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Angelfish & Jack Dempsey Fry |
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The Birds & the Bees
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By gaines on
1/26/2007 7:49 AM
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Just over a week ago Greg acquired a six inch angelfish which he gave to me to put in my angel/discus tank. I didn't realize that as soon as he got in the tank he'd start mating with my other angel. A day or so later I saw eggs on the filter intake pipe and noticed that the angels had forced all the discus into the corner of the tank. I relocated the discus to my electric blue jack tank and let the angels have the entire 55gal to themselves for hatching/raising fry. They are wigglers at the moment, but I expect them to be free swimming in a day or so. A batch of brine shrimp is currently incubating in preparation.
On the other end of the house, the jack dempsey fry look to be doing great. They are already more mobile than the last batch and I'm really looking forward to feeding them some baby brine shrimp.
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Blue-Green Algae Bloom |
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By gaines on
1/17/2007 10:26 AM
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I've been a bit lax lately about cleaning up dead plant material (aka. mulm) and now I'm paying for it. My white sand has gotten a layer of blue-green slime. When I run a probe across the sand the algae clumps up so just about the only way I've found to remove it is to vaccum it off along with a bit of sand.
I've increased my CO2 injection, added extra flourish, and cleaned out as much mulm as possible so hopefully things will get back under control. I've also halted all sales of aquatic plants until I'm sure I wont pass something on to someone elses tank.
It also seems my discus tank has picked up a snail from somewhere. I've only seen the one so I'm not too concerned.
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Back to breeding regular Jacks |
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The Birds & the Bees
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By gaines on
1/15/2007 10:55 PM
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As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I moved the female jack dempsey back in with the electric blue jacks in hopes that she would breed with one of them. Unfortunately, it seems the size difference is just too much because I didn't see any attempt at mating behavior.
This evening I moved her back in with the male that she previously mated with and the second I put her in the tank the male started going nuts. He keeps swimming directly in front of her and trying to catch her attention by shimmying. I took a video of it and once I edit it I'll post it here.
Looks like I'll get to try raising another batch of regular jack dempseys. This time I plan on relocating the eggs/parents to a breeding tank (10 or 20 gal) and leaving them together even after the fry are ...
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First Jack Dempseys Breeding - Day 13 |
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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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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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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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First Jack Dempseys Breeding - Day 5 |
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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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