Re: NANFA-- catenatus pic

Al G Eaton (sege7_2000_at_yahoo.com)
Sun, 30 Sep 2001 15:36:53 -0700 (PDT)

I have had both catenatus and stellifer in my tanks
this summer and I agree that the females are
particularly difficult to separate, but the males in
color are easy. both these fish can jump
spectacularly and its great fun to watch a catenatus
skip like a rock across the water when it feels
trapped. I have caught catenatus in Kentucky,
Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri and
Indiana. Stellifer in Tennessee (Conasauga
watershed), Georgia and Alabama as far south as Monroe
county. So it would seem, catenatus is primarily a
ohio, tennessee, Mississippi drainage fish while
stellifer having a much smaller range is found in the
gulf drainage primarily. What with the proliferation
of exotics, I wouldnt be surprised if there are somee
populations that have made it over sand mountain,
since their ranges abutt each other there. It might
be a good idea to send the fish you caught to Dr.
Jamie Thomerson, who has studied Catenatus extensively
and compared them to stellifer.

--- Bruce Stallsmith <fundulus_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the picture, Klaus. There isn't a sharp
> physical difference
> between catenatus and stellifer; I think that
> stellifer can get bigger, is
> more robust and has a range defined on the northwest
> by the barrier of Sand
> Mountain in northeastern Alabama. The sharpest
> difference I have noticed
> between the two is that stellifers are _very_ prone
> to jumping, while I've
> never had a catenatus jump. I don't have the
> literature in front of me to
> point out diffs in scale count, etc., but in purely
> cladistic terms I would
> rate "tendency to jump" as a major character state.
>
> --Bruce Stallsmith
> Huntsville, AL, US of A
>
> >With all the confusion over catenatus and stellifer
> I
> >asked Jay to post a picture of a catenatus I took
> >...The quality is not up to my standards but its
> >adequate to see what this fish looks like.
> Hopefully
> >that Georgia fish isnt a bifax lol.
> >
> >
> >
> >Here they are:
> >http://www.nanfa.org/misc/fcatenatus_redriver.jpg
> >(reduced size)
> >
> >http://www.nanfa.org/misc/catenatus_redriver.jpg
> (full
> >size)
> >
> >
> >Thany you Jay for posting the pics.
> >
> >Klaus
>
>
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
> http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
>
>
>
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> /"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

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Listen to your Yahoo! Mail messages from any phone.
http://phone.yahoo.com

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/"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