Babies... Mystery Solved

[DevUK]

I found one of my guppy (red lace snakeskin) females dropping fry at the weekend and managed to get her into a breeding net. She'd dropped 4 or 5 before I managed this and I'd seen most of them get munched by other tank occupants. Harsh, but a good natural food I guess... Anyway, she had a further 5 in the net, though one was still born so I have 4 in there now (and one I've seen hiding in the tank amongst the plants - tough little guy )

Now, today I've found more babies which look like they're new borns (about 8 of them). My confusion is that they look a lot smaller than the ones I watched drop from the female I had in the breeder. I have 3 or 4 females, 2 older ones, 2 offspring who are all gravid. Is it possible that one of them has just dropped smaller fry? The only other livebearers in this tank are dwarf platties and I've seen the fry they drop, which are bigger and have more colour. No males as far as I can tell and one batch of fry since I got them (in a seperate tank) and no male contact for 6 months.

My only other thought is that somehow some of the other non-live bearers have managed to breed successfully.

Here's a pic:

I don't expect anyone to be able to say what they are from that pic, it's just cos they're cool and I managed to get a pic They measure approx a smidge over 1mm so really tiny

Other fish (non live bearers) in the tank are:

Sparkling Gouramis
Coffee bean rasboras (Boraras Maculatus)
Red line rasbora
Dwarf/pygmy cories (Corydoras Habrosus)

My problem now is trying to catch them and get them into the breeding net. Tried this morning but I didn't want to scare them off into the tank and have the gouramis munch them...

 

[OldMan47]

My first guess would be that one of your egg layers bred sucessfully. I have had lots of different livebearers over the years but the only fry I ever had that were in the 1 mm range were some betta fry. Most egg layers will produce quite small fry because there is not much room for a large fry to develop in a small egg.

 

[DevUK]

I'm hoping they'll turn out to be the Rasbora Maculatus Lovely little fish.

 

[DevUK]

I was shocked to see more babies today! All clinging onto some a Hydrocotyle leaf!

And I know who they belong to now:

My Sparkling gouramis have spawned! I had noticed they were hanging around the outside of the breeding net that was in there for the livebearers. I assumed they were protecting a good hunting spot or eyeing up the fry in the net. It now seems she's being a good mum and protecting her young from any fish that comes close! I'm quite chuffed

Mystery solved. Now I get to go brag in another section of the forum

 

[emmag21]

Awwwww!!! So cute x

 

[helterskelter]

Thats amazing Dev i love sparkling and tried many time to breed them.

With no luck though, so what dose the female look like as to me they all look males in shop's, ie long dorsal and bright colours etc etc.
Do u hear them croaking as well. I used to have some males that when they were fighting croaked was very strange at first before i realised what it was.

 

[damianhucker]

now i feel , inadequate , lol . ive bred sparkling gouramis for years and never heard them croak , i knew croaking gouramis did this obviuosly but not sparkling now im gonna have to buy some more and attempt to breed again to see if i hear them cos i wasnt listening for it before , my members of staff are gonna be cross with you for this cos when i started my job i gave them 50 sparkling gouramis on my 3rd day and they only sold them about 18 months later , :0

 

[helterskelter]

I must admit it was only 2 fish (males) out of about 20 or so fish i've had over the years. and they was defo sparkling before some suggests that.
So dont think it was a common thing.

Dev what water u breeding them in? i must admit i always tried it in hardwater but only coz i could not afford anything to soften it up at all back then.

 

[damianhucker]

mine was in hard water every time , ph about 8 ish , no prob , just slow moving half filled tank with floating almond leave or polystyrene , turn temp down a few degrees for a week then turn it back up gradually , eggs hatch within 1 day

 

[DevUK]

Not overly sure on water chemistry but I have hard water. It does discolour slightly due to the sumatran wood so I'm guessing that softens the water a little. I have also not been doing many water changes... once a month, sometimes twice. The tank is way over filtered with a Fluval 205 (12 gal tank). Even so, the flow is quite low (using a wide outlet which reduces the flow).

I have lots of floating plants in there, mostly Hydrocotyle which has large leaves floating on the surface, with stems running all over and roots at various points along the stems.

Here's a pic of one of the potential parents:

Heres an older pic from May (it's a lot more over grown now. Moss has bushed out and lots more floating plants all over):