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Death rate in probably male stickle backs
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Posted by Sean_McKinney N. Ireland (My Page) on Mon, May 16, 05 at 4:55
Is it fairly high at this time of year?
I have become concerend about the number and age of what goldfish remained in the wildlife pond, I dont want them breeding, so yesterday I drained it and caught, hopefully, all the goldfish in there, I caught 5 in total.
However whilst fighting through the mud and plants etc I noticed several recently deceased stickle backs and I rememnber seeing two dying ones in April at the start of their funny season, so I am curious do males sustain fatal injuries during fights? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Death rate in probably male stickle backs
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Sean
I always seem to lose a few Sticklebacks of differing sizes in very early Spring (usually found in the frogspawn) but haven't seen any deaths during the rest of the year.
Sue |
RE: Death rate in probably male stickle backs
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I find that a few of mine seem to die within a few days of each other. I think it is that they don't live too long and when some die together they are from the same spawning. I haven't seen any fatalities at the moment yet there are a few colourful males so mating has been going on and there are various sizes of babies.
Alison |
RE: Death rate in probably male stickle backs
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Last week I netted 3 dead male sticklebacks and managed to rescue one obviously in distress. I put him in isolation and he now seems to be okay but I will wait awhile before returning him to the pond. I remember the same thing happening last year also. I didn't realise I had so many stickles. I thought it may have been one of those nitrate spike spoken of on this forum so I purchased a testing kit only to find that it is normal. One factor may be the number of tadpoles. I reckon I have quadrupled the amount I had last year. Looking at my pond is like looking at an Amazonian tributary rippling with Piranhas. Thousand of them beach themselves on my pebble beach whilst every square inch of pond surface shows tiny mouths grabbing oxygen.
Could these large numbers be having a disastrous effect on my oxygen levels?
I saw a black comet near the surface recently, I have never bought a comet, how did that get there ?
Hope to post a view of my beached taddies on the gallery shortly
Dave |
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