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Ozark Madtom


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#1 Michael Wolfe

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  • North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 11 August 2007 - 03:15 PM

I caught this guy at the NANFA convention in 2005 in Arkansas while collecting some yoke darters. He was only an inch or so long and I tossed him in an aquarium with a large rockpile to make the darter feel at home. Didn't see him very much at all the first year... only occasionally after that... always just a flash to come out and eat...

So today, I tore down the tank to move some darters around and replant the tank (long story, not worth telling), any way I had the opportunty to get him out of the tank and I tried to tank his photo... now at over 4 inches long...

Attached File  otom5.jpg   357.71KB   3 downloads

So today, along with everything else, I got to try taking a photo of a cool fish, and I got my new avatar... OK I see I didn't load the avatar correctly I will keep trying...

Attached File  otom_head.jpg   52.89KB   0 downloads
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#2 Guest_fishlvr_*

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Posted 11 August 2007 - 09:51 PM

Nice looking fish. I love catfish, especially madtoms because they're actually small enough for the average person to keep. These guys should be at Petco and PetSmart, not channel cats.

#3 Guest_mzokan_*

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Posted 12 August 2007 - 03:03 PM

Great fish! Have you got out a red flashlight to see if he is moving around at night? I've had almost no luck collecting madtoms this year. I dipnet leafpacks, woody debris, weedbeds, and check every can and bottle that I find. I'm begining to think tadpole madtoms don't exist in coastal South Carolina. I did catch a couple margined madtoms near Athens, GA, but of course I had nothing to keep them in...oh well

#4 Michael Wolfe

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Posted 12 August 2007 - 08:47 PM

No, I haven't tried the red flashlight... I should... I had a similar experience with a speckled madtom, that I caught down near fort gordon, in south georgia... kept him for over a year and a half and never saw him until I redecorated the aquarium... put him back in afterwards, and never see him... but they are growing, so they must be getting out and eating...

Margined are some of the best madtoms... I had two for a while that consistently came out during feeding time... I saw them three or more times a week... more in a week than I ever see these other two in a year...

I would recommend margined madtoms in anyone's community display tank.

Great fish! Have you got out a red flashlight to see if he is moving around at night? I've had almost no luck collecting madtoms this year. I dipnet leafpacks, woody debris, weedbeds, and check every can and bottle that I find. I'm begining to think tadpole madtoms don't exist in coastal South Carolina. I did catch a couple margined madtoms near Athens, GA, but of course I had nothing to keep them in...oh well


Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#5 Guest_dsmith73_*

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Posted 13 August 2007 - 08:17 AM

Great fish! Have you got out a red flashlight to see if he is moving around at night? I've had almost no luck collecting madtoms this year. I dipnet leafpacks, woody debris, weedbeds, and check every can and bottle that I find. I'm begining to think tadpole madtoms don't exist in coastal South Carolina. I did catch a couple margined madtoms near Athens, GA, but of course I had nothing to keep them in...oh well



We don't see many madtoms down near the coast. Every once in a while we will get a tadpole. We have taken several on the grounds of Cypress Gardens in Moncks Corner. We get all three species pretty easily from the sandhills area. Speckled are very common in the Edisto and Salkehatchie drainages. Tadpole show up here and there but rarely in any good numbers. Margineds are very common in the piedmont streams where(with a shocker at least) you can turn up hundreds in a 100 m stretch sometimes.

#6 Guest_mzokan_*

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Posted 13 August 2007 - 11:00 AM

We don't see many madtoms down near the coast. Every once in a while we will get a tadpole. We have taken several on the grounds of Cypress Gardens in Moncks Corner. We get all three species pretty easily from the sandhills area. Speckled are very common in the Edisto and Salkehatchie drainages. Tadpole show up here and there but rarely in any good numbers. Margineds are very common in the piedmont streams where(with a shocker at least) you can turn up hundreds in a 100 m stretch sometimes.



Thanks for the info! I collect mostly in the east branch Cooper and lower Santee drainages, these areas look like they should hold tadpoles, but nothing (similar to habitat where I've taken them in south Florida). I've been planning a trip to the Edisto whenever this heat wave breaks, maybe i'll get lucky there with speckled madtoms.

#7 Guest_dsmith73_*

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Posted 13 August 2007 - 03:53 PM

Thanks for the info! I collect mostly in the east branch Cooper and lower Santee drainages, these areas look like they should hold tadpoles, but nothing (similar to habitat where I've taken them in south Florida). I've been planning a trip to the Edisto whenever this heat wave breaks, maybe i'll get lucky there with speckled madtoms.



Let me know when you come up this way. We will meet you or give you some spots at least.

#8 Michael Wolfe

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  • North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 03 February 2010 - 11:42 PM

Update on this fish... I haven't really seen him more than a couple of times in the past 2+ years... but I did this evening for an extended period of time... not sure why, but all of the fish were acting very agressive about food, and this guy just came crusing out from under the driftwood and munching up shrimp pellets like candy... he never really came to the front glass, but was out all over the right hand side of the 75.

That's one thing I love about big tanks and tough natives... you never really know what you are going to see... even in your own tank.

Another cool aspect of this is that this fish is from the Arkansas convention in 2005... brought home with a group of yoke darters at about 1.5 inches TL and is now in the 5.5 range... and almost 5 years old! Caught while snorkeling just down stream from a camp site I shared with the snorkelmeister and irate the week before the convention!
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#9 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 04 February 2010 - 08:41 AM

That is pretty cool Michael :) I once pulled out a piece of wood from my 100 gallon, and yeah, it was like a volkswagon of madtoms unloading. I didn't even remember a couple of them!

Todd

#10 Guest_natureman187_*

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Posted 04 February 2010 - 05:45 PM

That is pretty cool Michael :) I once pulled out a piece of wood from my 100 gallon, and yeah, it was like a volkswagon of madtoms unloading. I didn't even remember a couple of them!


Hah! That's probably the best analogy I've ever heard.

The elusive elegance of madtoms and mudminnows...

Edited by natureman187, 04 February 2010 - 05:46 PM.


#11 Michael Wolfe

Michael Wolfe
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  • North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 06 August 2011 - 04:24 PM

Summer 2011... six years since NANFA Arkansas 2005... and the Ozark madtom mentioned above is still going strong.

After being rather reclusive for a year or so, he has moved to a new "hiding" spot in the curl of the driftwood... but with his face completely visible and his whiskers sticking out between the crypt stems. Maybe it was the addition of a couple of really small Margined madtoms to the 75 gallon tank... I am not sure. So I see him almost every day now back in the spot where he thinks he is hidden. He has survived and thrived for 6 years... that has to be a Ozark madtom longevity record!
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin




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