28 replies to this topic

[Michael Wolfe]

Those are awesome. I love keeping fish outdoors.

[gerald]

Just cleaned out most of the fallen leaves and globs of algae out of the pitcherplant pool pool today (before weather warms up and depletes O2) and found about 15 to 20 remaining Umbra.  They're all similar in size, about 2 to 3 inch, so presumably from the 2013 spawning.  I did not see any new fry in 2014, and I did not find the original adults (stocked in spring 2012).  Hoping these 2-yr olds will now spawn in Mar-Apr.

[Kanus]

Good luck! I have some in a tank indoors in a room that is allowed to cool to as close to outside air temp as possible. The tank has been in the 40s or 50s for about two or three months now and the fish are visibly gravid. Hopefully I'll have a bunch of spares on my hands sometime soon as well!

[gerald]

These are all 3" or larger, so probably 2 to 3 year olds; I dont think any of the 2015 fry survived in the wading pool, but I did move some tiny fry last spring into other tubs that I haven't yet checked for fish this year.  Anyway, i mainly wanted to show the difference in anal fin shape between the sexes (1= male, 2 = female).  The last fish (photos 3 and 4) confused me.  Long anal fin and brighter iridescence under the eye suggests male, but when I first netted it and saw that the plump pink-orange belly I was sure it was a gravid female (before looking at the fin).

 

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[Michael Wolfe]

These are just beautiful fish.  The pale ones (photo 3 & 4) are very interesting... I wonder if you have a recessive gene showing up in there creating this more subtley marked fish?

[Betta132]

Very nice! 

Perhaps consider selectively breeding for the pale ones? There might be a bit of a market for them, they're rather nice.

[Joshaeus]

I prefer the normal dark ones personally...

[gerald]

My guess is the light vs dark body color is probably just a variable mood expression.  Since that fish has a damaged 6th ray in the dorsal (5th and 7th rays grown over it) I can probably identify him during future pool clean-ups and determine if he's light or dark on future captures.  I only see them about 2x a year when I net out fallen leaves.

[gerald]

Umbra: The Next Generation ... a little younger this time, with Cyclops for scale.

 

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[mattknepley]

Nice!  The only fish I ever kept in my Sarracenia trays were male gambusia; very cool that you had spawning Umbra. I assume you just allowed leaf litter to accumulate, and that was the substrate.   I have since moved away from the tray/pool method as my trayed cp's took a butt whooping from root rot. Did you have companion plants with the cp's?  I ask because even though my trayed Sarrs suffered from rot, my S. minor okeefenokeensis that I have suspended in cup holders on the side of my 100g stock pond have thrived.  In one of the pots is a marsh grass of some kind that produces a ton of roots.  They grow out the bottom of the pot and stream down into the pond at least 6".  I would think they'd make a good spawning medium for some type of fish. Am curious if your Umbra may have used something like them because the stuff is fast and easy growing.

[gerald]

I have two plastic storage shelves supported on bricks in the pool to hold the pitcherplant pots.  The shelves are about 3-4 inches below the rim of the pool, so the larger pots are about half submerged when the pool is full.  (For raising smaller pots i put additional spacers on top of the shelf).  This has been working for 15+ years.  Companion plants in the pitcher pots include Didiplis diandra, Micranthemum umbrosum, mosses, Rotala ramosior, Lysimachia nummularia, stuff that falls in (maple, cherry, privet, dogfennel, weeds) and the occasional squirrel-planted pecan. The pool area surrounding and underneath the shelves is stuffed full of Elodea canadensis.  Once or twice a year (fall to late winter) I lift out the pots, shelves, and bricks to net out the accumulated leaf litter so the bottom doesn't get anoxic.  I assume the Umbra spawn in the Elodea; I had just scooped out most of the leaf  a month before these fry appaered.

[gerald]

Looks like i have a LOT of these things.  I netted out 50-60 around the edge, so there's probably hundreds.  In past years, very few to none survive in the pool with adults, so I will try raising these indoors in a tank.  Hopefully i'll have some to send along again for the NANFA auction in June, if there's someone planning to go to the convention who can receive them, and if MO law allows these to be sold.  

[Michael Wolfe]

Bob has gotten special permission for fish as auction items. Normally there is no transport of fish into or out of Missouri.

[gerald]

Cleaned the leaves and gunk out of the mudminnow pool today and found 20+ young-of-year.  Up for grabs if anybody wants some ...

They may be mixed stock from the Roanoke, Neuse, and Waccamaw basins. 

[Michael Wolfe]

Yes please. I have a place for s small group outside to try and raise them. These are surviving your winters outside, correct?

[gerald]

Yup they've been in a one-ft deep wading pool on my driveway for years.  The surfaces freezes maybe an inch or 2 thick during cold snaps, but it's a sunny spot and never stays frozen more than a week at most.  If I mail them on Jan 6 you'll probably get them on Jan 8 or 9 - is that timing good?