Piscine update

Here is the latest update on the fish:

• I finally got a hold of John. He apologized for not getting back to me sooner (I've had calls into him for 2 weeks) but he told me that he has been "all-out-working" at providing bait for lobsterman. This is a new business venture for him but he says with the cost of herring right now that lobstermen are moving to other kinds of bait, namely freshwater baitfish like suckers, shiners, and minnows. John says he never imagined this happening but he says it is quite profitable!

• On the smelt front, John confirmed that the microsporidian (as with just about every microsporidian I have had the pleasure of meeting) is untreatable. He also confirmed that it is found in all smelt but only expresses itself for unknown reasons, but most likely due to some kind of stress. He does not know how it will play out in our tanks as he does not hold fish for long at his facility in closed-water conditions like ours.

• John has about 500-600 rainbow smelt in holding for us. He said he has had them in holding since I called a few eeks ago but just did not have a chance to call back. They are ready for pick-up as early as Tuesday.

• John also has a lot of golden shiners (Notemigonus cysoleucas) and suckers (Catostomus commersonii). Both of these species would look good in the tank, can feed on artificial food, and school very tightly (more so than the smelt). The only change we would need to make to what we do now is change the tank over to a purely freshwater exhibit. This could be done cheaply and easily (plumbing changes and some extra equipment) and we would no longer need to do water runs at MARICAL (cost savings for freshwater equipment). The risk is we have not tried these species and we do not have another holding space for backup.

Recommendations:

• See if John can hold rainbow smelt for us for a period of 1 month as backup species.
• Change tank over to shiners, suckers, or both.