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[Blobfish]

I'm a bit late to the conversation with this but you can get Indian Almond leaves here;  http/www.ta-aquaculture.com/   The site won't let me link to the exact page but they are on the left-hand menu towards the bottom.

 

[Akasha72]

well ... the long and the short of this story is this. The cory eggs didn't make it but hiding on that leaf was another egg impossible to see to the human eye. Something hatched ... something incredibly tiny. The tiny lil fella nearly went down the plug hole several times as several times I went to the tank, couldn't see anything and went to get my buckets and syphon to close the tank down ... an then I'd see something move!
 
For a long time I wondered what this lil fishy was ... for a few weeks I did wonder if it was a pandy cory but some searching on planet catfish showed me what it should look like and it didn't resemble any of the photo's. It was also not staying to the bottom of the tank .. it was swimming into the mid level on occasions. This left me with two options, a tetra or a harlequin.
 
For a while I was hoping for a harlequin as that would have proved it is possible to breed my hybrid harlequins (purple gold headed harlequins, or midnight rasbora's as my lfs call them!) 
 
We're now 3 months on and I now know the mystery fish is a tetra. It's one of my nematobrycom palmeri tetra's. I'm checking on him daily and it is looking to be a male. The eye's appear to be slowly turning blue. At the moment there's no extentions to the tail or dorsal so it's not 100% definite that it's male - until I see the trident tail appearing I'm not counting on anything sex wise.
If it turns out to be female then it can join my group but if it's male then it will have to be re-homed. I already have 5 males in my 4 foot tank and they bicker over territory. Adding another male would only add to that problem.
 
So, who want's to see photo's of this lil fish?
 
This photo was taken in one those 5ml caps that come with meds - that gives an idea of how tiny this fish was
 

 
Getting bigger
 

 
Once the dark lateral line developed I knew it was a tetra
 

 
Finally looking like a palmeri tetra
 

 
Taken just this week - you can see the eye looks blue in this shot
 

 
 
I can keep things updated if anyone is interested 

 

[gmc1]

Yeah.Good stuff akasha.

 

[Akasha72]

thanks gmc

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Unexpected.  I always thought they were scatterers, not 'planters'.

 

[TallTree01]

Wow, I'm amazed he's managed to survive so long! My tetras have never managed to get around to the fry stage, just eggs.
Great stuff Akasha.

 

[Akasha72]

I was totally unexpected eagles, I've seen the females darting amongst the plants hotly pursued by a male and like you I thought they were scatterer's. How an egg got onto a leaf floating around in the current is beyond me but it did somehow! The only other option is the sponge filter which was in my main tank for a few days .. I suppose it is possible a female scattered some eggs on the sponge filter 

 
I too am amazed it survived Talltree, it was so tiny it was impossible to feed for several weeks. It's only been on finely crushed flake for about 3 weeks. I'm guessing it was feeding off infusoria. I rushed out and got a clump of java moss and added that and the sponge filter was in there. I did see it picking at the sponge early on so I'm guessing micro-scopic 'stuff' on that is what supported it's needs.
 
He/she is a cute little thing and it's got serious attitude ... it comes darting to the front of the tank if I go near giving me evils lol

 

[Akasha72]

here we go again. Woke up to several eggs on the glass in the exact same place as the batch that started this thread! I also found one on a leaf ... de-ja-vu!
 
So, I've managed to save 8. They were just turning hard so getting them off the glass was a challenge and my tetra's were circling too. Before going to bed my panda's were looking frisky so I suspect them (again) but you know ... after last time I'm doubting. Maybe it's the tetra's again!
 
Time will tell and I'll report back later

 

[Akasha72]

darkening! Looks like they are viable and I'm certain they're cory ... which type I don't know
 

 

[Akasha72]

eggs still havn't hatched although they are now almost black in colour. I expected to get up this morning to baby cories but still nothing. My only experience of breeding cories are my peppered cories and the eggs would have hatched by now. Does anyone know if panda eggs take longer? I suspect these are panda cory eggs

 

[eaglesaquarium]

eggs still havn't hatched although they are now almost black in colour. I expected to get up this morning to baby cories but still nothing. My only experience of breeding cories are my peppered cories and the eggs would have hatched by now. Does anyone know if panda eggs take longer? I suspect these are panda cory eggs

 
In my experience... I have no idea.  Never watched for them, the pandas just popped out one day, as adolescents.  

 

[Akasha72]

yes ... my experience of breeding the panda's is the same! I'm about to check on the eggs again ... this will be about the 6th time today. I'm worried and concerned as to why they've not hatched
they're out!! Phew!
 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Congrats.

 

[Akasha72]

better photo here - just 4 out so far
 

definite panda's - on that close up you can see the dark stripe over the eyes
 
 
I'M SO EXCITED 

 

[PepperjacksMama]

Wooohoo!!!