I don't have much experience with spawning fishes, but I found it
interesting that I could use Convict Cichlids as my "water change indicator"
in my large system at the shop. It seems that environmentally, when the pH
drops suddenly, they get busy right away (so much for having great water
quality to spawn huh? ;). If I saw them laying, I could go test the system,
see that the buffer had been burned up and it was time for a fresh carbonate
water exchange to keep everyone else on board. The pH in the system when
this happened would drop from 7.0 down to 5.0 nearly overnight once a
critical amount of carbonate had been eaten up by nitrification (it got real
zany when I began putting slain coral heads to use to balance the system a
bit more, and watching them dissolve in about 2 months ;)
I wonder if you have been able to pin point environmental cues that would
trigger the spawn? Or anyone? Like perhaps the Penninsular species would
need a drop in pH since I'd imagine ground water was pretty hard there with
all the carbonate substrate... But... A healthy dose of spring rains may
temporarily soften the water, or flush more acid, standing back waters into
the river system, and that's the cue that this "sub-species" is looking for?
That not being fact or the case, but just an illustration, as I'd like to
discuss this a bit :)
Todd
----- Original Message -----
From: "R. W. Wolff" <choupiqu_at_wctc.net>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2003 1:02 AM
Subject: NANFA-- Eastern Dollars spawning, finally
> A little background. I divide the specie ( Lepomis marginatus) of sunfish
> commonly called the dollar sunfish into three different fish, since they
> look distictive to me. Those on the Atlantic coast states are Easterns,
> those from Florida's penninsula are Pennisulars, and those from the
> Mississippi Valley are Westerns. Shades of interegrades are found on the
> borders of these areas, from what I have seen.
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