RE: NANFA-- Brook silverside update

Geoff and Julie Kimber (gkimber2_at_earthlink.net)
Thu, 15 Nov 2001 19:07:34 -0600

When I kept silversides in Tucson, I fed them flake nearly exclusively. I
kept 14 of them in a 55 gallon tank with red river pupfish and 1 f.zebrinus.
They did really well for about a year. At one point in time (during the
winter), I had troubles with their normally translucent bodies turning
opaque. WHen this would happen, the fish would die within 24 hours. Since
the other occupants of the tank can tolerate (thrive in) straight saltwater
and even higher salinities, I added a bunch of sea-salt to bring the
specific gravity to 1.013. Everyone was happy and the silversides stopped
dying.

Over the next 6-8 weeks, I brought the salinity back to Tucson tap water,
which is very hard and has a fair amount of salt in it.

I also ran into problems with the fish bumping their noses on the side of
the glass. THey developed big bumps on their noses, although no fungus.

I did not notice more die-offs during warm weather- in fact, I lost more
fish during the winter.

I do think that keeping the fish in the water when they are in the net makes
a big difference. I would wonder if silversides are more susceptible to
heat injury while on the bank before getting into the buckets.

Geoff Kimber
Lexington,KY

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nanfa_at_aquaria.net On Behalf
Of Roselawn Museum
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 10:07 AM
To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
Subject: RE: NANFA-- Brook silverside update

Hi Bob

Thanks for the input. I change out 1/3 of the water in all my tanks weekly.
So far, none of my silversides has gotten up enough speed to bump into
anything. If they were any more laid back they'd be bottom dwellers! I
assume you caught yours in MI. If so, then colder water definitely seems to
be one of the keys.

Steven A. Ellis
Kennesaw, GA

At 10:56 AM 11/14/01 EST, you wrote:
>Steve
>
>I kept five brook silversides last winter. they did well on frozen brine
shrimp and bloodworms. I kept them in the river tank I wrote about in my
AC Dusky darter art. They seemed to bump into the glass and get a little
fungus on the tip of their "nose". With my broken leg last winter they did
not get the amount of water changes I would have liked. I lost them in
early spring. I had wanted to spawn them and do plan to try again. Good
luck with yours.
>
>Bob Muller
>

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/"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily
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/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org