[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Silversides

Dave,

Thank you for the articles ! You have a nice style and it is a real
pleasure to see your broad base of experience. Contact me if you'd like
to do some of the fish publications ! I'd be happy to help you get a
broader audience..............





Robert Rice

Save A Native Eat An Oscar <:)((((<
Check Out the Native Fish Conservancy at
email  NFC at actwin_com   or  website  http:\\nativefish.interspeed.net\

On Wed, 15 Jul 1998 20:43:16 -0700 "The Halls" <dahall at lightspeed_net>
writes:
>Silversides
>David L. Hall
>813 Williams Ave.
>Madera, CA 93637
>dahall at lightspeed_net
>
>
>My interest in silversides began when I saw a picture of the Brook
>silversides (Labidesthes sicculus) in a booklet called An Introduction 
>to
>Missouri Fishes by William Pflieger and Lawrence C. Belusa.  I was
>intrigued by the picture which showed a translucent fish with a 
>beaklike
>snout.  I had to have a closer look.
>
>Finding the silversides was easy as they were abundant in the area, 
>but
>getting them home was anything but easy.  Catching them with my seine 
>was
>not difficult, but when I transferred them to my bucket they died 
>within
>minutes.  After several attempts I gave up, vowing to try again later.
>
>Many weeks later I was on a quest searching for sunfish when I caught 
>a
>21/2 inch silverside.  My first reaction was throw it back, but on a 
>whim I
>tossed it into the styrofoam container that I had brought to transport 
>my
>"catch of the day".  Continuing to search for sunnies I forgot about 
>the
>lone silverside. Later when I was about to put a Blackstripe topminnow 
>in
>the styro I was shocked to see the siverside was still alive and well! 
> In
>my excitement I shifted my priorities and looked for more silversides. 
> I
>collected a couple more before calling it a day.
>
>I kept those silversides in a 15 gallon long aquarium with outside 
>filter. 
>I fed my silversides fine flake food with an occasional supplement of
>frozen baby brine shrimp.  They feed on plankton in nature and so 
>newly
>hatched brine shrimp or daphnia would be appropriate.  William 
>Pflieger's
>Fishes of Missouri notes that they feed by sight.
>
>My first silversides survived for several months, but my second 
>attempt to
>keep them resulted in keeping them alive for close to two years.  I 
>found
>that a larger swimming area, floating plants, and salt in the aquarium
>seemed to have a positive effect on them.  
>
>Although I never attempted to spawn them sources note that silversides
>spawn like Medaka or Celebes rainbows with the female trailing a 
>filament
>with eggs attached from her vent and depositing them on plants.  Their
>spawning behavior in the wild has been observed to occur when the 
>water
>temperature reaches between 20 and 34 degrees(C).  
>
>In California I've collected and kept the Mississippi silversides 
>(Menida
>audens).  They've survived in an aquarium for several months and then
>relocated them to an outside pond with no filtration for close to a 
>year. 
>I lost very few of these silversides when I collected and they may be 
>more
>hardy than the Brook silversides.  Peter Moyle in his book Inland 
>Fishes of
>California notes that they were used as bait fish.
>
>Several people have speculated as to why silversides are hard to 
>collect
>and keep.  Observations from several sources suggest keeping handling 
>to a
>minimum and not removing them from the water is helpful, but from 
>personal
>observation and experience I believe just taking extra care when 
>handling
>them helps.  In the aquarium plenty of surface area and swimming space 
>with
>the addition of salt to the water is helpful.  These fish seem fragile 
>but
>are surprisingly hardy. 
>
>---------------------------
>References
>
>American Currents  Janusry 1985
>
>Moyle, Peter B.,  Inland Fishes of California, University of 
>California
>Press, 1976.
>
>Pflieger, William,  The Fishes of Missouri,  Missouri Department of
>Conservation,  1975.   
>
>
>
>    
>

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
References: