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Speckled Madtom


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#1 Michael Wolfe

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Posted 31 August 2010 - 09:26 PM

I found a speckled madtom in a tank where he had been living since the trip home from the 2009 convention. He is larger and seemed very healthy even though I have almost never seen him over the last year. For various reasons I moved him to another aquarium and thought that I might see him more often if I provided a half-of-a-flower-pot cave pointed forward. So I transferred him, released him near the front of the cave and he went right in. He was hding but I could still see him... perfect... or so I thought... tonight I went to look at him again and the whole fron of the flower pot is closed off with substrate. It appears that he has dug all of the substrate from out of the flowerpot and mounded it up in the mouth to close off my view. There is also a channel or groove dug in the substrate that looks like a "back door" from the flower pot.

People always talk about bullhead cats being destructive with their rooting around in the substrate... but I never thought about madtoms excavating in their tanks... but this one certainyl did... guess he just needed motivation... and his motivation was he valued his privacy.
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#2 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 31 August 2010 - 10:20 PM

Michael, that is interesting. From what I've seen they stay in vegetation, and at various points in the water column, depending on where the best cover is.

#3 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 01 September 2010 - 10:35 AM

Etnier and Starnes Fishes of TN says they prefer swift water and speckled madtom (males) direct the entrance to their excavations downstream or perpendicular to the water current.
My juvenile snail bullheads (2'' and 2.5'') are very good at constructing and modifying excavations. This is in a high-velocity tank with many slab rocks. They tend to do their re-arranging when I move the output of the power head during a water change and dont move it back. Maybe they prefer to change entrances based on flow like the madtoms do.

#4 Guest_BullHeadsrdfish_*

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Posted 13 September 2010 - 05:08 PM

I have seen lots of excavating behavior from the four species of madtom that I currently have. This behavior seems to increase in frequency as they grow larger. Even when provided with many different hiding places such as driftood, rocks, and caves, They will still rearrange the substrate under these hiding spots. Maybe this behavior has something to do with maturity and nest building?

#5 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 12 November 2010 - 02:42 PM

I usually don't like bringing up old threads, but I wanted to update.
After several weeks of observation and some re-arranging of rocks in my stream tank with one-way directional current, the two snail bullheads behavior is consistent with what was seen for madtoms in Fishes of TN. These two fish have made openings and/or modified all entrances to their 'hole' to face away from the direction of the current. The excavations are just deep enough to fit in with fins erect, and plenty wide enough to turn around and lay with their heads facing outwards.



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