Lionhead "dad"'s Final Legacy

[N0body Of The Goat]

In the middle of my weekly 620T Lionhead nursery tank water change, when a ~5mm hatching starts exploring the tank, which has ~34 ~40mm youngsters that were born in November!

I've yet to ever read of two generations of Lionheads with parents at the same time, no idea if the older ones will be safe or are in critical danger of "mum"'s pyscotic tendencies!

"Dad" passed away in my 48x12x15 "Tank of Ich death" over Friday night, after killing his biggest son and "mum" showing some fin damage (but not as bad as in November 2010). Now it all becomes clear, he had persuaded mum to breed again and was protecting the eggs from the older generation.

Now I have a problem... Older generation probably need to move out to the Rio240, but they will attack/kill my Rabbit Snails; while my Humphead Glassfish/ female Golden Wonder Killifish / African Butterfly Fish may try to eat the smallest of the female Lionheads.

Photo of old/new generation fry to follow...

Cue the circus juggling music!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

The youngsters born November 2011...

New hatchling spotted today (at same optical zoom)...


Gone but not forgotten "dad"...

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

After a fun evening moving the 4-month old youngsters to my plastic QT tub (rather than doing the whole juggling thing in the Rio240), I can report that there are 42 alive and kicking, a few more than the estimated 34.

As for the hatchlings, most are still hiding away in the cave with "mum", but I have seen ~12 little faces peering at me and I would not be surprised to find the real number closer to 40-odd (given that the November brood started with at least 44, one dies during the move to the 620T and "dad" killed the biggest one a couple of weeks ago).

And given that Darren Evans (BCA secretary) has the 13 survivors from the first brood in September 2010, while I'm gutted dad died, he has definitely passed on plenty of genes to keep his DNA alive for many more generations to come.

 

[KISSfn]

Glad you have Lionhead's offspring to carry the torch!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

It appears one of the older November brood, a male, must have made a deal with "mum" last night... Found him out and about this afternoon, he must have been allowed into the nursery cave, very surprising as I swear I saw at least one teenager vacuum a hatchling brother/sister into its mouth last night (which angered mum big time, which is when I started moving the teenagers out).

So that will be no.43 in the 100l plastic tub, where its opaque sides have made the teenagers feel more secure and its been great to see them out and about (sometimes schooling as a 30+ group, swimming against the U4 ~1000lph current)!

 

[bae1994]

Very cool are you the one selling these on ac? How big do they grow to ?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Yep, I 'm selling these on AC, provisionally the youngsters are going to a LFS (but I'm happy to sell individuals/small groups to anyone who can collect for far cheaper than the typical ~£7 price). Over time the males are supposed to approach 15cm and the females 10cm, but in 20 months "mum" (plus an unpaired female) has reached ~6.5cm SL and "dad" reached ~9cm SL.


"No.43" gave me a bit of a runaround but he has finally joined his ~4-month old siblings.

 

[bae1994]

I was hoping theyde get bigger

But still great looking fish

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

If you do a search going back ~2 years back, you will find photos/video from "Snowflake911", her one was top boss of the tank, keeping CA cichlids far bigger than itself in line.