3 replies to this topic

[PBK]

Anyone currently raising a brood of Notatus babies? My little ones are taking a while to grow. Is this a slow growing species?

[JasonL]

I caught a YOY one last year and kept it in a heavily planted 10 gallon for awhile before moving it to a bigger tank.  It was very small, less than a half inch - so small I had to grind up flake to feed it.  A year later it’s now around 2 inches long.  Still not maximum size.  I guessing the really big ones you occasionally see are a couple years old.

[swampfish]

My blackspotted topminnow, Fundulus olivaceous, experience may be useful to you. Bill Flowers and I caught 4 fish about 2-3 inches long on June 1 at the Mississippi NANFA convention last year. I collected eggs on spawning mops from a 350 gallon stock tank through the summer. In the fall, I had 28 fry with most from 1/2 to 1 inch long. Four were 1.5 inches long. 

 

All fish spent the winter in my basement, which ranges from 54 - 58 degrees F most of the winter. All but the 4 bigger fry were kept in an unheated 10 gallon tank. I fed them TetraMin finely ground between my fingers and newly-hatched brine shrimp every other day. 

 

I lost the four wild-caught fish last winter in a tank die-off.

 

Two weeks ago, I put 10 of the fry measuring 2.5-3 inches long back out in a stock tank, including the four larger ones. This means that 6 fry grew during the winter to catch the other winter growth of the four larger fry. These are laying eggs on spawning mops. 

 

The rest of the fry range in size from one to two inches long, so there is a wide range of development speed under my conditions. Of course, this is typical. There always seem to be some fish that are fast-growers and others that are slow-growers regardless of the species. In my experience, the slow-growing fish tend to become the largest eventually.

 

Phil Nixon

Illinois

[PBK]

Thanx guys. Your info was very helpful. Happy fishin.