Re: NANFA-- rainbow Shiners

Prizma_at_aol.com
Tue, 24 Feb 2004 17:14:24 EST

hey bob...
thanks for the through reply.
im glad you were able to witness it!
what were you feeding them?
how were you filtering the water?
did you have a powerhead blowing?
that is so cool! collinsville offspring. such a neat place. i have snorkeled
there several times. the water is barely deep enough to lay in but only a few
places.
the last time i went was in may... i believe i wrote an extensive post on it
to the list. the rainbows at that time already appeared a bit frayed and
worn... i cant say ive ever seen them crashing into the gravel... just intensly
colored masses of 1 or 2 or 3 dozen. there seemed to be a lot of variation in
their individual coloring too. hum.
i bet when the indians were here hundreds would be at a spawn site.
i know several speak of differences between these just south of chattanooga
and those way south. ive seen them near centerville al too and they seemed more
slender... sleeker but i may be wrong. these around here are certainly robust.

last year when i was wandering mid tn after the convention i came into a
swarming frenzy of tn shiners... hot as any rainbows ive seen. euforic. rabidly
intense.
my first experience w/ a rainbow was years ago before the 98 convention. i
knew very little about fish but one near dusk evening i was walking along a tiny
spring trib to the conasauga river. in the water i could see a fish w/ a
purple glow line on it. when i would catch it in my net it would instantly lose
the glow. i repeated this several times thinking i was missing the targeted
fish. finally i lowered a caught rainbow slowly into the water and it lite up.
wow. david etnier said they have batteries. i truely wonder if they at all
possible glow in the dark but i doubt it. did you take a peek? if not it is an
extremely amazing reflectory iridescense something!

try to raise them babies... i bet several including me would like some 1"ers.

during one of the past couple years i brought back 3 or 4 hot rainbows to
study them in an indoor planted 55. they lost there color by the time i got
home... just hours later and never regained it. nature is such a perfectionist. im
happy that you are achieving a success in this!

casper
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