|
|
FAQs on Scats, Family Scatophagidae, Identification
Related Articles: Scats, Scats
and monos;
Old favourites and new species for the brackish water aquarium
by Neale Monks,
Related FAQs: Scats 1,
Scats 2,Scat Behavior,
Scat Compatibility, Scat Selection,
Scat Systems, Scat Feeding,
Scat Disease, Scat Reproduction, | 
|
Scatophagus species
Hi,
I caught a school of scats in a mouth
of a freshwater stream in Bintan Island, Indonesia. They have an orange
base and broad black stripes. They change colour constantly, so that
they sometimes become totally black except for the orange at the top.
What specie of scat do you figure this to be.
/JJ
<I'll be... have
never seen the species but it does sound like Scatophagus tetracanthus.
Please see the description here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/Scatart.htm
or plug the name into your
search engines or fishbase.org.
Bob Fenner> Re: Scatophagus
species
Dear Bob,
Thanks. I found a picture of the
tetracanthus at
http://www.ohiexchange.com/armke/images/scatophagus_tetracanthus.jpg
<Ah yes>
I think I may have juveniles (1 inch) of this specie. There
is a hint of the orange at the dorsal edge of the scats in the picture.
Perhaps the orange disappears as the scat mature.
<Yes,
unfortunately>
Indeed when I made a closer examination of what I
have, I notice that interspersing the vertical band is not quite orange
but yellow-tint silver. Maybe I'll send a picture when I can borrow
w
a digital camera.
/JJ
<Very good. Will post. Bob Fenner>
Re: Scatophagus species
Dear Bob,
As promise I am
attaching a photo...
<Very nice>
This is not a very good photo
as the camera ran out of battery before we could get a good shot.
Nevertheless you can get an idea from it.
I had wanted to get a
picture of the scats when they turn completely black except for the
orange on the dorsal edge, but that will have to wait.
<Have seen
this... esp. on S. argus (here), when "bummed"... due to water
quality, nutrition, social issues>
Also, now that the scats have
grown a little larger, I am also beginning to doubt of they are
tetracanthus! The stripes are not as broad, and in fact the older
ones are beginning to have spots appearing (though I know they are
not argus because I caught juvenile arguses before).
<This is
assuredly argus>
Would be glad for identification.
/JJ
<Bob
Fenner, just back from Hawai'i> | 
|
Re: Scatophagus species
Hmm... I found a photo in
LiveAquaria.com which has Ruby Scats as Scatophagus Argus,
the
picture of the scat does resemble what I have.
But I once caught
green spotted scats which I assumed to be the Argus. Do Argus
juveniles have different appearances? I'm a little confused.
<Mmm, please see here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/Scatart.htm
These are the same
species. Bob Fenner>
/JJ |
Help with Identification – 10/09/07
Hello Crew,
First I
would like to thank you guys for providing us novices with a great
deal of help and advice. I'm learning all the time.
<Hello, and
thanks for the nice words.>
I recently moved into a house in
Thailand and inherited a reef tank which was left by the previous
occupant (who left in a rush to Germany apparently). The landlord
informed me that the tank had been left untouched for a couple of
weeks and has given it to me.
When I turned the power on I was
shocked to see that all of the occupants were still alive (skinny
but alive) including a few nice corals (red leather finger, daisy
polyps and star polyps). After spending most of the past couple
weeks on your site and goggle images I have managed to identify most
of the live critters I have to 3" tang, royal Gramma, 2 2" false
percula clown fish, 4" lawnmower blenny, 2" yellow watchman goby, 1
coral brand shrimp, 1 skunk shrimp, 6 blue leg hermit and 3 turbo
snails. I would be very great full if you could help identify the
attached fish. I have two in the tank, I have searched but have been
unable to find anything close.
They're small, copper with black
spots and very very quick swimmers.
<Picture too small, but they
look like Scatophagus species of some sort. The body shape and the
distribution of the fins looks about right. Scatophagus are
euryhaline marine fish that swim in and out of freshwater rivers
throughout their life. They are extremely hardy. Basically
omnivorous. Not sure they're typically classed as "reef safe"
fishes, since they'll eat anything they can cram into their mouths,
but they won't harm sessile invertebrates or armoured things like
snails and shrimps.>
Since I made a water change, something as
appeared on the glass in 2 places. It looks like they could be eggs
of some kind?? (see attached photo) There are small rows of white
dots, similar in shape to a finger print. Could you possibly
identify these?? good or bad??
<Too small for me to identify.
Need a bigger picture. Aim for a photo around 600 pixels across.>
The tank is 75 gallons, wet/dry filter, 4 pumps, protein skimmer
(unknown, no brand or labels), lots of live rock, 1.5" crushed coral
substrate, Salinity is 1.05, ph is 8.4, temp 79-81 degrees, nitrate
>10, NHO3 =0, 150 watt metal halide lighting with 20,000k light.
<SG is 1.05? That can't be right. Do you mean SG 1.025?>
Sorry
for the length of this email, I hope I've not bored you to sleep!
<Nope. Thanks for writing.>
Any advice is greatly appreciated
Thanks
TonyRe: Help
with Identification – 10/09/07
Thank you for the quick
response,
I've attached another photo, the round white dots are
very small and its difficult to pick up on the photo. If you can't
identify it would it be better to just remove them? Better safe than
sorry??
Just one more question, with a 75 gallon tank how much
daily water evaporation would you expect, it seems I have to top up
around half a liter a day is this normal?
Thanks again
P.S.
Yes the salt is 1.025 !!
<Hmm... very interesting. The pattern is
odd, and reminds me more of fish eggs than, say, snail eggs. Snails
tend to deposit their eggs in masses well after each partner has
fertilised the other (snails being, largely, hermaphrodites); but
fish lay them in rows, because they glide along the flat surface,
the male following the female fertilising them. So I'd be tempted to
leave them in place and see what happens. You could try and roll
them off the glass into a floating breeding trap or something, if
you were really worried. That works with some fish eggs quite well.
If they are fish eggs, they should obviously have a developing
embryo inside them. I may be barking completely up the wrong tree
here of course, in which someone else at WWM will see the photos and
tell us what they might be. There's no "normal" rate of evaporation:
it depends on air movement, air temperature, air pressure, ambient
humidity, movement of the water, and all sorts of other factors. In
other words, "it is what it is" and all you can do is top up the
water loss each day (or however often you do it). Were the two
little fish Scats? Cheers, Neale>
Re: Help with Identification – 10/09/07
Thank you again
Neale,
The two fish were indeed scats, of the spotted variety....
was just reading up on them it seems they're a much more popular
fresh water fish than marine fish which I guess is why I couldn't
find any info on them as I was looking in the wrong place!
<They
are really only temporary residents in freshwater, and ironically do
much better in marine tanks than freshwater ones, despite being sold
as freshwater fish. Enjoy they; they're lovely fish, and so long as
they get lots of bulky plant foods, they'll be happy. Basically
treat like a tang.>
As for the maybe fish eggs, being a bit of a
pessimist I was a little worried that they may be parasites of some
kind as I could find nothing similar on the web.
<Unlikely to be
parasites. Parasites don't leave their eggs in the open (you've been
watching too much 'Alien'!). Parasites tend to put their eggs inside
something a host will eat, such as a smaller prey animal. So you can
basically write off the idea these are parasites.>
I will keep a
look out on your site to see if anybody can identify them. I will
leave them where they are for now and see what happens.
<Indeed.>
Thanks for your time, let me know if you ever come to Bangkok and I
will buy you a beer :)
<Hah!>
Kind regards
<Cheers, Neale> |   |
|
|
