Alaska blackfish attacks blackfish video
Started by
Guest_FishofSchool_*
, Jan 16 2013 12:50 AM
13 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_FishofSchool_*
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Posted 16 January 2013 - 01:08 AM
I thought you’d all enjoy this video I recorded last May of my favorite big “bull” Alaska blackfish engaged in some pretty cool territorial displays. The neatest part is that, unknown to me at the time, a fluorescent ORANGE camera bag which was attached to and swinging from the camera I was holding, triggered this response in the fish! I had 3 males in 3 different tanks do the same thing when I filmed them on this day.
This big bull blackfish (my most favorite fish of all time) is at least 5 years old (note fungal patch on his side, which healed later.) I trapped him out of a wetlands pond in December 2009, north of Anchorage. These fish are part of my research project at the University of Alaska Anchorage. I’m trying to develop best husbandry techniques for keeping blackfish in lab aquaria, while also documenting behavior and trying to determine their method and location of spawning. I also dissect sacrificed specimens for a diet analysis to see if they are eating juvenile salmon.
This big bull blackfish (my most favorite fish of all time) is at least 5 years old (note fungal patch on his side, which healed later.) I trapped him out of a wetlands pond in December 2009, north of Anchorage. These fish are part of my research project at the University of Alaska Anchorage. I’m trying to develop best husbandry techniques for keeping blackfish in lab aquaria, while also documenting behavior and trying to determine their method and location of spawning. I also dissect sacrificed specimens for a diet analysis to see if they are eating juvenile salmon.
#3
Guest_Usil_*
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Posted 16 January 2013 - 01:16 AM
Wow - it looks like they don't like each other much. Looked like the third one stepped in to break it up. Good video. Why do you think the fluorescent orange color contributed to the action?
usil
usil
Edited by Usil, 16 January 2013 - 01:18 AM.
#4
Guest_FishofSchool_*
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Posted 16 January 2013 - 01:39 AM
Good question!! 
I think the swinging camera bag caused the reaction in the 3 males in 3 different tanks. As the fish tanks are in a crowded lab with students walking through often, and based on my own handling of the fish and observing them over 3 years, the orange color of the bag is the one novel factor I suspect triggered it. What do you think?
(These fish are in a group of 8 blackfish in a 100-gallon fiberglass tank with sphagnum moss for substrate (great for cover.) Water is slightly chilled to 12/13 degrees C, and daylight is manipulated to simulate natural daylight cycle.)
I think the swinging camera bag caused the reaction in the 3 males in 3 different tanks. As the fish tanks are in a crowded lab with students walking through often, and based on my own handling of the fish and observing them over 3 years, the orange color of the bag is the one novel factor I suspect triggered it. What do you think? (These fish are in a group of 8 blackfish in a 100-gallon fiberglass tank with sphagnum moss for substrate (great for cover.) Water is slightly chilled to 12/13 degrees C, and daylight is manipulated to simulate natural daylight cycle.)
#5
Guest_don212_*
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Posted 16 January 2013 - 08:37 AM
those guys look like a cross between a bass and a bulldog, how big are they? very coolGood question!!
(These fish are in a group of 8 blackfish in a 100-gallon fiberglass tank with sphagnum moss for substrate (great for cover.) Water is slightly chilled to 12/13 degrees C, and daylight is manipulated to simulate natural daylight cycle.)
#6
Guest_centrarchid_*
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Posted 16 January 2013 - 10:09 AM
Any color pattern changes associated with aggression? Would be cool to see if vocalizations also produced.
How do females look? Are you able to get them into good weigh?
How do females look? Are you able to get them into good weigh?
#7
Guest_FishofSchool_*
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Posted 16 January 2013 - 01:18 PM
Don--These fish are 7-8” long. Still a ways away from the State record of 13”!
Jim--No color pattern changes observed with the aggression displays. Hadn’t considered vocalization! Cool idea!
No luck yet getting females into good condition...stay tuned and thanks so much for all your advice on spawning these fish! Much appreciated!!
Jim--No color pattern changes observed with the aggression displays. Hadn’t considered vocalization! Cool idea!
No luck yet getting females into good condition...stay tuned and thanks so much for all your advice on spawning these fish! Much appreciated!!
#8
mattknepley
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Posted 18 January 2013 - 08:12 PM
Seriously cool video! I have been intrigued by Alaska blackfish since I first saw them in an Audubon field guide as a kid. (Them and Arctic grayling...) They are just as pugnacious as I imagined, and even tougher looking. Hopefully someday I'll get to see some in the wild, but that day is a loooooong way off. Thanks for posting those blackfish videos, it may be the only up close looks I ever get at one!
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#9
Guest_FishofSchool_*
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Posted 18 January 2013 - 10:19 PM
Matt, I’m so glad you enjoyed the video! If you (or any other fellow NANFA enthusiast) ever get a chance to visit Alaska, give me a shout and I will arrange a personal blackfish trapping outing (catch and release) for you! We use unbaited minnow traps which are soaked overnight. My favorite trapping site is a slough/wetland pond just north of Anchorage. The pond is blackfish only, although we once trapped a ninespine stickleback there. The slough is a coho salmon “nursery" and also has threespine stickleback which are highly coveted and studied by researchers from New York State and other far away places!
Edited by FishofSchool, 18 January 2013 - 10:21 PM.
#10
mattknepley
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Posted 19 January 2013 - 06:49 AM
A most generous offer, Dona. I would love that! Alaska is at the top of my bucket list, so hopefully it could happen. But for now, Michael Wolfe has his hands full just trying to get me over the border into Georgia!
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#11
Guest_davidd_*
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Posted 19 January 2013 - 12:15 PM
Very beautiful fishes. They have some kind of an ancient appearence.
I did't know those kind of fishes because,like you can see I am from Europe. But when I first saw this video, I just thought, that they look like big nasty mudminnows.
So I looked for information abouth those creatures and learned, that they are indeed some kind of mudminnow or at least relatives of them.
Thanks for sharing the video.
I did't know those kind of fishes because,like you can see I am from Europe. But when I first saw this video, I just thought, that they look like big nasty mudminnows.
So I looked for information abouth those creatures and learned, that they are indeed some kind of mudminnow or at least relatives of them.
Thanks for sharing the video.
#12
Guest_sschluet_*
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Posted 19 January 2013 - 03:36 PM
Dona-
Very cool video, thanks for sharing. When I finally get to AK these are on the bucket list to see.
Who are you working with on the stickleback research in NY?
-Scott
Very cool video, thanks for sharing. When I finally get to AK these are on the bucket list to see.
Who are you working with on the stickleback research in NY?
-Scott
#13
Guest_FishofSchool_*
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Posted 19 January 2013 - 04:51 PM
Hi Scott,
I study only blackfish; everyone else in my lab, under Dr. von Hippel, studies threespine stickleback. Mike Bell and colleagues are the NY researchers who study stickleback in collaboration with our lab.
We just had a physiologist from Simon Fraser U/UBC -- J. Stecyk-- transfer to University of Alaska Anchorage; he will be using blackfish as his model organism to study fishes' ability to survive in oxygen-depleted waters. Hurray! Finally another blackfish researcher!
See this link to his research on Crucian carp:
http://www.phschool....at_goes_on.html
I study only blackfish; everyone else in my lab, under Dr. von Hippel, studies threespine stickleback. Mike Bell and colleagues are the NY researchers who study stickleback in collaboration with our lab.
We just had a physiologist from Simon Fraser U/UBC -- J. Stecyk-- transfer to University of Alaska Anchorage; he will be using blackfish as his model organism to study fishes' ability to survive in oxygen-depleted waters. Hurray! Finally another blackfish researcher!
See this link to his research on Crucian carp:
http://www.phschool....at_goes_on.html
Edited by FishofSchool, 19 January 2013 - 04:53 PM.
#14
Guest_sschluet_*
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Posted 19 January 2013 - 05:02 PM
Mike's at SUNY- Stony Brook. Thanks, I was curious.
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