Aquarium Observations Of Scarlet Shiners

I heard from Phil Kukulski in Michigan about his scarlet shiners the other day. He was able to induce spawning in a small group of them when he raised the water temperature to 78 deg. F. But newly hatched fry all quickly died at that temperature. I guess I'm not surprised, in local streams they probably breed at about 68-70 deg. F in the late spring and early summer, so newly hatched fry would probably prefer that temperature. But that's all conjecture on my part. Phil's the first person I've heard from who has spawned them in captivity, although I'm sure others have. I just noticed that my own colony of about 20 scarlets collected last May as subadults that are in an aquarium in one of our teaching labs can now be sexed; the males have distinctive red bands on their fins, especially the dorsal. I guess they've grown up. They've been at room temperature of around 22-23 deg. C in this lab which seems to be just fine.

Below is a photo Phil K. sent me of his spawning male. He's definitely all pumped up, with the distinctive metallic spanglings dorsally: