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Nurture vs. Canibalism |
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Tails of Aquaria
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By dawson602 on
12/21/2006 7:56 AM
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I have read many articles stating that guppy mothers tend to eat their young. I found the opposite to be true. She gave birth in my 65 gallon tank because I did not know she was pregnant. The other male guppies did try to eat the babies but the mother somewhat protected them. She is not violent; she just passively gets in the way of the male guppy trying to eat her babies. I thought it was interesting to watch her non-aggressively protect her young.
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First Jack Dempseys Breeding - Day 13 |
Electric Blue Fish Room
The Birds & the Bees
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By gaines on
12/20/2006 11:36 PM
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I was happy to return from my trip to live fry, however there were complications while I was gone. My filtration system had a malfunction which forced my wife to take that tank off of the main system. I instructed her over the phone on how to assemble a quick sponge filter out of an undergravel lift tube, some foam, and an air line so that the fry would have some kind of filtration and aeration until I returned. Everything seems to have gone well, but I would have much rather been around to feed them newly hatched baby brine shrimp.
I was unable to find a definitive answer on how long the jack dempsey parents would remain maternal before they started eating fry and their bellies were looking a little too full for my liking, so I removed the parents from the tank last night. The female went back in with my electric blue jacks in hopes that she'll mate with one of them and the male is in a holding tank. I think I'm going to sell the male as I really don't need to breed regular jacks f ...
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First Jack Dempseys Breeding - Day 6 |
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Electric Blue Fish Room
The Birds & the Bees
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By gaines on
12/13/2006 5:20 PM
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Still no major developments. The parents keep relocating the fry all over the place and the fry appear a bit more mobile, but nowhere near free swimming. Those brine shrimp that I hatched and are sitting in my fridge are going to be worthless by the time these fry are ready to eat them and I don't have time to hatch more before I leave town. :(
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Smelly packages and seperation anxiety |
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Electric Blue Fish Room
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By gaines on
12/13/2006 5:12 PM
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I was quite excited to receive a shipment of Endler's Livebearers and Ruby Red Shrimp today...until I opened the box and was greeted by a foul stench. Apparently breather bags not only let oxygen in and carbon dioxide out, but also the smell of dead fish. Every single one of the endler's were dead and a number of the shrimp as well. What a let down! I contacted the seller who had previously said that he had never had any losses from shipping and would guarantee live delivery. His response was to refund my payment minus the shipping and heat pack fee. I don't want to seem ungrateful for him trying to do the right thing, but I thought I was paying for a guarantee of live fish, not a guarantee that i could pay shipping for dead fish.
If that wasn't enough, I'm getting anxious about leaving for FL with the jack dempsey fry still not free swimming. I was hoping to have already fed them brine shrimp and started them on powdered flake, but they're still not off their yolk sacks. I have a f ...
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Guppies breeding... |
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Tails of Aquaria
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By dawson602 on
12/13/2006 8:10 AM
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Yesterday I was checking out my aquarium when I happened to notice something very small dart across the tank. Upon closer inspection, I realized there were baby guppies swimming around. I am not sure what the average number of guppies is, but I was able to count at least 7. I was not expecting them to breed so quickly otherwise I would have set up a breeding tank. I have a lot of live plants in the aquarium so there are plenty of places to hide. Hopefully, most of them will survive.
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First Jack Dempseys Breeding - Day 5 |
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Electric Blue Fish Room
The Birds & the Bees
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By gaines on
12/12/2006 5:24 AM
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I hatched some baby brine shrimp to feed to the jack dempsey fry, but my timing was off because the fry aren't free swimming yet. I've placed the shrimp in the fridge to cool them and hopefully lower their metabolism since they very quickly use up any nutritional value they have. I will add some finely ground flake food to the pan in hopes that the brine shrimp will eat it and fatten up for when the fry are ready to eat their first meal.
This morning they moved the fry from the top of the rock structure to a pit in the corner of the tank. They then moved the fry back a few hours later. i'm not sure if this is an anti-predatory instinct or just not being able to make up their mind where is best. *shrug*
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First Jack Dempseys Breeding - Day 3 |
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Electric Blue Fish Room
The Birds & the Bees
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By gaines on
12/10/2006 11:08 PM
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It's now possible to see small black dots inside of the individual eggs. My best guess is that they should start hatching in the next 18 hours. I sure hope so becuase I am going out of town at the end of this week and I hope the fry will be free swimming by then.
No other developments to speak of. The male JD continues to dig his pits and the female continues to fan the eggs. We watched the video I made last night and figured out that she doesn't stop fanning for much more than a minute at a time. That's pretty consistent.
CORRECTION:
I had assumed that the female was the one fanning the eggs, but apparently the male has taken turns fanning as well.
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