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Wrigglers finally.

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
After 4 spawns my female has finally gotten the eggs to hatch. She normally eats them. She laid about 50 eggs (just a random guess). There is only 5 or 6 wrigglers that i can see, she laid them in a tiny casua pod so its hard to see.

Just wanted to share, wont be hatching bbs, will just feed ground flake/pellets as i am not prepared for fry right now. Iv meant to get micro worms going but have put off ordering them.
 

aarhud

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
343
BrineShrimpDirect sells a circular hatchery. I took a shot at making my own with a regular $1 plastic shoebox. A divider is installed to create a small harvest area. I spray painted the whole outside of the shoebox black except for the small harvesting compartment. The divider has a gap at the bottom for the shrimp to swim through.

I hatched 1/4th tsp and got a great yield. Maybe this would be an option for you? No air, no noise, etc.
 

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
maybe, dosnt matter now. Came home and my females color was less yellow and she was swimming all over the tank (normal non spawning behavior for her). No sign of the few wrigglers so im guessing she ate them lol. On a more crapy subject I noticed my male breathing heavy and his colors were faded out and he was showing darker colors as if he was stressed. This morning I found him belly up dead.

Water parameters are perfectly fine and no values spiked, No signs of disease or parasites, so my only guess is the female killed him, but iv never seen the female chase the male or attack him so I have no idea. The female and the 6 pencil fish are still doing fine.
 

aarhud

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
343
Something seems off. You are breeding A. agassizii? Are they are tank strain?

I don't think that I have ever had trouble with Apistogramma females egg eating or not raising fry. The fry not making it to free swimming coupled with your male dying is cause for concern in my opinion. Was his body damaged? Nipped fins?

How are the pencil fish behaving?
 

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
I could not see visible damage or anything on his body. Pencil fish are fine acting perfectly normally. That's why it is so weird. There is no other signs of anything else being wrong. I had my second female die 3 weeks ago but she was definitely killed by the bigger female. Her fins were shredded and scales missing. ill check when I get home to ensure everything is still normal.
 

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
forgive me i was wrong. Looked back into the pod she breeds in since i noticed she is still deep gold and aggressive, i now see wrigglers they should be free swiming soon since i dont see yoke sacs. I only see like 3. Hopefully i can raise them since i now dont have a male.
 

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
Ya i need to get some eggs and setup a hatchery real quick. I just need eggs, i have everything else. Ill have to see if fish stores around me have any for sale or maybe amazon prime now
 

aarhud

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
343
That is great!

Do you have any fellow fish keepers nearby, I know I would spot anybody some eggs to cover them a week or two? I would stay away from cheap eggs.

If you don't mind the 5-10 minutes it takes every 4-6 weeks to subculture. Microworms are awesome to have on hand. I always kill/toss mine when I don't have fry (They can make you gag when the culture goes rancid), but a guy on aquabid sells them cheap and is great to deal with. I like that you don't have to be so concerned with timing the BBS hatching with when the fry go free swimming.
 

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
There free swimming this morning, theres about 8 i can see. I gave them pellets ground to a fine powder, just spread out over the area there in. I ordered bbs eggs last night on amazon for next day delivery, should be here today. So tommorrow ill have some ready to feed. Till then im going to do powder a few times today in hopes they have a little something to munch on. There staying on my subwassatang bush so there should be some microrganisms in there also.
Super excited, makes losing my male a little less crappy.
 

aarhud

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
343
Be very careful with the dry foods. It is most likely not going to be eaten. So you may decreasing your water quality which will be detrimental to the fry. Pellets/powdered foods decay quickly just sitting on the substrate.
 

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
ya, i added just a small amount and with do a light gravel vac later today with a low suction so no fry get sucked up, ill also just wait for the fry to be taken elsewhere, moms been picking them up and moving them around.
 

aarhud

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
343
Awesome. Keep us up to date. I hope the batch does well for you so you can replace your male.
 

central tanks

Active Member
Messages
109
Location
Dallas, Tx
Thanks! all nine(that i could count) were alive this morning, and i feed them BBS, also gave them a feed around midday, and will give a little tonight, while saving the last bbs of the batch for tomorrow morning. My second batch will be started soon, so they will be ready to be feed tomorrow evening.

BBS are kinda fun to put into the tank. I let them loose near the fry but eventually there spread out through out the tank, my pencil fish start flying around hunting them, even noticed mama gobling some down. Its cool to see the fry with big orange bellies from the BBS. All is well for now. Will update in a week or so if all goes well.
 

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