Fry - Gardneri Males!

[BigC]

Sometimes Aplochelius lineatus Gold can be a bit hard to sex, Elongated finnage and colouration sometimes is an indication but not always the case these days. The way I sucessfully sex these if I'm unsure is to bag the fish and shine a torch at the abdomen and in the female there will be eggs. From the pic it is hard to assertain, If I were pressed I would say its a juvenile male, but hard to say.
Do you run a power filter, if so place this in a cooler bag or polystyrene box a while with ice to bring the temps in your aquariums down a bit.
Regards
BigC

 

[Biulu]

Sometimes Aplochelius lineatus Gold can be a bit hard to sex, Elongated finnage and colouration sometimes is an indication but not always the case these days. The way I sucessfully sex these if I'm unsure is to bag the fish and shine a torch at the abdomen and in the female there will be eggs. From the pic it is hard to assertain, If I were pressed I would say its a juvenile male, but hard to say.
Do you run a power filter, if so place this in a cooler bag or polystyrene box a while with ice to bring the temps in your aquariums down a bit.
Regards
BigC

Thanks for the tip! Luckily it started raining now, so temperatures are back to normal.

 

[Biulu]

A little update: I have started to feed the F. gardneri adult brine shrimp, although the smaller specimens. This is additional to the microworm. Some of the larger ones also fell into the tank, and it was so funny to watch the fry battling with them. Not wanting to let them go, half in their beak and half outside!

I hope my grindals will be ready for harvesting next week, and then I will start feeding them these instead of the microworm together with the brine shrimp.

The australe are still doing well, they are 18 all in all, and are already fighting amongst themselves over food. Although I feed in 4 different corners of the tupperware.

I had already another tank set up, but then today I got free swimming kribensis fry, and moved these into the tank. The yellow panchax is already big enough to take the place of his dad in the community tank. He seems to be thriving. He has definitively a larger mouth than the gardneri though as for him at that size it was no problem to eat the brine shrimp.

So the australe will stay in their tupper for another while. Eventually I can move them to a larger tupper before moving him to a proper tank.

 

[BigC]

Now your really starting to think like a KIlli-Nut.
All good signs I'm seeing there
Keep it up.
One point though you may split the males from the females as soon as they beciome apparent. And also grade them in sizes as the smaller siblings will be bullied.
Make provision for this
Regards
BigC

 

[Biulu]

Hahahaha!

I have been checking the gardneris but no colour is showing, so I can't do any sexing yet, but I will keep it in mind. Thanks! For the australe fry, there are 2 fry which are really lagging behind in growth, I might keep them in the tupper for a while until they catch up when I move the other ones to a bigger tank.

 

[BigC]

I have been checking the gardneris but no colour is showing

The fins will be the first indication, you will start to see slight colouration appearing there first.
Regards
BigC

 

[Biulu]

I have been checking the gardneris but no colour is showing

The fins will be the first indication, you will start to see slight colouration appearing there first.
Regards
BigC

Colin, the fins are still white, but the body starts to show a bit of orangish/reddish spots in the belly area. They are currently around 1.5 to 2 cms.

 

[BigC]

Hi Biulu
At that size Fp. gardneri Jos Plateau and Aphyo. australe males will both have faint lines/bands in their unpaired fins showing first look closely. Sounds like you may have females though. How many of each species have you in total.
Regards
BigC

 

[Biulu]

The australe are 1 month younger and much smaller, so nothing to see there yet. I have 5 gardneris and around 15 australes. I lost a couple as I was on a business trip and had to leave them with somebody to care for. You know, that is never the same, but I think they did a good job for non-fish keepers.

It is a ibt hard to check, as the water is fairly brown. I am using water which has tannins in it leached by a large piece of bogwood. This saved me as water is very hard here. All aquarists say it is a miracle I have come that far......

In the meantime the panchax is a nice little gentleman who holds already his own in my community tank. I think he is definitively more beautiful than his parents with a nice reddish/orangish lining on his tail.

 

[BigC]

Catch or usher the fry into a jamjar for further inspection.
Regards
BigC

 

[Biulu]

Colin, it looks like they are all females, according to your description; the fins are all transparent. It would be a pity, but it is not too bad, because it is a great learning experience!

 

[BigC]

Sam will send you some more eggs I'm sure. Listen... let me have your water stats as regards to pH, hardness and temperature. Just an idea for next time.
Keep the females...Send for some more eggs.
Regards
BigC

 

[Biulu]

I will be in Europe again in September, so will get some more eggs then. I think it has to do with the high temperature at that time. I will check the pH and hardness of the water I am currently using for them. The temperature is 24 degrees (without heater).

 

[BigC]

There is a big ongoing debate surrounding those factors, predominately the pH, Check yours and go a little to the opposite side of where yours is presently when hatching the next batch.
The sticking point of the debate is weither the pH affects (with regard to sex) the egg when its laid or when it hatches.
Regards
BigC

 

[Biulu]

Ok, I guess I would be able to do that temporarily while hatching, but how and when do I then adapt them to the 'normal' pH? I already will have to do that for the hardness...