Orangethroats

Hi folks, thought you might enjoy some photos of recently collected orangethroats from Ten Mile Creek, Sylvania, OH. They really began to fire up once they hit aquarium water. The contrast and color was nearly too much for my poor camera.

 spectabile6.jpg   39.21KB   4 downloads


 spectabile19.jpg   35.05KB   2 downloads


 spectabile17.jpg   32.4KB   2 downloads


 spectabile18.jpg   34.83KB   2 downloads


 spectabile20.jpg   29.64KB   5 downloads

Hey, where are the ladies?

 spectabile_fe.jpg   32.19KB   2 downloads


 spectabile_grp.jpg   35.64KB   2 downloads

Edited by fatpocketbook, 17 April 2008 - 11:18 PM.

Nice pics, fatpocketbook! Thanks for the eye candy!

Hi folks, thought you might enjoy some photos of recently collected orangethroats from Ten Mile Creek, Sylvania, OH. They really began to fire up once they hit aquarium water. The contrast and color was nearly too much for my poor camera.

 spectabile6.jpg   39.21KB   4 downloads
 spectabile19.jpg   35.05KB   2 downloads
 spectabile17.jpg   32.4KB   2 downloads
 spectabile18.jpg   34.83KB   2 downloads
 spectabile20.jpg   29.64KB   5 downloads

Hey, where are the ladies?

 spectabile_fe.jpg   32.19KB   2 downloads
 spectabile_grp.jpg   35.64KB   2 downloads

Wow great pictures. I would love to get some to add to my collection. Any ideas? I'm in Chicago

Hi Ken, this link may assist you.

http://www.inhs.uiuc.../et_spectab.gif

Jeff

Edited by fatpocketbook, 18 April 2008 - 07:44 AM.

Nice, Jeff!

Are those blackworms I see poking out of the sand? I'm looking to better my non-planted darter/shiner tank. Looks like you have a sand/gravel/pebble combo? Would blackworms hand on, or would they get grazed out in short order? I do keep them in my sand-covered pygmy sunfish planted tanks, but being the more shy and retiring types they don't root around and dig them all out. I'm thinking that it might help give the darters a more sustained food source, better than the saturation feed that I currently give to make sure they get enough from the shiners...

Nice, Jeff!

Are those blackworms I see poking out of the sand? I'm looking to better my non-planted darter/shiner tank. Looks like you have a sand/gravel/pebble combo? Would blackworms hand on, or would they get grazed out in short order? I do keep them in my sand-covered pygmy sunfish planted tanks, but being the more shy and retiring types they don't root around and dig them all out. I'm thinking that it might help give the darters a more sustained food source, better than the saturation feed that I currently give to make sure they get enough from the shiners...

Hi nativeplanter, no those aren't blackworms. Probably remnant and algae covered val and other plant roots. Half of the tank is cobble/gravel/sand and the other half is gravel/sand. I added topsoil beneath the sand and created some gravel lenses just for fun. Basically, its like Todd's tank but lower tech. My inkling is that blackworms would be grazed out in short order, although I certainly like the thought

As far as food, although its expensive, you can't go wrong with a mix of PE mysis, bloodworms, and brine shrimp. The only thing I have found useful to dampen the financial blow is to first feed flake and pellet food to the pelagic fish that will take it.

Jeff

Hi NativePlanter. You've seen my posts on blackworms I hope? I'm a blackworm nut. They're really reasonable if you buy in bulk and maintain yourself. I bought 1/2 lb for $18 2 months back, and I'm not sure that there are any fewer than when I started:

Maintenance:
http://forum.nanfa.o...h...ost&p=32466

Photos in sand:
http://forum.nanfa.o...h...ost&p=33686

Feeding to suckers:
http://forum.nanfa.o...h...ost&p=34125

I now have them established in all my tanks. I have no darters, but no fish have managed to completely eradicate them. As long as there are large unmovable rocks or other things for them to seek protection under, I doubt any fish could remove them all.

Jase, you bet I've been following. And wishing I had an extra tank that size to set up the same thing. But I have been told that the basement has hit carrying capacity for tanks. I wonder if a 10-gallon would work or if it would be too small to be sustainable.

Of course, I have also been lazy and have yet to set up a feeder tube in this tank. That would save a lot of worry. Perhaps I will get to it this weekend. I even have the PVC; just need to cut a mousehole on the end of it.

I do have some extra pool filter sand. I think I'll put some in the tank and try adding a bunch of blackworms, just to see what happens.

Hi NativePlanter. You've seen my posts on blackworms I hope? I'm a blackworm nut. They're really reasonable if you buy in bulk and maintain yourself. I bought 1/2 lb for $18 2 months back, and I'm not sure that there are any fewer than when I started:

Maintenance:
http://forum.nanfa.o...h...ost&p=32466

Photos in sand:
http://forum.nanfa.o...h...ost&p=33686

Feeding to suckers:
http://forum.nanfa.o...h...ost&p=34125

I now have them established in all my tanks. I have no darters, but no fish have managed to completely eradicate them. As long as there are large unmovable rocks or other things for them to seek protection under, I doubt any fish could remove them all.

Hi Jase, very interesting! Out of curiousity, what is your tank size and fish community?

I wonder if madtoms would root around in the sand for them? They have a pretty aggressive feeding style. If I could have an established supplemental food source, that would be a fantastic help. Also, perhaps subterminal darters would be more likely to feed on them than terminal darters.....that may reduce some of the predation.

Nice work, as always Jeffro!

Some Ottawa notes... Got out and hit the ditches today and saw some more. The last two wet summer have seriously homogenized those segments tho. Not a whole lot up there. Got to see emerald shiner and spawning white suckers above the dam site on the Ottawa today. Suckers were spawning underneath the Bancroft bridge. It was good to see.

Unionids are in serious peril, however. Major loss of the crucial layer of desired sediments and that has already cut around the corner. Mussels everywhere laying on their sides, unable to get into the hardpan. Bad news in that regard. There's no black and white in this business!

Todd

Nice, Jeff!

Are those blackworms I see poking out of the sand? I'm looking to better my non-planted darter/shiner tank. Looks like you have a sand/gravel/pebble combo? Would blackworms hand on, or would they get grazed out in short order? I do keep them in my sand-covered pygmy sunfish planted tanks, but being the more shy and retiring types they don't root around and dig them all out. I'm thinking that it might help give the darters a more sustained food source, better than the saturation feed that I currently give to make sure they get enough from the shiners...

I feed all my darter tanks with live blackworms on a regular basis and I always find some left when cleaning the tanks, I have sand and gravel substrate.

Nice work, as always Jeffro!

Some Ottawa notes... Got out and hit the ditches today and saw some more. The last two wet summer have seriously homogenized those segments tho. Not a whole lot up there. Got to see emerald shiner and spawning white suckers above the dam site on the Ottawa today. Suckers were spawning underneath the Bancroft bridge. It was good to see.

Unionids are in serious peril, however. Major loss of the crucial layer of desired sediments and that has already cut around the corner. Mussels everywhere laying on their sides, unable to get into the hardpan. Bad news in that regard. There's no black and white in this business!

Todd

Cool!

Ya, I guess some of the GLGL folks are heading down to the Ottawa next Wednesday. I was hoping to poke around and look for mussels.....obviously this wet season probably moved a lot of bedload all over the place in our area. Might be interesting to look at some other places where we have hard data and look empirically at changes in morphology, substrate composition, and unio community.

No, its rarely black and white. I think the only time it's black and white is when theres nothing to lose.

Jeff

I'd offer to come out with you guys, but I am flat out booked. Doing a mussel program for 5th graders all morning and then there's the rest of the crap they make me do

Todd