Re: Mop colors

[Wright Huntley <jwwiii at pacbell_net>]

Bill Martin wrote:

snip...

>  ...Over the last month it appears that I 
> get twice as many eggs in the yellow as the black.  Has anyone else had 
> a similar experience with top spawners?  Do the substrate spawners 
> prefer darker colors? 


I *think* I have seen some tiny differences in color preference, but, as Lee 
points out, that is often due to the advantage they find in eating the eggs 
in a darker mop.

A more significant difference seems to be softness of texture. A really soft 
Orlon mop will be used before a harsher Nylon rug-yarn mop. Both will be 
ignored if the tank contains softer red algae (black brush algae -- the kind 
that grows in 1/2" tufts that are hard to remove).

Back before I quit doing desert pupfish, I found they liked a sunken wad of 
polyester pillow stuffing (aka "filter floss") better than most mops, 
despite its stark white coloring. That also worked best in the rolled 
plastic-canvas cylinders I used for crevice spawners. [Sue B. and I still 
get a chuckle over her attempts to dye polyester floss. :-)]

Java moss would be used (mostly by smaller species) unless a really softer 
mop was available. Then all the eggs seemed to be in the mops.

Conclusions?

Color does not seem very important for most fish, but softer texture seems 
to be more strongly favored. Keep that in mind when doing any color comparisons.

Wright

PS All the above is from random observations without decent recordings. No 
science involved! YMMV!




-- 
Wright Huntley -- 650 843-1240 -- 866 Clara Dr. Palo Alto CA 94303

Ask of politicians the ends for which laws were originally designed, and 
they will answer that laws were designed as a protection for the poor and 
weak (...) but surely no pretence can be so ridiculous(...). -- Edmund 
Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society, 1756


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