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The rats of NIMH strike again

The living room?? Why not dig a hole in the backyard and throw them in 
there? It works in Japan!

Ed
Tokyo Japan



>From: "Scott Davis" <unclescott at prodigy_net>
>Reply-To: killietalk at aka_org
>To: <killietalk at aka_org>
>Subject: Re: fish food
>Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2001 08:36:09 -0500
>
> > Kind of interesting that many (over half) of the Aphyosemions I keep 
>will
>totally ignore their fry if only a single pair is present in the tank.  A
>third or fourth fish, no fry survive. ...
>
>This is the population equilibrium thing. In nature or an aquarium if there
>are no alternative foods for adults one can expect that they may prey on
>fry. One wonders if there is not enough food for the adults if it makes
>*sense* to have more hungry mouths of a species around which will starve.
>Better to return the protein to the adults for later.
>
>Maybe you recall that old high school biology film where they put a pair of
>mice in a cage and feed them a set quantity of food and water. The
>population will expand until a certain point and then stop at a certain
>number. (The kids can get pretty grossed out at the mechanisms involved in
>the stopping of the increase.)
>
>When the food ration is increased, the population will increase to a 
>certain
>point and level off again. Keeping the other variables the same, increasing
>the size of the living quarters will again cause a population spurt 
>followed
>by another equilibrium.
>
>In an aquarium, if there are plenty of alternatives in a sparsely populated
>tank, the adults will virtually always go for the daphnia, worms or bs
>before going for their youngsters. Likewise I'll bet if fry are swimming in
>baby brine shrimp or newly hatched mosquito larvae, they will leave their
>smaller siblings alone (at least until the bs run out).
>
>The bigger tanks in a so called natural set up will often shelter and feed
>more killie fry. That works with a lot of other fishes (livebearers,
>anabandids, some rainbows, even king's tetras ...) too.
>
>Backyard tubs often are very productive because of the space and insects 
>who
>obligingly drop in. More food + more space + hiding places (and the 
>rotifers
>growing on them, especially plants) = more surviving fry.
>
>Now if only I could make the living room water tight, flood it and raise
>blue gularis.
>
>All the best,
>
>Scott
>
>
>---------------
>See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe


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