FishProfiles.com Message Forums

hi,
i've got bio homework due on monday about an animals niche.
I picked blind cave fish .
but I need some help with some questions.

Do they respond to - other organisms
- water movement
does it have a cooling structure?
does it have specialised mouthparts ?
does it have storage organs?

how does it catch it's live food? ( eg traps, stealth , co-operation)

how does it raise its young?

how do they breed?

I don't need to answer all the questions , but most of them .

any other things about how the blind cave fish live would be great too

Being an old and I mean old school teacher it is easy to see who did the home work.

Do a GOOGLE there is plenty of material there.
Research is the best way to learn.

That is the best advice I can give you.


Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Do your own homework. .

If you do the reasearch and have questions after that, post again. I know that people love to help if you need it

-Josh

Presumably youre talking about the species Astyanax fasciatus mexicanus .Theyre actually not that specialised really, but the weird thing about them is that the fry start off being able to see... and thats kind of interesting as a remnant bit of physionomy. I think comparing the lifestyle of the fry compared to the adults might get you those extra points, together with the behavioral changes that go along with the atrophy of its vision as it ages. I believe they catch food primarily by scent, a sense that the non-blind variant of the fish also shares , but uses to a lesser degree.The lateral line will sense movement near the body and that will help to complete the chase. The jaw in the blind cave fish seems slightly larger and lower slung than in regular silver tetras, and although the difference is minimal it might help to increase jaw aperture and increase the chances of bite combined with suction -handy for a blind fish.I assume there is no startling adaptation required for the temperature difference (usually cooler) found in caves, since the waters will be in the 60's f region, which is hardly cold, although cooler than a silver tetra might willingly adapt to without a significant period of multigenerational conditioning. The fat reserves will be as per a silver tetra, but the lower water temperatures will mean that the blind cave fish requires less food, its metabolism will be a degree slower.

You could also do some comparisons with the silver tetra,(astyanax fasciatus fasciatus) from whom there are supposed to have evolved.

heres a couple of handy pictures to compare.

http://home.arcor.de/peter.nisi/Museum/Vivarium/Becken_htm/Becken24.html

Hope that gets you started.No reasonable request of help refused by me

thank you so much longhairedgit.

all I thought is that some of the info on the internet can be wrong and none of my fish books have mcuh about them .
I have looked on google already and it did answer some of my questions .

but I must say that this website isn't very helpful ( except longhairedgit ) just saying I shoud do my own homework. I am planning on doing more research I just thought that there might be some experts out there.

Good place to start, if you can find a copy, is the venerable Innes Book. Which has the fish listed under the old and now superseded scientific name of Anophthichthys jordani, the old Genus actually being a good name for the fish as it translates from the Greek as "fish with no eyes". However, when it was determined that the fish was, in fact, a population variant of Astyanax fasciatus mexicanus, that name took precedence as it had been created earlier. It would have been interesting if the Characin had been given the name Astyanax fasciatus mexicanus AFTER the Blind Cave Fish had been named, because then the Rule of Priority would have meant that the name Anophthichthys jordani would have applied to the SIGHTED fish too! A little insight into the wonderful world of the taxonomist for you ...

If you can find a copy of the venerable Innes Book, or to give it its proper title:

Exotic Aquarium Fishes by William. T. Innes
TFH Publications
Amazon.com has it!

then this will prove to be remarkably informative, even though the book was first printed in 1935 (yes, it's a 71 year old book!). Innes got so much right back then that most people still refer to his work even though there's so much about the hobby that has changed - much of his advise (including the part about 'thinking like a fish') still works well today, and you'll find it a valuable history lesson as well as a good fishkeeping guide that contains a LOT of species listed. His writing style is eminently readable too!

You'll find Anophthichtys jordani on page 92.3 ... when extra species were added to the book for later reprintings, they were allocated decimal point page numbers so as not to need changing the page numbers wholesale in the index!

Get this book and learn much, young grasshopper ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

thanks for all the help ,
I have done my homework now ,
but I couldn't find it's phylum there are 7 to choose from:
Phylum Cnidaria ( jellyfish)
Phylum Echinodermata ( starfish)
Phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms)
Phylum Annelida (worms)
Phylum Mollusca (shellfish)
Phylum Arthropoda
Phylum Chilopoda (centipedes)

I dont think its any of those, they should be listed under chordata- (the backboned animals), subphylem vertebrata, class osteichthyes (fish). Most of those groups you listed are too primitive, fish are generally more complicated.

It's now Superclass Osteichthyes, Class Actinopterygii ... (ray finned fishes).

You'll find it under Order Characiformes, Family Characidae.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002