I just noticed that my 4 year-old big male scarlet shiner is heavily tuberculated on top of his head. He's had a funny white patch there for several days, and today he's broken through to hornyhead stage. I guess he's about ready to go.

I just noticed that my 4 year-old big male scarlet shiner is heavily tuberculated on top of his head. He's had a funny white patch there for several days, and today he's broken through to hornyhead stage. I guess he's about ready to go.

hi fundulus,
did you change any thing in the tank or is it just that time of year?
my striped shiner did the same think after i added about 3 pounds of black rocks to the tank in on corner.
but in the last week the white horns have gotten smaller.and the green sunfish killed my 3" shiner
the shiner was just to big for it eat but it did die after e few days.

No, he's been living in a 20-high in my lab at room temperature. But I do have windows in the lab, so I'm sure he's influenced by changing daylight lengths. Just from random observations in local creeks over the years I'm becoming more convinced that daylight length is a stronger influence on local stream fish to color up than temperature. My black darter males in the same tank are just beginning to pick up color, and from past years I've seen that Feb. 10 is when wild males are pretty much in color. That's one reason I think that spring starts on Feb. 10 here at 34 degrees north latitude.

I just noticed that my 4 year-old big male scarlet shiner is heavily tuberculated on top of his head. He's had a funny white patch there for several days, and today he's broken through to hornyhead stage. I guess he's about ready to go.

photos???