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Re: NFC: Bluespotted sunfish



Dear All,

My name is Brian and I am a new listee who is de-lurking here momentarily to
join this thread.  I have most recently had the pleasure of dealing with a
guy in Fla. by the name of Daryl Roche, who sent me a package recently
containing, amongst other things, eight beautiful Bluespots.

They have now settled in very nicely in a 55 gal. tank planted heavily with
some material Daryl sent to me, plus several plants that I acquired locally.
There are several chunks of "driftwood" in the tank to provide hiding
places.  The temp is kept around the 69 F mark, although it does fluctuate a
little with the temp. in the room.  The filtration is supplied by a large,
Eheim, canister-style external filter.The Bluespots also have several
Fundulus chrysotus for companions.

 The Bluespots definitely feel most comfortable when they know that a safe
place in the plant cover or under a branch is close at hand. Initially they
kept to the plants pretty much continuously, but seemed to respond to the
presence of the live food offered at first and then the frozen and flake
food later on.  The Killies do a very nice job "dithering" these little
fellows by attacking virtually anything that even remotely appeared to be a
food item floating through the water column.  Now the Sunnies sit and wait
out in the open areas and respond very noticeably to my presence at the
front of the tank, anticipating a meal no doubt.  In this respect they
remind me most of certain Cichlid species that once they associate your
presence with food, they become almost like a domestic cat or dog in their
interaction with me.  One obvious advantage the Sunfish owner has lies in
the fact that they do not bark at night, or claw the furniture! Another
fascinating aspect of their behavior is their setting of/ defending
territories in the tank. Several of the fish darken noticeably when in
"conflict" with their tankmates over a chunk of property. These conflicts do
not typically result in damage- they are mostly for show. This darkening
also provides a vivid background color for the fantastic blue-metallic dots
that sparkle on the the body of these animals.

  They seem to take all that is offered in the way of food, with the
exception of the flake foods- they don't eat plants as far as I can tell.
The biggest Bluespots that I've seen were in the 2.5 to 3 " range.

 I had been out of the hobby of fishkeeping for several years when coming
across the NFC website (and this mailing list) provided the impetus to
return and enjoy it once again.  A big thank you to all, especially Daryl,
for his fine fish.

Question:  My Sunnies have noticeably red Ventral fins and a streak of the
same color through the bottom edge of the Anal.  Is this unusual?

Brian



-----Original Message-----
From: Dwight Moody <dwightmoody at hotmail_com>
To: nfc at actwin_com <nfc at actwin_com>; sajjad at uic_edu <sajjad at uic_edu>
Date: Monday, November 30, 1998 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: NFC: Bluespotted sunfish


>Sajjad:
>
>What I have found works well is to have plants, flowerpots on their side
>and other types of cover in the tank. The fish will hide for the first
>few days, but can be coaxed into eating with daphnia, especially if they
>don't have to go far from cover.  Having some shiners, darters or other
>dither fish seems to help convince the fish that everything is OK.  Key
>point: if you are able, only approach the tank when feeding, which
>causes the fish to associate you with dinner and rapidly eliminates
>fear.
>
>My BSS like daphnia, frozen bloodworms and flake food. They are kept in
>20 gallon long and a standard 10 gallon tanks, along with several
>species of darters, tadpole madtoms and sailfin shiners.
>
>
>>From owner-nfc at actwin_com Fri Nov 27 11:13:26 1998
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>>Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 13:11:51 -0600 (CST)
>>From: Sajjad Lateef <sajjad at uic_edu>
>>X-Sender: sajjad at tigger_cc.uic.edu
>>To: nanfa at aquaria_net, nfc at actwin_com
>>Subject: NFC: Bluespotted sunfish
>>Message-ID:
><Pine.A41.3.96.981127130039.109182B-100000 at tigger_cc.uic.edu>
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>>Reply-To: nfc at actwin_com
>>
>>Hi all,
>>
>> Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
>>
>> JeffF has kindly offered me some of his blue-spotted sunfish. I
>>searched both the NANFA and NFC sites and found little information
>about
>>these fish. The only mention was in Robert's Ditch Tank article. I
>don't
>>have my handbook handy ... :(
>>
>> If you have kept these fish, would you please describe your setup?
>>Do these fish require live foods? Do they eat plants? How hardy are
>they?
>>Are they as sensitive as black-banded sunfish? How big do they get?
>>
>> I'll probably keep them in a 30G. The low-maintainence
>>"ditch-tank" seems like a great way to go.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Sajjad
>>--
>>Sajjad Lateef
><http://www.eecs.uic.edu/~slateef>
>>sajjad at acm_org      Please Visit NFC:
><http://nativefish.interspeed.net>
>>
>
>
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