Re: NANFA-- Re: Thanks... (long)

Dave Neely (rheopresbe_at_hotmail.com)
Thu, 11 May 2000 14:32:53 CDT

Tony,

>Since you keep and have experiences with Hydrophlox shiners I would >like
>to ask more [I think all] similar questions about keeping [and >ability to
>hold color in warmwater] and breeding of the rest of the >group: rainbow,
>redlip shiners and Ozark minnow [N. nubilis].

Rainbow shiners do very well in aquaria, and are quite possibly the
singularly most impressive minnow in NA when they are fired up. Coming from
a guy who's fave fish are sculpins, that's saying something. I've only
collected nubilus and chiliticus a couple of times, and preserved all
specimens immediately.

>...All I can say is I wanna keep Albama and tricolor shiner [especially the
>Albama shiner which is large [at least 5 inches] impressive red tail fish
>with lots of blue-white tubercles on the face].

Tubercles in most NA minnows are generally not maintained well in aquaria-
well, most of the time. One of the folks in our lab, Bernie Kuhajda,
suscribes to the "pack em in" philosophy of tank maintenance. In one 20gal
tank in his office, he has several Cyprinella camura (one a stud male of ca.
6"), half a dozen large Pimephales vigilax, half a dozen Notropis chrosomus,
a few big Cyprinella venusta, some Phoxinus, three large Erimyzon, a large
Percina kathae, two Percina vigil, and a big Hypostomus. There's barely any
room for water. Weird thing is, all of the male fish stay in full nuptial
coloration and tuberculation for months longer than fish in our other tanks
do, and intensity of coloration is much higher (the testosterone level in
that tank is almost enough to make a person grow a beard just from walking
by it)! Amazingly, he has very few casualties, even though the large
Pimephales and C. camura spend most of the day headbutting each other.
Speaking of tubercles, do you have any experience with the genus Garra?
Asian cyprinids seem to have some of the most bizarre tuberculation patterns
within the family.

>Because of this I would like to keep NA fishes home but I have to >check if
>any beautiful one can make it in warmwater condition with >color first,
>hence lots of questions. Since obviously you have seen >fieryblack and
>bandfin shiners and rosyside dace, do they do ok and >show their colors in
>warmwater?

Cyprinella and Luxilus, yes. Most Clinostomus lose color quick, and do a lot
better in coolwater situations. The "smoky dace" I referred to earlier is
restricted to the Great Smoky Mountains at high elevation. The form of
Clinostomus "funduloides" in the Tennessee/Cumberland/Ohio seems to be most
abundant in cool headwater streams. In contrast, I've taken "real" C.
funduloides on the mid-Atlantic Slope in Coastal Plain streams that have to
reach 80-85 F during the summer.

Alabama and tricolor shiners would be good choices- mid-summer Alabama has
as close to steamy equatorial heat as you are going to find in NA... (BG and
Martin, no comments ;)

Are you planning on attending the Mississippi convention? I'll be doing a
lot of fieldwork both immediately before and after, and could put you on
spots for the above, plus rainbow shiners (although they won't be fired up
then...). Offer holds for anyone else, as well.

cheers,
Dave

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