take note to any of
that, and would only be looking for red, yellow and blue, so to speak. This
is why, as people who may know this, we should point it out to gain new
people to appreciate natives!!! >>

Some of the people that I've shown mudminnows to thought that they looked
cool. So do I for that matter; they look a lot like a miniature pike (I
thought that they were juvenile pikes when I was a little kid; I'd never
heard of mudminnows then). There are some recognizable differences, but the
similarity is there and I think that pikes and other fishes with a elongated
predatory-type body design are cool-looking in their general appearance
despite the fact that they don't really have bright colors.

I think that sticklebacks look pretty cool as well; they have free spines
protruding from their back intead of a spiny dorsal fin, which I think is
unique because I don't know of any other fishes like that. As far as color
goes, a number of the stickleback species have red spawning coloration on the
males' belly and the brook stickleback males have a dramatic black coloration
with faint olive mottling and a black line passing through their eyes which
makes for a striking appearance. To me sticklebacks are a class of their own
because they have a unusual appearance and there are no parallel species in
the pet stores which resemble them.

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