Re: NANFA-L-- Final 2005 Water garden Sunfish tally

George W Corben (gwcorben-in-juno.com)
Tue, 1 Nov 2005 22:12:05 -0600

Thanks Irate, I apologize for getting so worked up over the
negative responses. Im generally pretty
laid back .I hope to do as well or better with the Longears next season.
Will also have the possibility
of a Orange spotted spawn next year as one of the trio of near adult size
fish I received in late July
appears to be a male. I have 4 mature Longear males 3 of which are Kaw
River drainage stock and
1 Missouri River drainage (Platte County, Mo). All 4 exhibit
red/orange/blue/green hues with the white and
electric blue striations usually associated with Discus fish. The
Missouri Longear seems to have the Orange
and Green shades predominate while the Kansas tribe favor Red and Blue,
otherwise there is little to differentiate the two tribes. All 5 Longear
nests this year were atop plant tubs covered with a layer of
pea gravel that were 4 to 6" below the surface. All 3 Green Sunfish nests
were built between pots or a pot
and the pond wall-in-a depth of 15-20". The first Longear nesting
activity was noticed June 8, the 2nd was
June 13th, the 3rd was June 18th, the 4th June 21 and the 5th was July 20
(on the same tub that had the 2nd). I think the 5th nest produced the
most fry that survived. The first Green nest started on June 19, the
2nd on June 24 and the 3rd on July 1. Im not sure what the newly hatched
fry found to eat, perhaps not much, which may account for the low
survival rate of the early spawns. By July there were more 'critters'
appearing in the pond which may indicate better foraging for the young
fry. Once they got to be about 3/8 "
the fry would eagerly go after Omega One flake food finger ground to
dust. At 1/2" they began leaving the
cover of the various plant pots and tubs and swimming boldly where adult
Sunfish could easily gobble
them but, I never once witnessed an adult going after one of these little
guys. I do suspect that the adult
Red Belly Dace may have picked off some of them though.
My water garden is an irregular oval, not quite kidney, shape
that is 5 1/2' -6 1/2' w by 14' L and
mostly 20" deep but does have a 2 1/2' x 4' area that is 30" deep. I
calculate it is 990 to 1080 gallons. I pump water-in-the rate of 1050
gal. hour through skimmers and pond side filters nearly all year round. I
shut down the pump and plugged in a floating 1500w stock tank heater on
those days/nights below 18 degrees.
I will be over wintering a number of plants this time and hope
that a lot of 'critters' will emerge from
them next Spring to give the Sunfish fry a food source

George

On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 19:40:30 -0500 Irate Mormon
<archimedes-in-bayspringstel.net> writes:
> Quoting George W Corben <gwcorben-in-juno.com>:
>
>
> > Feeling proud that is
> > ,until I posted the notice of my results and immediately began
> receiving
> > criticism for returning fish to their stream of origin.
>
> Your experience is not unique, George, and I see some new posters to
> the list
> who are surprised as well. Every time a newcomer reports releasing
> his fish, 3
> or 4 people jump on him. Gently in most cases. List veterans are
> sensitive to
> the poster's feelings, but still, to have that many people tell you
> that you're
> WRONG(!), sometimes quite bluntly, is a bit overwhelming. We need
> to have a
> better way to present the topic so it doesn't seem like we're
> accusing people of
> being cognitively challenged or what have you. Like maybe a footer
> in all list
> mail or something like that.
>
> --Irate
>
> "You can stop kicking this dead whale down the beach and find
> another hobby
> horse to beat to death."
>
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