re: sailfins-
They are in general smaller than the fish in the store except for 1 large
female fish. It makes me think that most of the fish are juveniles.
The salinity was variable depending on the tides and rainfall. I foolishly
left my full range salinity tester at home so I am not sure of the exact
salinities. This creek was almost completely in a culvert except for about
30 feet. Out of the culvert came pretty much fresh water from rainfall. At
high tide, the water was really close to full salt. I also saw a school of
mollies in full salt water but I couldn't collect them due to tides.
re: fliers and crappies-
they are currently eating frozen blood worms. I plan to move them over to
my marvelous oyster/shrimp mix in the near future. I have 2 larger crappies
from columbus OH (collecting with Mark this spring) that really like shrimp
and oysters.
re: sheepshead minnows-
yes, they are pretty nasty, which is very different from red river pupfish.
Red river pupfish were generally well mannered.
I will likely set up a species tank for them because they do not play well
with others.
I know they are easy to collect and in fact are an invasive species, but I'd
like to breed them anyway to hone my skills a bit. I have hungry
centrarchids that will be able to deal with any progeny that I don't need
Geoff Kimber
Lexington,Ky
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nanfa_at_aquaria.net On Behalf
Of Bob Bock
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2001 9:14 AM
To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
Subject: Re: NANFA-- savannah and eastern georgia collecting
Sounds like a nice trip, except for the sunburn. I'd advise against keeping
mollies or much of anything else with the sheepsheads. I've got one left
over from a Chesapeake Bay trip a year or two ago and he's really nasty.
He's slowly chewing the fins off some rosyside dace. I'd remove him from
the tank, but it's so densely planted that I can't catch him.
Can you tell me a little about your sailfins? Did you happen to test the
salinity of the ditch your sailfins and sheepsheads came from?
Also, how do your sailfin males compare in size and dorsal finnage to the
ones you see in the stores?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoff and Julie Kimber" <gkimber2_at_earthlink.net>
To: "Nanfa" <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2001 11:12 AM
Subject: NANFA-- savannah and eastern georgia collecting
> I finally have a few minutes to send a message with my collecting results
> from my vacation last week on tybee island-
>
> Since I was spending time with family, and my father can be unpredictable
at
> times, I thought it would be best if I didn't plan anything with fellow
> NANFA'ers to avoid any family complications. It's good that I didn't
> because I ended up leaving a day earlier than I expected to.
>
> We camped near a small river that has a fresh water drainage ditch running
> into it.
> I collected sailfin mollies and sheepshead minnows along with the
ubiquitous
> gambusia affinis. The ditch also had juvenile shrimp and fiddler crabs.
I
> kept the mollies and sheepshead minnows. I'm keeping them in brackish
water
> (1.010) right now until I get a tank set up for them. The sheepshead
> surprised me by displaying breeding behavior already. It turns out I have
1
> male and 2 female adults. The male became jet black with a blue
iridescence
> on his neck. It's pretty obvious that these fish are related to pupfish
as
> their behavior is very similar to that of the red river pupfish I have
kept.
>
> When I realized that I could keep blue crabs I collected seining as long
as
> they were of legal size, I decided that seining in the river might be a
good
> idea after all. I collected only 1 barely legal crab, which I returned.
I
> caught a fair number of shrimp that would have been reasonable bait, but
> were only 'popcorn' size. I returned these also as I wasn't going to have
a
> lot of time to fish. I caught the neatest fish that I have ever seen - a
> pair of tongue fish. They look pretty much like flounders but with no
tail.
> Their dorsal and anal fins taper back to the back of the fish Both eyes
are
> on the same side. Neat fish which almost made me start a saltwater
> aquarium. Other salt fish I collected were juvenile black drum,
surfperch,
> and mullet.
>
> On the way home, we went south on route 38/84 toward Jesup. I was aiming
> for the griffin ridge WMA for possible collecting opportunities.
> Unfortunately, none of the roads are open to vehicle travel, so
> opportunities were limited. I found one road with a couple of ponds.
Only
> one of them had fish, which I thought odd. The pond was only about 40
feet
> across and about 5 feet deep at the deepest. The water was tea colored.
In
> this pond I collected heterandria formosa, G. affinis, and a couple of
> centrarchids. One fish was about 1.5 inches long and was turquoise
colored.
> I thought it was a pygmy sunfish until I got home. Now, when I look at it
> it seems that I have collected 6 young of the year crappies. It should
have
> been obvious, but I really wanted a pygmy sunfish.
>
> I also collected a sunfish like fish I cannot identify. It is about 1.5
> inches long and shaped mostly like a sunfish, but it is rounder. There is
a
> teardrop under the eye and hte most striking feature is an eye spot on the
> dorsal fin. The spot is a black dot surrounded by orange. I had thought
> that it might be a bantam sunfish, but it's not found anywhere near
georgia.
> Also, the colors on the dorsal fin are not right.
>
> The last collecting spot was the ohoopee river. This river was slow
moving
> with a beautiful white sand bottom. The water is strongly tea colored and
> very clean with a bunch of fallen leaves. In this river I collected
pirate
> perch, which I have tried to find for years. I also collected a pair of
> madtoms (probably speckled) and a dozen glass shrimp. Does anyone know if
> glass shrimp are native or introduced?
>
> ANyway, after I collected as much as I could, we drove home as fast as we
> could. I found out that my idea of "very water resistant" sunscreen is
> radically different than the manufacturers. My wife and I ended up
> EXTREMELY sunburned from our time on the beach and we could barely stand
> each other's prescence. Home in a hurry seemed like a really good idea,
so
> I drove through Atlanta and Chatanooga without a 'howdy' to Steven and
> Casper, for which I'm sorry. I'm at home now doing an impression of a
> lizard shedding.S
>
> Geoff Kimber
> Lexington,KY
>
>
>
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-- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org
/----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org