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Trey Tabb <bestfish at alaweb_com>: natives
Very interesting note today......The color morphs are an interest of mine
but the crayfish are not a strength of mine anyone else wanna chime in ?
--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: Trey Tabb <bestfish at alaweb_com>
To: robertrice at juno_com
Subject: natives
Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 09:21:51 -0600
Message-ID: <34DB2A8F.5D87 at alaweb_com>
Living in south Alabama, in Andalusia, collecting Notropis
hypselopterus and/or Pteronotropis signipinnis has been an activity I
have enjoyed for years. Very near my home, that is, only a few blocks
away, is a huge spawning area which can always be counted upon to
produce hundreds of fry at least twice per year. I generally leave these
young alone in hopes of getting the adults to spawn in aquaria, and
although I have set up dozens of tanks over the years for the purpose, I
just can't seem to get results. Particularly vexing is the fact that I
have been wildly succesful in inducing spawning in literally hundreds of
other species ( well, just a tad over 200 ), many of which are supposed
to be "difficult", while hardly even trying. It's starting to really
annoy me!
That is why I found your article in FAMA so interesting today. Now that
I know it can be done, I think I'll try again using the suggestions you
provided.
By the way, I have noticed 4 ( four ) distinct color forms in this area,
and I'm pretty sure they represent the two species of signipinnis &
hypselopterus. There are the 'standard' forms of each, which are easy
enough to differentiate, and then there are the 'cold water' and 'cave'
versions which look nothing like the others, being much paler with a
decidedly pale metallic greenish tint. These colors do not change if the
fishes are placed in warmer water. Have you ever heard of these forms?
Oh, and another thing: are you 'up' on your crayfishes? One of our cave
creeks occasionally produces a midsized crayfish which is jet black in
color with, and I'm not making this up, metallic gold colored striping
along the edges of each scute ('segment'). I've looked through a ton of
literature, much of it crayfish-specific, and can find no references to
it. I think it would be a popular aquarium species, even if not a new
one.
I have almost joined NANFA on numerous occasions, but haven't yet gotten
around to it for whatever reason. I plan to rectify that soon, though,
especially if I can really gain access to native species from other
areas, most notably darters. I have ready access to many chubs, shiners,
sunfishes , pygmy sunfish, darters, and more, and would love to trade
some with other aquarists.
I quite frequently travel to Navarre on business and collecting trips.
perhaps this summer I can leave Larry at Ocea Products some samples for
your perusal, although you probably have most of the same species down
there that I have.
You wouldn't just so happen to have some welakas for sale, would you? Or
perhaps some nice Phoxinus or Luxilus sp.'s? Do you know anyone who
does?
One last question-- Way down in south Florida quite a number of exotic
species can be found in native waters. It seems every drainage ditch &
canal is full of Oscars, Red Terrors, and Danios galore. ( Is anything
more beautiful that a spawning pair of Red Terrors? ) Since these are
non-native fish which are actually highly detrimental to the local
ecology, would the state of Florida really object to their collection? I
tried last year to find someone who could tell me if & where I might get
a permit, but I had no luck whatsoever. Would the fact that all the
really good stuff is in the Everglades automatically make collection
impossible outright?
Thanks for your time
Trey Tabb
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