I got baby fish!!

[EEk]

So I was doing my weekly water change today. moved some plants, cleaned some gravel.. basically everyday stuff..

After the water change, I noticed some tiny specs, floating around.. not a big deal really because I moved all the rocks around, junk should be floating eh? but wait, did that spec just move to the right? did THAT spec just follow the other little spec? HEY! I have baby apistos!!

They're hard to see because of the color of my gravel but I count atleast 10 of them. I feel kinda bad though because I must have accidentally vac'd some up during the cleaning

So, now what do I do? I just put my two Otos in there a couple days ago, and the female is chasing them away from her 'home'. For the most part, the otos are staying away, I just have to drop the algae wafers on the other side of the tank. I don't have the option of moving the babies out to a different tank (or the otos atm, QT is holding my friends dempsy)

I crushed some flake food as tiny as I could, put it into a straw and blew it into the water near the fry. They ate the flakes so thats a good sign right? What kind of food should i get them though? They are TINY

should i invest in a special tank for them or will they be safer with the parents? i gotta go find some baby brine shrimp!

Sorry if my post is seems disjointed, i'm a bit excited..

*edit* oh, my filters current might be too strong, though the fry seem to hang out near the drift wood in the dead current area..

would otos eat the fry?

 

[marknmelissa]

Congratulations Eek!
Sounds like the babies are eating. That's good. Sorry you lost some during cleaning though.
Keep us posted as they develop.
-mark

 

[TankGirl]

The otos will not harm the fry. I would leave them in there with mama for a while, as she will likely protect them for a bit. Once they are bigger you might want to remove them.

Congratulations - fry are the coolest!

 

[Andydg]

Well I hope everything works out alright. It seems from my experience that as long as the fry are eating and the filter doesn't suck them up then they'll be just fine.

 

[Menagerie]

For added insurance, put a sponge around the filter intake so you don't accidentally lose any fry that way.

 

[medge00]

hey EEk, congrats on the kids... just out of curiosity, where did you get your apistos?

 

[EEk]

Hmm, I'll go buy some sponge later today.. i've been meaning to do that anyway to reduce the current strength coming out of my filter..

as for where I got my apistos, I bought them from a lfs, Modern Pets in downtown Honolulu. From what the guy told me, there's only one guy on the island breeding apistos (cockatoos) for sale.. muahahhahaa, now make that two!!

hmm, i better not jinx myself by saying that, you know, don't count your fishies before they hatch.. err well they hatched already but you know what i mean..

i managed to pickup a syringe that I'm now using to feed liquid and crushed flake foods. it works great and much better than a 7-11 slurpee straw.

thanks for the congrats and advice everyone. i'll keep everyone posted and put pics up once they are big enough to show up on my digicam

 

[EEk]

umm, ok, need more help. The fry are all doing well. I can't tell if they are any bigger, but atleast it looks like most of em are there. I have noticed though some egg 'packs' floating around. I only assume that they are eggs because they kind look like tiny little cotton balls floating around, it reminded me of spider egg sacks.

anyway, i assume that they aren't supposed to be floating around (and thus ending up in the filter) is there anything I can do at this point? not for the eggs i've seen, but for the parents? apparently i got lucky with the first batch as i think they used the drift wood in my tank for a cave. I'm gonna build them a nice new one with pvc over the weekend and introduce it next water change (btw, is hot glue from a glue gun ok for that?)

next, should i be concerned if a second batch of fry are born? will the parents forget about the first batch or will they try to take care of them all? i have no idea how long it takes to hatch eggs once they're laid and fertilized. tia

 

[Allivymar]

Hrmm. Eggs don't float; I sorta suspect its something else, although what escapes me.

Don't be surprised if your pair completely ignores all your hard work and keeps laying in the driftwood LOL fish are good like that. My angels always lay on the intake tube despite being given all sorts of slates to lay on.

Not totally sure about apistos, but I know when my angels laid again after their other batch went free swimming, the older siblings ate the eggs. Lil cannibals LOL Most cichlid eggs hatch about 48 hours after being laid; a little more or less depending on tank temps.

And congrats Baby fish are awesome!

 

[EEk]

hmm, i wonder what they could have been then (the egg packs). I was thinking that they were egg packs that were dislodged by either the otos, or the female while she was defending her home against the otos (apparently, otos really like the liquid food i give to the fry)

based on what you said about your angels, i think i'll wait to introduce the new cave until after the fry are bigger so i can move my drift wood and plants for optimal space. maybe a complete restructure will have the fish take notice of the nice plush new cave

*edit* could that weird floating thing be bacteria in the water attaching to bits of food? they seem to appear right after i feed my fish.. it's creeping me out now..

 

[hotkoreanonMTV]

Ekk,
I think its great what your doing for those fishies...
I recently moved to Hawaii (just got done shooting a show for MTV about 6mo ago) and am looking for a friend, not sure if your availible sometime...we could get a few drinks and talk about fish stuff...

I love babies too and would love to see yours in person

See you space cowboy...

 

[TankGirl]

I would be more suspicious of fungus when you say fluffy white and floating, kind of like when a food pellet lies on the substrate undiscovered, and you vacuum it up and it is covered in white fuzzies. In any case, I would try to get them out.

Do not use regular glue gun glue for the aquarium. Use aquarium-safe silicone- comes in a tube and you can cut the tip to an appropriate size to squeeze it out like caulk.

 

[Menagerie]

See you space cowboy...

8O Did I just walk into a pick-up bar??? 8O


And I agree with TG, try to get out whatever is growing on the food and use aquarium-safe silicone. I wanted to attach new handles to two of my tanks and will use the safe silicone, even though it won't get in the water

 

[EEk]

lol

umm, a hot korean eh? MTV? Why, you must be Jaime then. Careful as I'm sure I'm not the only one that knows who you are. I'd love to meet for drinks, ah, but I'm broke and my car is less than worthy to transport a hot babe like yourself. I do have access to a Mazda 6 though. Sometimes I take it out late at night when the owner is asleep, grind gears and smoke tires.

Menagerie, you didn't walk into a pickup bar.. I'm afraid you walked in to a practical joke by some one I know that owns a Mazda 6.

Jaime from MTV is a cutie though *raaawrr*

 

[Menagerie]

The more I thought about, I figured it was a joke, but I could not resist commenting

On to more serious issues--how are the fry doing?

 

[EEk]

Oh, yeah.. the baby fish! lol

They seem to be doing well, I've got the hang of feeding them with the syringe. A mix of crushed flakes and some liquid fry food mixed with tank water, then I slowly squirt the whole mix in the general area of the fry. I see them eating and they are getting easier to spot (bigger) so I guess things are going well. They are still a bit too small for me to be able to take a proper inventory of them, but I figure in a week or so, they'll be big enough to count and then I can start keeping track of them.

I used to feed them just the liquid food via syringe but then the otos would go nuts and try to suck up all the food. The otos didn't even seem to care that Mom was poking them on the head the whole time. Well, atleast now they wait until the fry have eaten, then mop up afterwards..