Dung in habitats was: Water in Notho habitats

["William Vannerson" <William_Vannerson at ama-assn_org>]

>>>In some Notho pools one will find evidence of cow or elephant fecal matter but in such quantities that this is hardly likely to pollute the water excessively. Much of this material is simply processed vegetation anyway and the biological system operating in the habitat can cope with that.<<<

There's an interesting photo article in the recent issue of National Geographic Magazine about animal life in a series of ponds in Kenya (I think it was in Kenya, I only scanned the article so my memory is fuzzy on the location).  Anyway, The article points out how hippo dung actually forms the basis for the pond's ecology, providing food and cover for small organisms, which in turn provide food all the way up the food chain.  In one pond that was eventually surrounded by farms, the hippos were either killed or driven off.  As a result, the pond life completely disappeared.

So one needs to be careful about making assumptions regarding natural conditions.  Conditions in the wild are not ideal and populations, of any organism, will suffer great loses.  We would not tolerate the same percentage of mortality in our fishroom that Mother Nature does in the wild.  Adverse conditions at any extreme, whether it's water condition or temperature or any other variable, is not desirable.  Bettas in the wild can survive in blazing hot, turbid puddles practically devoid of oxygen.  But I doubt any of us would be willing to subject bettas in our care to such conditions.


Bill Vannerson
McHenry, IL
http://vannerson.home.att.net/

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