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Re: bluenose shiners
John,
These are fish closely related to the bluehead shiner, which I am very
familiar with. In the wild one behavior that bluehead have is a group of
3 to as many as ten or so rush in to breed when a male sunfish
momentarily leaves its nest site. If you place small gravel and sand in
the bottom of the tank and scoop out a small depression simulating a
sunnies nest site, this will give them another trigger for breeding
behavior. No plants or mops in the tank are needed, as the bluehead will
not eat the young of other fish that I have observed, if the bluenose is
anything at all like the bluehead in this behavior, move any plants or
other obstructions (mops) out, as they will have more room. Actually, I
recommend a 20 or 30 tank for this, as they (bluehead) circle and twirl
around a lot in breeding behavior in the wild.
If you went to a mud substratum, then put some plants on the bottom,
and expect territory defense by a dominate male.
Bluehead, and perhaps bluenose are very sensitive to temperature
fluctuations so be very careful in a ten gal tank with cooling the tank
too quickly. Its not the cool off that's a problem, but the quick reheat
that gets them. This is the quickest way I know of to kill bluehead!
Cooling simulates rain well enough, but the reheat is not what happens
in nature, as the streams stay cool for a while, like a day or so.
Other triggers are water changes from tannic to nearer 7 ph, with more
clarity (might collect rain water for this). This simulates fresh rain
in the spring, but the temp has to be close to the 70 - 75 degree range
for bluehead, but am not sure on bluenose, as they are less heat
toleratnt than the bluehead in general.
Course, I have not had the bluehead breed in captivity, just a LOT of
observation in the wild.
Good luck! Keep us posted!
Herb
J.F. Laurent wrote:
>
> I collected some bluenose shiners last year. I have two females that
> are about to pop with eggs. I placed the two females and two males
> in breeding colors in a 10 gallon tank, gravel substrate, sponge filter,
> spawning mop on the bottom and the surface.
>
> To date they have not initiated and spawning behavior. Any suggestions?
>
> John
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