FishWiki

This week we will take a look at the Central Mud Minnow (Umbra limi).

It's a temperate freshwater fish that ranges across the Mississippi river basin up to the US-Canadian border. Some isolated populations can be found in Montana and Texas. Commonly found in slow moving streams, creeks, drainage ditches, and ponds with abundant vegetation. Its natural diet consists of benthic invertebrates (ostracods, copepods, chironomids, gastropods) and occasionally small fishes. They are quick, able to bury themselves in the mud, and form shoals to avoid predation.

These fish only live a few years and stay small (6in/14cm) and spawn in mid-April with the higher temperatures stimulating spawning. Females can produce up to 2,500 eggs in one season. Mud minnows are able to survive in very acidic, poorly oxygenated waters by breathing air with a modified gas bladder. This also allows them to survive the winter in bodies of water where most fish cannot- by breathing air from bubbles under the ice.

This week we are taking a quick look at the Reticulated Hillstream Loach (Sewellia lineolata).

The Reticulated Hillstream Loach is a unique looking fish native to fast running streams of southeast Asia. Its body is shaped to withstand strong currents. They typically have intricate patterns covering their entire body. Being Loaches, they tend to feed on the bottom of their habitat, scrounging for algae and the like.

When kept in tanks, they prefer fast moving, cold water rich with oxygen to mimic their native waters. As such they require a larger tank than you'd expect for their size to maintain a steady current. They are peaceful in nature and can cohabitate with other fish easily. They do best in schools of no fewer than 3. Their unique shape and coloration makes for a very interesting fish that is fun to look at.

Also known as African fan shrimp, African filter shrimp, African giant shrimp, blue rhino shrimp, Gabon shrimp, and Cameroon fan shrimp. Contrary to their predatory-sounding common name these shrimp are gentle giants, reclusive, very shy, and mostly nocturnal in nature (like vampires I guess?) They can be kept in groups and are a joy to watch filter feeding together.

This omnivorous west African species uses fan-like appendages to filter feed on detritus, microfauna, plankton, and algae. Larvae grow up in brackish waters feeding on the abundance of food in mangrove estuaries and move into lowland freshwater rivers with rocky substrate as adults. They grow quite large- some up to 6in/15cm and can live up to 10 years. These shrimp range in color from white to a rusty brown and even blue-gray depending on their environment and water conditions.

sources:

• https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/198241/107023029
• https://aquariumbreeder.com/vampire-shrimp-detailed-guide-care-diet-and-breeding/