Tracking that package

[connorlindeman]

They're an interesting bunch of fish. They come in varying sizes, depending on origin and which line they are. There is a "dwarf red gularis" in circulation. It gets to 3-4 inches/9/10 cm. After that, they can range up to 6 inches/15cm, although I once saw some very old wild caughts come in that were larger than that, and murderously aggressive. They were past breeding age, but really impressive beasts.

They are semi-annuals, with eggs incubating in peat for weeks to months depending. That makes buying eggs easy, on Aquabid or through killie clubs. But variability hits again - some lines will hatch in water in with the parents, and some need incubation on peat. They are in an area threatened by a combination of the oil industry and human population displacement and growth, and I don't know of anyone studying them. I expect that if someone sampled wilds, they might find more than one species under the name. Most of the ones in captivity are mixes of different catching location, often going back several decades.

Did the eggs arrive yet?

 

[GaryE]

Did the eggs arrive yet?

Nope. We had Canada day last week to slow things down, and they are in our system now. I wouldn't be surprised at tomorrow. I expect I'll then have to wait for them to develop, as these are eggs that take a long time (that's why I was confident ordering from China).

It'll be a nice challenge.

 

[GaryE]

Okay, so mail from China is slow. Those eggs arrived today, after almost 5 weeks, and are in excellent shape.I already have 3 fry hatched from Nothobranchius malaissei, and the peat moss was full of eggs that looked good. The other 2 species are also looking alive and well, and should soon be fish.

In about 3 months, I'll know what they really look like.

 

[Colin_T]

we will be expecting pictures in the same time it took the eggs to get to you

that made me think about getting camera film developed and pictures printed back in the day. Drop the film off at the camera shop and pick it up a week later. Wow, how digital cameras destroyed that industry

 

[GaryE]

We have a fossil record and DNA evidence... are you suggesting that all these scientists are involved in a giant conspiracy?

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we will be expecting pictures in the same time it took the eggs to get to you

that made me think about getting camera film developed and pictures printed back in the day. Drop the film off at the camera shop and pick it up a week later. Wow, how digital cameras destroyed that industry

I like this better as I take a lot of digital shots to get even one passable image. It's still a lot of fun to use the old digital slr, although I keep getting told to buy an i-phone. I've seen superb pictures of these fish online, but right now they are tiny beige small font exclamation points with big eyes. They're going to be a real challenge for me, as annual fish. I haven't kept any of the short lived killies for many years. So what do I do? Go looking for the ones just found and not well known. If you are going for a challenge, really go for it. It's not boring.

 

[Colin_T]

A digital SLR camera will give much better results than any phone simply because you can focus on the subject instead of letting a stupid bit of software try to focus on it. Digital cameras and mobile phones are notorious for struggling to focus on dark or light coloured items and usually freak out if they have to photograph something black, white or yellow. Go get your SLR out of the cupboard and charge up the batteries.