Quest for plakat fry

[Demeter32]

Veggie slices (squash, cucumber, occasional broccoli) and algae wafers. The albino pair is being kept in the 29gal cichlid fry tank. I've only had the female for roughly a month and she was kept in a nasty tank before I got her so who knows what she was being fed. Both have rounded bellies.

I think I'm going to move the female to the other planted 29gal that has a long finned male and juvenile calico. I'd prefer natural colored fry anyways.

 

[SeanTrollope]

you learn something new everyday

 

[Demeter32]

At two weeks old, they are now as large as new born live bearer fry. They can finally be seen from across the living room I've counted 7 at one time, seems to be an easily manageable number. Let's hope they don't start dying on me. Micro worms twice a day and I've just given them their first feeding of baby brine shrimp (canned, not live) after a 50% water change. Pictures to come in a couple days.

 

[NickAu]

Photos?

 

[Demeter32]

They seem to be more active after the water change, perhaps it's just because a storm front went through too. I counted up to 14ish this time. There's one fry that is noticeably smaller.

Note: the plants don't seem to take well to the cheap LED lights...

 

[Demeter32]

Fry update! They're about a cm long now and looks like they are finally getting their juvenile stripes/markings. They actually look like bettas and I think they are starting to breath air as they tend to hang around the surface more often. Last night I counted up to 17 but couldn't get past 14 today. The older they get the more there seems to be...

4.5ish weeks old.

I want to try getting them to eat some crushed pellets or finely chopped brine shrimp but I'm afraid they won't eat it and it will foul the water.

 

[NickAu]

Baby photos, how cute.

 

[Demeter32]

According to a growth chart I found from who know where, they should be getting a growth spurt here pretty soon. Looks like I need to play musical tanks again and move some cichlid fry to free up the 20gal. I'm debating on making several breeder baskets to seperate male out once they start misbehaving.... I need to start planning for that and possibly setting up another tank for males I want to keep.

 

[NickAu]

You need something lie this

Image not my work

 

[Demeter32]

I do need something like that, but that would require at least one of the rooms in my house to be at 80F. I have no control over the thermostat, alas. I do have plenty of quart and half gallon jars though. Floating them in jars in a heated tank is all I can do other than using breeder baskets.

If I can fit 8 jars in a 10gal tank to keep them nice and warm that should be enough so long as about half are male. Any males that can behave can be kept with their sisters at least until I start selling/giving them away. This is a rough game plan, but for now it will work. I'd say I have another 2 months before they start getting aggressive.

 

[Demeter32]

Update time! The fry are a little over 2 months old now. The larger ones are about half an inch long and all seem well. Still eating Instant Ocean baby brine shrimp 3 times a day. A while back I found one dead fry, do clue as to why it died though. Many of the bigger babies are getting red in their fins. One in particular has red in its tail, anal, and dorsal fins. I'm guessing this one might be a male, I saw it trying to flare at the others, very cute.

Note that the white specs everywhere are BBS.

 

[NickAu]

Looking good.

 

[Demeter32]

The larger ones have begun picking on the smaller ones, so 5 have been jarred. they get daily water changes. I obviously have a favorite who appears to be male but he will not hold still long enough for decent pictures and half the time he is not colored up. The jarred ones are eating micro pellets now.

Yes they are floating on other tanks. This was the best I could get.

Here's the rest of the litter, the runts and medium sized fry.

This one needs to be jarred. It's bigger than the others but shows minimal color. Still cute.

 

[Toney]

Cool, was thinking about spawning some myself

 

[NickAu]

Babies with attitude LOL.