Unidentified Fry In My Tank... Any Ideas?

[Malt_Vinegar]

I am running a tiny 8litre tank at work, its only inhabitants were meant to be cherry shrimp, and snails..

See pic:

It has been setup for about 3 weeks now, and the only thing I added recently (over a week ago)was some plants.

Today, i suddenly noticed a single tiny fry swimming about. I straight away added a miniscule amount of crushed up flake food, and the little blighter was tucking in. Looks like it still has the remains of an egg-sac on its underbelly, and is totally clear with a total length of about 5mm.

This must have come in on a plant, in egg form? I would have spotted any livebearer fry in anything I added, and the thing looks just too tiny to be a livebearer after a couple of weeks...

Im very interested to see what it is, and keen to keep it alive long enough to find out! It is taking flake, and I suppose whilst it is tiny its not going to massively increase the bio-load on the tank, so it can probably live on in there for a few months untill its big enough to pass on to someone. If it goes into my main tank at home it will just end up getting eaten!

Any ideas on what it might be? I know its a long shot at this stage, will try and get pics, but its pretty tiny and my cameraphone is not good enough to pick it out in any detail...

 

[lilacamy931]

Possibly a White Cloud Minnow? I have heard this can be a common occurence when adding plants so this could be a likely course, though you may have to wait until he grows up!

 

[Biulu]

Small arowanas swim around for a pretty long time with a kind of eggsac underneat their belly.

 

[meguro]

lol arowana
i was going to suggest tiger shovelnose though...
i mean really it could be anything

 

[Gill]

Very Nice Tank
The plants that you added, were they from and LFS. If So, were there any fish in the tank they were taken out of.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Very Nice Tank
The plants that you added, were they from and LFS. If So, were there any fish in the tank they were taken out of.

Hiya! Thanks

The plants were from a large plant only tank, all I saw in there were a few amano shrimp! Could have been anything in there though, very densly planted.

White cloud would make sense, as my tank is un-heated, and I would expect most truely "tropical" fish to have keeled over in the cold nights!

 

[Gill]

Very Nice Tank
The plants that you added, were they from and LFS. If So, were there any fish in the tank they were taken out of.

Hiya! Thanks

The plants were from a large plant only tank, all I saw in there were a few amano shrimp! Could have been anything in there though, very densly planted.

White cloud would make sense, as my tank is un-heated, and I would expect most truely "tropical" fish to have keeled over in the cold nights!

That Explains it then, Most likey came in with the plant shipment. Will be interesting to see what fish this becomes. COuld really be anything, depending on where the plants originate from.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Very Nice Tank
The plants that you added, were they from and LFS. If So, were there any fish in the tank they were taken out of.

Hiya! Thanks

The plants were from a large plant only tank, all I saw in there were a few amano shrimp! Could have been anything in there though, very densly planted.

White cloud would make sense, as my tank is un-heated, and I would expect most truely "tropical" fish to have keeled over in the cold nights!

That Explains it then, Most likey came in with the plant shipment. Will be interesting to see what fish this becomes. COuld really be anything, depending on where the plants originate from.

As soon as I have enough of a fish to ID, and take pics of, I will update

 

[Jonty]

what're the odds of it being a red-tailed cat?

 

[Scott MacAdam]

This is exciting! Please keep this post going and put up some pictures when you can.
I wouldn't discount tropical because you don't have a heater. Low temps really slow down tropical fish and they don't thrive, but they are actually quite resistant to colder temperatures. I live in Canada and when we have power outages (sometimes for days at a time) I do what I can to keep the temp up but I have caught it really low and I've never actually lost a fish because of it. Just a thought.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

This is exciting! Please keep this post going and put up some pictures when you can.
I wouldn't discount tropical because you don't have a heater. Low temps really slow down tropical fish and they don't thrive, but they are actually quite resistant to colder temperatures. I live in Canada and when we have power outages (sometimes for days at a time) I do what I can to keep the temp up but I have caught it really low and I've never actually lost a fish because of it. Just a thought.

Well, its eating, so that hopefully means its happy, plenty of plants to hide in, and if it avoids the filter intake it should be fine!!

Im also quite excited by it!!

 

[Scott MacAdam]

If you want to make sure it doesn't get sucked into the filter i'd put cut a slit into a sponge and then slide it over the intake. I used this technique when I was breeding fish a while ago. It dissipates the suction really well and doesn't really add any stress to your filter (assuming it's not really dense)

 

[Jenste]

can't wait til the little #28### gets big enough to be photographed!

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Popped back to the shop today.

The only fish that could have been in contact with the plants (which are grown by a supplier with no fish in the tanks) are either Wild rainbows, which they were very excited about the prospect of them having bred in store, OR electric blue rams!!

There were also a couple of botia loaches, which was decided it would be quite unusual if it was them.

So, there are a few choices Still, might even be something totally different....

Still swimming about and eating well

 

[Always Learning]

Borrow a really good camera or something.. we need pics!