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Re: NFC: Goldfish chase trout away
Chris Hedemark wrote:
>
> Eric Coffman wrote:
>
> > Maybe their are some sterile hybrid striped bass or muskuelege they can use?
> > Something that wont reproduce and will be fished out in a few years. After
> > they eat the goldfish.*smile**
>
> If I understand it correctly, it is pretty easy in the aquaculture
> business to produce a large run of male fish. Now I don't know if these
> are NORMAL males (XY chromosomes) snip...
Fish don't have sex determined by chromosomes, and many species of fish can
change sex as needed. I suspect this method might have some problems. IDK.
Predators do not *have* to eat the goldfish. Something that interferes with
reproduction is usually more effective. [A species-specific disease often is
the very best.] The goldfish get old and die, usually fairly early if the
feed is really good.
Malaysian Trumpet Snails are the most predacious egg-eaters I have ever
found. Those are the long spiral goodies that look like a mini-cornucopia or
ice-cream cone. Fish that do not nest and guard their eggs, or bear young
alive, have real difficulty in propagating when MTS are present in any
quantity. They burrow in the sand and are murder to eliminate. They have
shells too tough for the most voracious loach.
Combining snails with live bearers, like damnbusia or mollies, the few eggs
that hatch can not grow up as the livebearers eat them all. This is a
problem in most of our desert springs. Folks dump aquaria, including fish,
plants and snails, and we have an ill-informed group of biologists who
refuse to understand the problems with damnbusia. They have formed their own
psuedo-scientific society and publish "learned" papers, while advocating the
spread of the nasty little murderers into all kinds of native-fish waters.
Several California coastal counties are strongly under their influence, so
our natives are in really short supply, now.
*Gambusia affinis* and related species are not at all good as mosquito fish.
They eat eggs and young of the native fish, and are invariably *worse* at
controlling mosquitoes than the natives they crowd out. They *could* be part
of a control program if an exit strategy is in place before introducing
them. [I realize this is an unpopular process in the federal government
these days. ;-)] Incompetent biologists adore them, because they are so easy
to breed even *they* can keep them alive. That also makes them really tough
to eradicate when the job is done, tho.
Wright
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 huntleyone at home dot com
To all gun-control advocates: Please just place a sign
on your front lawn that reads: "This home is gun-free."
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