>Don't just make us green with envy Andrew, tell us more and we will go "black"
Let me first start by saying that the water was far from black, no humic
acid here. The water is perfectly clear and very mildly saline, (to the
point where you can taste it). I proceeded to the car to get my little blue
bag of tricks to check out the water chemistry only to find it not there.
After enquiring with the better half I was informed that she promptly put it
back into the aquarium cabinet as I had left it on the kitchen bench.
Temperature felt as if though it was -100 but I suspect the human
thermometer had gone into shock and it would have really been around 8 degs.
>Tell us what the Nannoperca were doing - did they spawn in pairs or groups ?
There were dozens of groups consisting between three to six. Some groups
were around/under structures whereas others lurked over plain ash. The males
were generally larger than the females. Each group generally consisted of
one or two females. The group often sat suspended in time until one of the
males would do a screaming cicle and glide into the group with fins blaring
a bright red. Instantly the other males turned the colour on. It was like a
fireworks show. Every where I turned this event was taking place in little
communities of Pygmey perch. Sometimes this show would be very brief as the
female would literally turn away, the males coulour would instantly
disappear and it was back to life as per normal. However sometimes the
female would act differantly. She would colour up very mildly A (edge of
fins only). The males would each take it in turn to flank her until she
decided to follow one. From here they would swim closer to the bottom where
they would dance. The male appeared to be on the verge of aggression with
his nudges to the females mid section. Both fish would trembele there bodies
(like parkinsons) and the male would swim a couple of millimetres back and
forth . Then all of a sudden both fish would swim off and return to the
group as if nothing had happened. Not once were eggs laid. I was in the
water for just over an hour and watched this same thing over and over again.
An interesting point was that these groups were only below three metres
which is where the vegetation stopped. The deeper you proceeded the MOre
prolific and larger the fish became. Life continued all the way to around
the ten metre mark.
Sorry, thats all I have time for at the moment. Questions will be accepted
and answered through a bad memory and poor notes (it was bloody cold). It
was one of those lifetime experiences so I could go on for ever, it would be
easier to respond to direct questions.
Andrew