NANFA-- spawning red fin pickerel

George Arndt (georgeacim_at_hotmail.com)
Mon, 09 Apr 2001 20:29:50 -0400

<x-flowed>
well today was the first day that the outside pond liner was not frozen into
the ice. today was lovely and into about 60F. i put the pair of red fin
pickerel outside in the 16 ft by 8 ft pond with about 8 inches of water.
the temp of the water was up to 60F. remarkable. but the sun on the
shallow water heated it right up. the 125 gallon in the house was at 61F
so the move was good. I did it toward the end of the day so the pond had
the full day to warm up. there is some nice maple leaves and other debris
on the bottom. all pretty clean except for some string algae. I also put
in some feeder goldfish for the pickerel. all were doing well. tonight is
to be warm and all this week. if the overnight is to get cold I can do a
few things. I expect the water to cool down to some freezing on the top
before full summer. I think the pickerel need it cool to spawn. so here is
hoping. both are full of food. they have been filling up real well and put
on some weight from eating so well.

also the ice went out on another pond and I was able to collect some good
live glass worms. everybody loves the live food today. the gambusia from
Martin are real good at eating the glass worms. I now see why it is
important to keep the gambusia out of non-native areas. they are very
agressive eaters. they will eat all the fry of the competitors. even the
small males will down the comparatively huge glass worm and take a while to
get it down. it will dangle from the front of the male until he can work it
down the hatch. but down it goes. the larger females inhale the glass
worms and immediately go for more.

george arndt
harvard, massachusetts
where the sun finally found us. hehe.
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"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
</x-flowed>