T. Aureus Wrigglers!

[minxfishy]

I dont not believe it.

I thought all the eggs had gone, but they must have moved them, this morning the cave was filled with gravel whereas it had been clean and empty.

Ive come home this afternoon to find teeny tiny wrigglers just hoovering above the gravel in the cave. The parents must have moved the eggs and bought them back to the cave sometime in between. There is a large hole in the gravel at the back of the tank where they must have been keeping them.

I cannot believe it, but there are definate little wriggley babies, maybe about 50 of them.

Got nothing to feed them with - what shall I do, will the parents find them food til I can get something for them?

Im so chuffed

 

[JenCliBee]

cant help with the feeding hun, but chuffed for you , pics please!!!

 

[minxfishy]

I wish I could get pics, but my camera just wont zoom in for that kind of close up. Its weird, looks like the gravel is moving!

 

[markandhisfish]

great stuff!!! should be easier to get pics once they are free swimming

 

[minxfishy]

Hope they make it that far, so far none of the other fish seem to even notice whats going on, aside from the fact they are restricted to the other 2/3 of the tank!

Been and got the gravel for their new home today, now I just need the tank, hope I get an email soon to say its been despatched.

 

[always4lora]

Congrats presume they'll have yolk sack to feed of for a few days?

 

[minxfishy]

I guess so, hopefully the decapsulated brine shrimp I ordered will be here by Thursday, if need be Ive got some frozen cyclops I can defrost and squirt into the cave or I can crush up some flakes very finely, soak in tank water and squirt that down too.

Just had confirmation also that the new tank has been collected by the courier so hopefully they delivery either tomorrow (unlikely) or Thursday. The its just a case of moving them over, which I can do by lifting the whole cave into a tub full of tank water, so they never leave water and just put it straight into the new tank, hopefully that way I wont lose any, in fact the mother will probably be in the cave at the same time, so only the Dad to catch.

 

[minxfishy]

Help! The female has moved the babies, via mouth to a ditch they've made in the open, about 10cms from the cave!! Why would she do this? They are so vulnerable I dont understand what she doing. She goes back to the cave, takes a mouthful of gravel, spits some out, then takes the fry to the ditch and releases them, then goes back to the cave, there are no fry left in the cave now that I can see, but she repeatedly goes back to it and leaves them with no protection, the Dad swims around to keep others away but they arent actually staying close as I would expect to see them.

Uploading a vid, should be up soon.

 

[minxfishy]

Ok, here is a vid of them, you cant see the fry, but they are in the ditch that she goes to often, looks into, then goes back again to the cave.

Seriously, I never knew fish having babies was so stressful, I know Im gonna lose this lot, but I really dont want to

Oh and ignore my beautiful male boes, who believes he is the star of the show

 

[always4lora]

You could do i what i did today nip to pets at home grab a condensation tray cut it up to size and stick it in the tank to stop getting in with the fry? I've done it twice once with geo's that took a dislike and today with my senegal to help it get a better share of food. cost me £3.00 for mine.

 

[minxfishy]

No way a condensation tray is large enough to fit the size of the tank its nearly 2ft wide! Nice idea though, I do have one in the shed not being used, but dont think its wide enough, although cut in half and glued it might!!!

 

[england]

hi, they seem to be doing a grand job, first time in all, excellent, with the tank mate's id imagine not many surviving but it's a good way to see what will happen next time, but you never know, seen a 5ft tank with jag's sucessfully raising there young with silver dollar's/flagtail/plec's/dempsey and a few other's in, so you may be lucky

 

[minxfishy]

Well, good news, they appear to have survived over night in the ditch and looked to have darked up in colour since yesterday, also managed to get some food down to them

 

[england]

brilliant news minx, good luck with it all, did you get the deshelled?

 

[minxfishy]

It was posted to me yesterday mate, didnt arrive in todays post, so hopefully tomorrow.