Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - New species

Had a customer call about some newly appearing ground water with minnows so I went and pulled a seine about 10' and got about 45lbs of these. Looks like good SMB feed to me!
Northern Plains Killifish..

Credit: Aquarium circle, May 1, 2022

Northern plains killifish is the common name of the killifish species Fundulus kansae of the Fundulidae family. Their populations can be found in the Mississippi River, Colorado River, Rio Grande, and other river systems in North America.

The natural habitats of northern plain killifish are usually shallow river and stream with lower, moderate, and swift, turbid water flows. Sometimes, they can be found in lakes.

They can live in brackish, alkaline, and salty water conditions, better than many local fish varieties. The water temperatures that they can do best are between 20°C and 25°C.

The male of northern plains killifish has wider and darker bars than the female. During the breeding season, most of the fins of the breeding male turn to yellowish-orange coloration, except the back fins. Meanwhile, the fins of the female and immature individuals are plain or yellowish.

They can be found burying the whole body in the substrate while only showing eyes and mouth. This behavior of the northern plains killifish is to respond to stress and may help protect themselves from sunlight, predators, and parasites.

The northern plains killifish is reported to move in schools and with the same size species.

The northern plains killifish eats primarily aquatic insects and other invertebrates mainly located on the water surface near their heads, such as chironomid larvae, copepods, nematodes, and other small animals. Besides the aquatic insects, they sometimes eat aquatic plants.

SPAWNING SEASON
It occurs from April to August and at the water temperature of 27.7°C (80°F)

Additionally, their spawning activity may be stimulated by a change in water temperature or a sudden water freshening, which often occurs when there is moderate or heavy rain in their spawning season.
They typically spawn over a sand or gravel bottom in shallow water with a depth of 6 cm – 10 cm.


Males do not establish territories but become aggressive toward each other while spawning and compete vigorously for the attention of the females; spawning occurs during a brief pairing of a single male and female (Koster 1948).

When the spawning occurs, the males are not territorial but aggressive towards each other and usually have fiery competitive behavior to attract the females. The spawning happens during a short pairing of one male and one female.

I'm in south central KS and have seined them in streams my whole life. Never seen signs of them in a pond or lake though. I'm guessing t4ying to establish them in a pond would be an upstream battle.

Yep.

I have contemplated building a recirculating "run type" pond that would work for walleye to reproduce, or even my stream minnows like the killifish.

Then I looked at the current electricity prices and decided that I did not want to work an extra job!