Two Months Of Telescope Shiner Size Data

I've been so wrapped up in teaching obligations that I've let this blog slide for twelve days, more than I meant to do. But I have some interesting data to post.

Our trip to Hurricane Creek at the Walls of Jericho went well. My new truck made it in and out with no problems. The most challenging part of the ride was driving down about 500 meters of road that often floods and becomes part of the creek; that was the story on March 3, two days after heavy rains in the southeast. The road had about 15-20 cm of water running in the road, but we were able to negotiate it with problems (much to the students' relief). We collected our quote of telescope shiners from high, fast water, and only two of the students fell in to any degree. Good thing, because the water was 11 deg. C. But everyone survived. We also collected a single adult flame chub, which seems to be my daily allocation at this site.

The attached graph shows the length-weight relationships of telescope shiners from February and March at Hurricane Creek. The March fish are statistically significantly longer and heavier, not a big surprise since they've had a month of eating the increasing number of aquatic insects available. We've dissected the five largest of these March fish, and all turned out to be female with well-developed ovaries. Their stomachs were full of aquatic-stage insect larvae so they're apparently well-fed and putting on weight. The average GSI of these five fish is 3.5, up from the 1.2 of the February fish.

We'll do more dissections on Friday, so I'll post more data as it becomes available.