Re: [Killietalk] Nothos

["M. Frauley and G. Elson" <fraulels at videotron_ca>]

LeeH920226 at aol_com wrote:

 I suspect that Nothos could be acclimated to near sea water
> strength water. Like Mollies can. Certainly Fundulus heteroclitus and
> Cyprinodon variegatus can.

Lee,
I occasionally spend a summer week on Prince Edward Island in the Gulf
of St Lawrence. While the people I'm with golf and suntan, I end up
watching Fundulus heteroclitus in the spring-fed brackish pond
(sometimes invaded by the sea by storms, and ending on the sandy beach
maybe ten metres from the surf at high tide) beside the cottage. I've
noticed that while the sticklebacks in this environment go out into the
sandy pools by the sea, even juvenile heteroclitus never showed up in my
net there. Granted, they'd feed maybe twenty metres back, and water
depth may have been the variable. But these killies can go into
seawater, and do for at least foraging expeditions in their natural
environments. I've seen them in the beach channels when the sea had
connected directly to the pond and the wind was blowing the salt waves
in.
Just to add to your excellent comments, any new killiekeeper considering
experimenting with "salty nothos" (Notho chips?) should bear in mind
that Nothos have salt added by fishkeepers. They are not naturally salt
or brackish water fishes.
Gary Elson

BTW - the PEI Fundulus is a gorgeous, big (for a killie) fish with a
vivid green body and orange fins.

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