[Killietalk] Brackish fundulus was Nothos

["Tranquility Base" <TranquilityBase at netzero_net>]

Hi Gary,

Some years back I lived in a town called South River. You guessed it, it was
named after a body of water also called the South River. Said river had
extensive tidal marshes which drained leaving only shallow channels that
retained some shallow water during low tide. In those little channels, a
minnow trap could extract about a hundred killies per hour using the
appropriate bait. As I recall, some of the killies that came from that marsh
were unusually colorful, and we were out on my friends power boat last
summer, we tooled up the river and dropped a couple of traps over the side.
We did not catch a single killie in the channel.  I found the same
occurrence in the Arthur Kill.  The few remaining creeks, drainage ditches
and marshes still contain killies. But in the kill itself, I have only ever
caught one straggler and he was only a few feet off shore.

Out in the Raritan Bay itself, I have caught large yellow fundulus with
horizontal stripes by hand as they were swimming in water so shallow that
their backs protruded from the water as they skirted the shoreline.

>From my personal observations, I would conclude, that for the most part,
Fundulus will not venture out into open waters, brackish, fresh, or pure
marine.  In fairness to the killies, The Raritan Bay, river and tributaries
are full of snapper blues, stripers, skate, fluke, dogfish and lots of
things that voraciously eat killies.

Peace,

~RJ~

-----Original Message-----
From: killietalk-bounces+tranquilitybase=netzero_net at aka.org
[mailto:killietalk-bounces+tranquilitybase=netzero_net at aka.org]On Behalf
Of M. Frauley and G. Elson
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 12:25 PM
To: killifish discussion list
Subject: Re: [Killietalk] Nothos




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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