My First Baby Pictures!

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CichliditisExtremitis

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jun 21, 2009
Messages
68
Location
Guam, Mariana Islands
Hello everyone. What a pleasant surprise I had this evening when, while watching my fish eat their evening meal, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something move out from under a rock near the front left corner of the tank, and then back in again. This is the same area of the tank where I took the pics of Bully Boy and female #2 several days ago. In fact, this rock is one of her favorite resting places.

At first I assumed that the object was simply a piece of algae, but then I reasoned that the current in the tank wasn't strong enough to do that, and algae certainly can't move in one direction, and then in the opposite direction of its own volition.

So, I rolled by chair over to investigate more closely, and to my surprise, there was one of the three fry I had put in the tank six days ago, darting in and out from under a corner of the rock, eating who knows what. He is currently about a half inch in size, and like many fry, is a silvery color. This little guy, possibly the sole survivor of the three, has now been dubbed "Junior". Yeah, I know, really original, right? :)

I tried to take a short movie of Junior with the Casio Exilim EX-Z50 digital camera, but being as he was hovering too close to the rock, the lighting was too dim; so, the three images below, extracted from three much larger images, will have to suffice.

For most of you hardened, old-time pros, fry pictures probably don't impress you anymore; but hey, for me personally, to know that at least one member of the very first spawn in the tank has managed to survive this long is a special moment.

Happy six-days-old Junior! :)

Junior-01-Reduced.jpg


Junior-02-Reduced.jpg


Junior-03-Reduced.jpg
 
Hi there! While I've bred a number of fish before -- bettas, discus, angels, copadichromis borleyi -- just knowing that at least one of those three fry has made it this far along was, and continues to be, an inspiring moment. What is also interesting is that while female #2 frequently rests in that very spot, and must be aware of Junior's presence, she has made no attempts to eat him -- and he's not even her fry. It belongs to female #1 who released her fry on June 17th. Oh, the love! :)
 
Hi Tess! Thanks for your comments. As you can imagine, I'm really hoping that Junior survives. I've been watching him a lot, and he is one alert, spunky little guy. Let's hope that he is smart enough to avoid big, hungry mouths.
 
Hello again everyone!

Well, today completes three weeks since little Junior was released by momma. As you may recall, his parents are Bully Boy and female #1.

Junior is now almost an inch long, I'd say.

He has developed some distinct yellowish-orange color in his dorsal fin, ventral fin, and tail.

His main body color is now a rather light greyish-bluish hue. It depends a lot on what light he is under.

If I recall correctly, he may also have some light vertical bars. Bully Boy, his father, has about three and a half dark vertical bars which start at his belly, and extend about halfway up his body before they fade into his main blue body color.

Lately, I've been trying hard to get some new pics of Junior, but this little guy darts around too fast, so all of my pics have been blurry thus far.

Junior is also becoming much bolder, and has now explored about half the tank -- the left side -- but he still seeks the safety of the rocks quite often. However, he does cruise the open water a bit in the upper levels of the tank, just above the rocks, where he knows the rest of the fish rarely go.

He's one "aquarium-smart" little fish! :)
 
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