an egg story

[spAcE mOnkEy]

today, i finnally got rid of my 3 jack dempseys, so i moved fish around. i put the sengalis bichir, geophagus surnamis, pink convict, spotted rapheal into the 55 gal. last night i discovered one of my ID sharks eye was missing! so i got rid of the JD's today. the ID's are just temp, i got them b4 i knew what i knew they were. so when i was moving the surnamis, many little round objects were floating around in the water. when i put him into the other tank, i realized these were eggs! i got another surnamis from the petstore as credit but i will have to grow it out i cleared a bare spot on the bottom of the 55 for the geo and she went right to it. the gravel is going to be sand, but i put them in there now so they arent as cramped. in my 30 gal long, theres a 2 convicts im trying to breed, because i really like ones characteristics. so the female has been very protective of one spot in the tank, underneth a clam shell. i moved the shell and the female started bitting me! it didnt hurt but it startled me. anything that moved near her she would bite! so i looked underneth the shell and there was a cluster of eggs! i put the eggs back where they were, hopefully i didnt kill them when my finger was over them . so now i just have to get sand and my 55 will be great and the surnamis can make its own nest.

 

[David]

You do realize that iridescent sharks get huge and that 55 gallon won't support them for long... My friend has two in a 150 gallon with a pair of jack dempseys and a common plec, and a shovelnose cat and they are both over 2 feet long.
Anyway good luck with the eggs, and congrats!

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

yeah i know, im just keeping them because they arent growing at all, and if they start growing il get rid of em . ive had them for 2 years and they havent grown for about a year.

 

[David]

yeah i know, im just keeping them because they arent growing at all, and if they start growing il get rid of em . ive had them for 2 years and they havent grown for about a year.

Maybe it's because you are keeping them in a small tank which is stunting their growth...

EDIT: how long are they now?

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

i think they ARE stunted. they are about 7 in now. if they are stunted, what should i do? i thought i might as well just keep them.

 

[David]

You shoudl probably move them to a larger tank because sooner or later their inner organs (which, unlike the outer body, do not stop growing) will catch up with their body and it won't be pretty. However a 55 long should be big enough for 7" long fish (for now). But eventually you shoudl get rid of them or find a bigger tank, as they are currently less than half their potential size.

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

yeah thats what i was going to do.
get rid of them eventually. i am going to wait a while cuz i just dropped off some fish at the store i couldnt keep any more, they probably dont want the ID sharks, anyway the biggist tank they have there is a 55 gal.

 

[David]

LFS can't be that good if they don't have any tanks over 100 gallons... unless they specialize in small fish. Do they sell any larger fish?

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

its not too great of a fish store. i go there because the fish are cheaper and healthy. the service is nice and i know what im doing most of the time, so its ok. the 55 gal is for fish to be held in until they are sold. its not the best fishstore but its very close to me and i dont know of any other GOOD stores. they mismark prices sometimes too which i like

 

[David]

they mismark prices sometimes too which i like

You're sneaky