My Ameca Splendens Dropped!

[Darkmoon Bettas]

Weirdly, the female dropped in the middle of the day, so the fry were still just a couple hours old when I came home from work, and a few of them had (what appears to my untrained eye to be) remnants of the 'umbilical cord' still in place.

I doubt it was this female's first drop since she was large when I got her, but it was the first one she's had since I've had her that I'm aware of. She dropped *15* of the little guys, and I was SHOCKED at how big they are. They're about the size of a 3-week old Endler fry, which is the only livebearer I've had dropping regularly these days until now. Sheez, it's painful to just look at them.

Group photos:

Single fry (with the umbilical structure?)

M

 

[dwarfgourami]

Congratulations! Lovely pics! Isn't it amazing how grown-up goodeid fry look?

 

[nmonks]

Very nice indeed. Keep the pictures coming... I for one would love to see how they look as the weeks pass.

Cheers, Neale

 

[helterskelter]

Great pic's u got there.

Ameca's was one of the first goodieads i had and the fry are amazing size like you say.
And your correct in thinking that they have an umbilical structure, this called an "trophotaenia" and yes it allows the fry to get nuteration from the mother, and i believe they can grow to something like 10 times larger than the original egg size, which Poeciliidae cant do.

The trophotaenia will drop off quickly, and only be on the fry for 6 hours.

Keep us updated on how they are doing.

 

[diburning]

They breed like rabbits! You just might be setting up new tanks for them when they spawn again. Or, sell them. My LFS has them for $20 each or $35 a pair (which is a ripoff seeing how I got my original trio for $5 at a local auction)

 

[helterskelter]

One ting to remember with these fish they are only just hangin on in the wild, in the last 5 years only a few fish have been found, while they may breed quite easily in the aquaria they are still a very rare fish in the wild.

 

[stang1]

Congratulations!! Great pics and keep us updated.

 

[kribensis12]

Great pics and post more!