Ok? How did this happen?

[Peyton]

I was watching my cherry shrimp tank today trying to unwind after this busy day. I happened to see something moving in the back corner of the tank. I looked and lo and behold there are three baby fish in there. Trouble is this is a all invertebrate tank.

They look like they have only been born a few days. More than likely they were in some plants I trimed from my 20gal the other day. The plants were sitting on the floor out of water for a while though so I'm not sure how they made it. I'm not sure what they are. Could be guppies, as the 20gal is full of them. I'm hoping though that it's something else. Maybe my SAEs have bred !


Hey a man can dream can't he? Just thought I would share.

 

[LandGhoti]

Congratulations on your new (grand)children.

 

[lovemybarbs]

Wow! Cool story. 8)

 

[QTOFFER]

Neat unexpected Christmas present!

 

[Devilishturtles]

That's very cool. Good luck with the baby.

 

[coldmachineUK]

At least it's a nice surprise! Congrats on the babies!

 

[Peyton]

Ok, took a closer look this morning. They still have yolk sacks so I don't think it is guppies. It could be SAEs, serpaes, or rainbows. Serpaes are the most likely I guess.

I don't really know what to feed them. I took some flake food and ground it up between my fingers real good but they didn't seem to go after it. This tank has some copods in it, maybe they will eat those?

 

[maxwell1295]

They may not eat until the yolk sacks are gone and they are completely free swimming...

 

[Peyton]

Just an update here. Only two of these fish have survived but they are growing fast. Here's a pic of the largest one (sorry they won't stay still long enough to take a clear pic)

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/peglegburnout/01102007007.jpg

I still don't know what they are yet. They look like guppies but I don't see how that is possible especially since they had yolk sacks. I'm thinking its serpaes.

 

[MyCatsDrool]

looking like guppies to me.

 

[Peyton]

Ok, after watching the biggest one for a while today I have come to the conclusion these are rainbows. They move just like a rainbow. I watched the similar size guppies in my other tank and how they move is nothing alike. The small guppies spend most of their time "stalking" on the bottom. The rainbow fry are constantly swimming. Not to mention I have several male rainbows chasing and displaying to a female around my main tank, so it seems they are breeding.

The largest fry has a nice aqua-green shine on its side now!

 

[zenkatydid]

congrats! baby rainbows!

 

[newfound77951]

Congrats! I had a very similar thing happen...I had moved some plants from my old 30g to the new 55, which at the time had no fish in it. you can imagine how surprised I was when one day I spotted several tiny baby fish in there! My guess is there were eggs on the plants when I moved them. They lasted a while and were geting bigger, so i took them out because I was going to add some bigger fish to the tank; I put them in a small tank with some juvenile guppies who I figured wouldn't bother them....I was wrong :-( no more little fishies. But it was still pretty cool.

 

[confusion]

the hikari first bites are great for fry.

 

[Musket]

Glad you Id's the babies. Congrats. It's always fun to have such nice surprises.

 

[Peyton]

Here's an update... they were Australian Rainbows afterall. Here is one of them now (pic is blurry but he won't stand still long enough!)

He is larger than a female guppy now, and getting bigger everyday!

 

[papa_bear_21]

congrats, hope all are still doing well