Yep, the male is in the tank. He mostly patrols the edge of female's territory or chases the pencil fish when she is looking. Swear he's trying to look helpful. Gives female a wide berth and she is very insistent he's 12"+ from the fry. Quite a shame since I've seen him bring a stray fry back to the nest for the thanks of a tail swipe to the face! I think he'd care for fry given the chance.
Other tank mates are MTS, some green hydra that won't leave, Nannostomus beckfordi (a foursome of females) and two juvenile female borellii (both about 1") that I just can't catch. Well pretty sure they are female, they're very yellow in color. They RUN for cover every time I see them.
Mama's color and personality remind me of an angry queen bee. She definitely runs the tank.
I do wish I had your macro lens! You must post more photos soon.
I have been away for a little while, while I search for larger tank to consolidate my tanks. Finding one that I can affor and also doesn’t look like it belongs in the garage (my aquariums are in our rec room) has been a challenge. One thing I found out is that this is a terrible time to buy a large aquarium. The hobby is growing thanks to COVID and supply lines have been interrupted. As a result the prices are going through the roof - and most tanks are on back order for months. Anyway enough of the rant.
Back to my apisto babies. It has been almost 6 weeks now. I started out with 6. 4 are still alive and healthy. Given that when they hatched I knew nothing about raising fry, this has been one of the most satisfying and proud moments for me in this hobby - let’s hope I don’t jinx myself. At this point they are large enough that I can even shoot them with my iPhone camera. Here are a few things I learned:
1 - The brine shrimp blender is awesome. It works extremely well, has several stand options - can use the stand that came with it and the handle can be used to hang it on a wall instead. Place for a heater, thermometer (included). The volume is fantastic. I had poor hatch rates at first. Increased the air volume and that solved it. My hatch rates are through the roof now. One thing I’d improve would be to provide a longer drain spout - tough am looking at adding a hose to the spout to address that.
2 - The fry ring (‘the pen") is not perfect. Two problems are that because the mesh is so fine, the food accumulates at the bottom. The only thing that escapes are the micro-worms. Plus, the leftover food gets embedded into the mesh, and thus can’t simply use a baster to remove it. Instead I have to gently scrape the bottom then suction the leftovers. Also, because it is in my planted tank which has high light, there is algae on the mesh - leftover food and high light is the perfect recipe for algae. Once again, the algae is embedded in the mesh, so no way to really get it out until the fry are moved. It does works superbly for three things though. It contains the food in a small area so the small fry can find it; water readily diffuses from the main tank so the water parameters are excellent (and I don’t expect bacteria problems); the temp is maintained at the tank temperature.
I recently watched the following video about the setup of an experienced breeder:
. He essentially built the equivalent of the Hagen Marina
@Mike Wise suggested. But unlike the hang on concept, he floated them in the tank ensuring the temperature is at the main tank level and added pump based flow to increase the flow. I think my next fry pen is going to be the Hagen Marina with a pump providing greater flow to ensure water cleanliness. One thing I am not sure about is the temperature, but I’ll try the set up prior to having fry.
3 - I feed them 2-3 times a day. They are definitely eating dry foods. I have seen them lunge at Hakari Fry starter. I had suspected as much; the first week of their life that’s all they got until I could get set up. I’ll still feed brine shrimp and micro worms until they are adults. In fact I discovered that the adult fish love brine shrimp as well. I put them into my main tanks and everyone ate them. My honey gouramis keep hunting them for up to 30 minutes after I put brine shrimp into their tank.
My next step is to figure out how to set up a grow out tank. They are now getting big enough that the pen is not going to be enough. But I can’t let them loose in a 20 gallon planted tank yet - making sure they readily find their food is still a priority I am guessing. Perhaps I’ll get one of the floating breeder boxes that @newbie suggested - I just don’t feel like maintaining my hospital tank - I find 2 too many already.
I’ll conclude with the weekly shots - this time by my iPhone and the quality definitely suffers. Note that they are now almost as big as my shrimp.
