Cave Fish

[skip]

I've been trying to get counts of various species of cavefish for several years, but my limited diving has not yielded much information. What I'd really like is for all cave divers to photograph or video cave fish and send me a copy. Let's extend that to all cave life, crayfish, isopods, visitors like catfish, etc. I hope to document who is where and build a website of aquatic cave life. So include place, date, time, and whatever other info you think might be helpful.

You can also refer me to locations of where you might have already have information so I can go and take a look and add to the site (with your permission of course).

My email address is [email protected].

thanks,
skip

[Greenwood_60]

Kind of like this? http://www.stygobites.com

[skip]

Yes and no. More data driven than image driven. charts, tables, link to that site, but looking for the kind of information that I can put in a spreadsheet. "Cited two ozark albino cavefish in Blue Spring, Arkansas..." maybe a picture if available.

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[Kelly Jessop]

isopods,

Will be very difficult in this case. They are too small to be photographed or video,and most cave divers can't tell the difference between an isopod and amphipod,and break the amphipods into Hobbsi or Grandimanus. Knowing the difference can be helpful due to the position on natural area inventories-some have different levels of imperilled. A lot of what your doing has been documented for Florida at least in a couple publications and listed in parks management plans,but species levels are dynamic and need frequent notation.

[OFG-1]

One fish, two fish, red fish, cave fish?? Doesn't quite roll off the tongue does it? How about: one fish, two fish, cave fish, cra(w)fish? “And the turtles, of course…All the turtles are free As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.”

[mdax]

Feel free to use whatever data you need from my site. It's just an aggregation of information available on the internet, and due to that I always need to clean it up as links and locations change.
I always attribute the source through URL or author name and take down images/data when contacted by authors/photographers immediately. However when I explain it's a not for profit, education driven resource for cave divers every requester has decided I can keep it up.

If you select a stygobite and get to it's main page and select "Additional Data" in the upper right you'll find links to all sorts of information. Some of it is more scientific in nature and stuff you likely want to check out. As I go through it I realized that some resources have moved and need updating.

All the scientists I've talked to say that it's almost impossible to identify amphipods in the field. Apparently they even have a tough time when they're in a lab due to different phases of their development. I need to change the sightings logic so cave divers can only select amphipod or cave crayfish to make sighting reports more squared away.
I'm currently playing around with a mobile version for iphone/android but paying work keeps getting in the way!

[stickydeco]

Skip Baby: “Video a cave fish?” Now, I’ll bet I know where one might be.

You remember awhile back all the hype that was flying around about the giant fish seen in different locations at JB? Stories ranged from “I saw that sucker back at 4000 ft.” to “All that’s left is his bones.”

Well, it turns out that this critter is really a “she.” We know this because it’s named “Eddwinia”, in honor of the guy who greatly doubted these initial sightings. But last week we managed to get some 48 Hours Hard Evidence that Eddwinia is, in fact, alive, well, and kicking ass.

Go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-8QgdPz-lI&feature=plcp

[TONY CHANEY]

That was so very well done! Thanks.

[mdax]

Eddwinnia is more advanced than anyone thought, the way she intentionally stirs up silt trying to kill the cave divers is clear on the video. Very awesome.

[Kelly Jessop]

All the scientists I've talked to say that it's almost impossible to identify amphipods in the field.

The two primary ones we see in the caves we dive are crangonyx hobbsi and crangonyx grandimanus,and they are generally pretty easy to identify with the naked eye. But, a juvenile grandimanus could be mistaken for a hobbsi. Most cave divers have a lot of difficulty telling the difference between the amphipods and isopods in general just from the features seen while in the cave. Once you show someone the difference of species in the cave,and their swimming patterns,it becomes easier to identify.