I'm A Tico Grandmother!

[dwarfgourami]

Right, I might as well confess that I have found my new ownership of phallichthys tico a fairly nerve-racking experience. I am not mentally equipped to deal with fish that freeze when they catch sight of you, that hide in the plants so you don't know how many are still alive, and that you never see eating so you can't know what they actually do eat. But I have had a vague feeling that probably at least 1 male and a couple of females are still around; shadows flit across the back of the tank from time to time.

Today things got worse as one female was found to hang just under the surface at the back of the tank all day long, not even reacting when I approached for a closer look. All I could reliably deduce was that she must still be alive as her swimbladder was evidently working, she was keeping upright in the water. A number of options seemed to present themselves: she might be ill, she might be suffering from water or oxygen problems (though I really couldn't see how) or she might be giving birth. She hung there all day and I had to force myself to keep out of the room to give her some peace. I was already getting to the despondent stage where I had decided I couldn't keep ticos and had decided once they were dead to change the tank over for shelldwellers

And then this evening I saw a tiny fishie shoot down from the surface to hide in the plant. Just as I leant forward to take a closer look, the lights went out, so I don't know if it was only the one.

The bad news is this has taken me totally by surprise- I assumed it would take them months to settle in- so I have nothing to feed them (or it). No microworms, no nothing. All I have in the house is liquifry for livebearers (probably too big), liquifry for egglayers (might do), yolk of egg and an infusoria culture that I started this morning so won't be ready for another couple of days. What do you advise? There are probably enough infusoria in the tank for the first couple of days- planted tank and quite messy (algae etc). Should I order microworms? (where do you order microworms)? Or shoot out and try to get a brineshrimp culture?

 

[nmonks]

This does indeed sound rather nerve-wracking.

Do you have access to a pond? Might be a bit late now, but setting one up in the garden is cheap and useful. I use a simple plastic mock-half-barrel thing, with some sand and leaf litter at the bottom and various cheap plants (Acorus, hornwort, and so on). Fill up with water from another pond, or failing that, a couple of bags of live daphnia. Add sunshine. Soon, plenty of live food of all sizes. Very useful with my halfbeaks, which show no interest in microworms or brine shrimp nauplii.

I got microworms from the nice people of the British Livebearers Association mailing list. One splendid fellow sent me a starter culture for free. They'd also be good people to talk over your problems with.

I lost a female halfbeak because she couldn't give birth thanks to a cyst of some kind. Nasty. Hopefully, this isn't what's happening with your female.

If the adults eat algae, then the babies probably do, too, so a mix of aquarium detritus and Liquifry should do the trick.

Good luck!

Neale

 

[dwarfgourami]

Thanks Neale, I was hoping you'd be reading this.

The female seems ok, she just took longer to give birth than I'm used to. Also, I'm used to labouring females sinking to the bottom and hiding under the plants while their mates are thronging to the top of the tank, but this one went to the surface and laboured there- perhaps because her mates were hiding in the plants It freaked me out though, I wasn't expecting that.

I am doing the old banana-in-the-glass infusoria trick (shows how old I am!), and I'll see about getting some microworm in the morning. And I can always try the liquifry. And pop over to my friend who has a pond.

I can't wait for the lights to go on, so I can see what I've got The one fry I saw (briefly) seemed slightly less developed, more baby-like than the portholes, more like a guppy but not quite as babyish. It was a fast mover, though, like the portholes, shot straight into the plants.

I did see the male earlier today, brandishing his gonopodium in a very smug manner- like a lot of less common livebearers, these ticos come well equipped.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Just an update: this morning mother was still stuck in the corner panting and pushing. This was beginning to feel like one of those birth stories that women love to regale each other with at coffee mornings (...48 hours I was stuck there....and I was bleeding all over...and the midwife said....), so I shot out of the house and left her to it (behaviour I would never have tolerated in my husband, but there you are). Returned 4 hours later with a bag of live daphnia (well, they don't eat chocolates, do they?) and found that she had finally moved from the delivery room. Only one baby to show for it- seems a very meagre result for all that effort- but she perked up no end when she saw the goodies. Four of them came shooting out to the front of the tank and started gobbling. I must provide this sort of treat more often. Set up a little bucket-mini-pond in the garden with the remaining daphnia.