First fry (White Cloud Mountain minnow?) pics | questions

[czcz]

Looked in my sump today and found these two:




From google I believe they are White Cloud Mountain minnow fry. I guess they could be Cherry Barbs, which spawn regularly in my tank, but they promptly eat eggs as female releases.

re BrianNYs sticky:
1. Tank size - 8g main tank, 10g sump
2. Temperature - 74-76F
3. pH, GH - 7.0, >5dKh
4. Conditioning (or what you've been feeding) - Bloodworms, tubifex, sinking wafters (bottom feeder and algae - White Clouds nibble), weighted veggies often, occasionally flakes. Feed every other day.
5. Fishes activity prior to spawning - dunno. My White Clouds don't seem to really do anything.
6. Selection of spawning site (if any) - dunno. I figure the eggs were on some hornwort I moved from main tank to sump, since there's a wet/dry and prefilter between tanks. I've not seen any fry in the main tank, and so far only two in the sump.
7. Anything you might have done to induce the spawn - 2 1/2 weeks ago increased one way current in main to 240gph/30x turnover (river tank)

I'm pretty excited

Questions:
White clouds are shoalers, yes? Will two babies growing out alone be traumatized? Apologies if that is a stupid question. Is it best to put them in the main tank where they risk getting eaten but have the company of others? Only other sump creatures are shrimp and common snails.

I've guesstimated their size as 1/2cm head to tail tip. Any guesses on age? Last time I moved plants from main tank to sump was ~1 week ago.

Is it possible they swam through mentioned filtration to sump? I see no carcases in my wet/dry, but would assume they would decompose quickly.

I have food and return pump prefilter taken care of. Thanks much.

[czcz]

Bump.

JChillin raised an interesting point in chat: if eggs were on plants there should be more than 2 fry in the sump. Alternative is these guys worked their way past prefilters and wet/dry. Thoughts on this? If it is the case, these two are pretty tough

[Jchillin]

Hey czcz - I've been trying to figure this out since last night and I still come up with the same answer. The alternative would be that only two eggs survived the hazards of transportation. If that's the case (and it's pure speculation), those are still some hardy guys. And yes, they are quite stunning.

[Billsgate]

Those are good pics! Still quite sharp for that close a picture.
My white cloud fry was transparent with 2 black eyes. Nothing more I can say about them really.......after a while they become free swimming, and then you start seeing colours. Before you knox it, they'll be miniature versions of the parents.
This whole process should take somewhere about a month of time.
I would crumble up some algae wafers and feed some powdered food every day. Not too much offcourse.
Do you have shrimp in your sump? If so, it might be that they eat your fry once they get a hold of them........when they're still small enough offcourse :P
Good luck!

[czcz]

Appreciate your input JChillin, I like both theories I haven't found any more fry anywhere, but don't think I'll change set-up: fishy birth control unless I can find homes for more fry.

I read your thread in the archive, Billsgate. Shards of glass description is one reason I think they're white clouds By chance I already feed crumbled wafers for the shrimp, but will begin to go for a powder. I've been adding Liquifry since Saturday. Shrimp breed in the sump so I hope these guys make it (baby shrimp are left alone afaik). Appreciate tips! I clamped a magnifying glass to the tank, in front of the camera, then cropped pic if interested. I think it worked good too.

Thanks guys. I'm thinking of moving the White Clouds into a goldfish tank, including these guys after grow out. We'll see.

[Easyaqua]

Only do that if the goldfish are small because I put fifty white clouds into a pond with 8 goldfish and after about a month I cannot see any minnows just 8 fat goldfish