Chris and List:

I have not been able to see such numbers.  In the red drum kept in earthen
ponds and reservoirs here in Ecuador the most I could see is a big spot turn
into a cluster of four to six smaller ones, but nothing more.  I am enclosing a
JPEG of the fish we used to have in CENAIM, one of them carries a little spot
near the tail, the other ones lost it already.  These fish were always kept in
sea water (34-35 ppt), but that obviously does not make any difference.

Cheers.

Enrique

---
Enrique Blacio, B.Sc., M.Sc.
Fish Culture Laboratory
Fundación CENAIM-ESPOL
www.cenaim.espol.edu.ec/~eblacio

---
Chris Guppenberger wrote:

> Enrique,
>
> I have observed the trait on several occasions in red drum in the Indian
> River Lagoon, Banana River and Mosquito Lagoon in the wild here in Central
> Florida. The spots on the tail are actually missing, and it was observed on
> both male and female specimens.
>
> Interesting enough the local fish tournaments have geared their prizes to
> red drum that have the greatest amount of spots.  To include the mottled
> black spots traveling up the dorsal side of the fish. Counts up to 112 have
> been reported.
>
> Chris Guppenberger
> Research Biologist
> <((((<  <((((<
>         <((((<
> Visit us on the web!
> http://www.floridafishresearch.com

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