I used to catch juvenile sirens regularly in Jacksonville; I thought
they were lesser but they stopped growing at 6" - don't remember
the differences now between lesser and dwarf. When about 1" long
they were black on top, slightly lighter underneath, with a red strip
running laterally from eyes to front of snout. As they grew older
they lightened up a tad and developed lots of tiny dots - very
attractive, actually. Is that a dwarf siren?
In tanks they lived apparently happily in an 8" deep very thick mass
of floating water sprite. I never thought of them as predators until
seeing them slithering around vacuuming up baby green mollies
(parents from the same creek) sheltering in the same aquatic
jungle. Not really chasing things down, just wandering around and
inhaling anything they say. They poop worse than cichlids and
swallow anything that'll fit in their mouths that's too stupid to swim
away, very subject to being nipped by more aggressive fish (such
as immature Lepomis less than half their size) - SURE you want
them?
This was over 20 years ago and the cow pasture has been turned
into a subdivision, with part of that drainage ditch/creek now routed
into a culvert, but there are still some areas not in the culvert, if you
want to give it a try I'll send you the directions. Same place I used
to collect lots of Ellasoma (very localized tho).
The Little Pottsburgh Creek bridge on Crane Road (or maybe it was
some other road that Crane goes into - I don't remember) was a
good spot for gar, too. Really weird seeing 2' long gar in about 8
inches of water. Follow the little feeder creeks out from it and there
were sometimes sirens to be found there, too.
Sharon Allsup
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"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