Re: [Killietalk] Killietalk Digest, Vol 44, Issue 14

["Koran, David HQ02" <David_Koran at hq02.usace.army.mil>]

Notes on Lucania goodei, Bluefin killies

I notice every time this comes up I see the notes that the fish are easy, yet
you don't often see them in local shows nor did you ever see them offered up
much in the F&E Listing.  I would question how many folks actually kept them
for more than a single generation.

While it is very common to have them show up in your tank if you get plants
from a commercial operation in Florida, one needs to remember or maybe think
a little bit about the water where they are found.  In collecting in many
places in Florida I would like to point out you pretty much only find Luc.
goodei in hard water.  Also, the water chemistry has a great deal to do with
the color of those blue fins.  Fish collected in the vicintiy of Tampa (a
fairly large range) have lots of red in the fins.  When you head north on the
west of the peninsula, fin color tends to be more brown to orange.  We found
them in a spring southeast of Tallahassee where the pH approached 10 and the
only other living thing in the water was an amazing number of snails, the
fins on the goodei were yellow.

I keep these fish in water of about 250 ppm hardness and they are pretty
hardy but I don't find them to feed as much as other hardwater species,
easier to pollute and kill in other words.  I breed them in bottom mops and
they scatter eggs pretty much throughout the mops.  Production tails off at
temperature in the mid to upper 70's and the same works below 60.  In the
greenhouse, most production comes in the spring and fall and little in the
middle of the summer.  I see only about half of the eggs produced develop
fully and hatch.  Fry are fairly hardy and take new hatched brine shrimp
immediately.

Dave K

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