Re: NANFA-- breeding cycles and migrations

DasArm_at_aol.com
Thu, 16 Dec 1999 20:45:44 EST

In a message dated 12/16/99 6:16:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,
rheopresbe_at_hotmail.com writes:

<< If you collect during the Fall, you'll notice that a lot of things
(darters and some cyprinids) get semi-fired up- not to the same extent that
they do during spring, but it's still kind of funny to see. >>

I have observed this as well. 2 years ago I collected my first darters in the
fall and they wer present in large numbers in the area of the creek by my
house. The fall before the one we just had I also collected a rainbow darter
which was brilliantly colored along with other assorted darters in the same
section of the creek. It's the same way in the spring but more empty of fish
life in the summer. I'm assuming they migrate downstream or upstream, but I'm
wondering if they migrate to follow the food supply or is it something else?
I originally attributed the bright colors of the darter to the aftermath of
El Nino but it is clear this is a more common phenomenon than one would
expect. I'm wondering if some of this could be attributed to global warming
as well since I read global warming is definitely occurring according to a
newspaper article I read recently. it

seems that mormyrids (african knifefishes) have some pretty amazing
brains...

I read in a book somewhere that mormyrids have the largest brains known for
their size. I don't know if this has since been disproven in favor of a new
candidate. I didn't know that any mormyrids were considered to be
knifefishes. The only I have seen pictures of the elephant-nose fish and some
other mormyrids none of which had an elongated anal fin typical of any
knifefish group.I have seen some pictures of some sort of African knifefishes
too by the way.

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