Merry Christmas to Me!!!

[Pick]

My beautiful RPB pair was brought to an early demise by a virus in the female. Thus leaving Sargeant Pepper by himself. My gorgeous pair of RT's frustrated me to no end with a male that was an EESOB so I traded the known female to Ron along with a 45G for a 55G. All I had left were my two small females. They only reached about 5". But before I could try them with Sargeant Pepper this happened:

God is good!

[Pick]

This is actually their second batch. They spawned once on the heater wire and I thought I saw eyes so I put in a cone and they went straight to the heater cord again LOL! but that time I knew I saw eyes. I moved things around and they spawned on the cone and had 3 surviving fry on their sides 8 days old and they got tired of them picking at the next batch of eggs on the cone. They ate the fry and the eggs! Then they laid these. They are 5 days freeswimming today.

Just a couple more pics.

TC

[Pick]

Last one. Going to start some brine shrimp tomorrow. Like many other things in life, you just don't get the impact until you've seen it for yourself.

TC

[Carol_Roberts]

Hi Terry:
Congratulations :thumbsup:
I have similiar PB xRT that went freeswimmering 12/13/02 We have to count the percentage that turn out PB. Is it more than 50%? We count all the ones with eyebars as turks - those without as PB (when they get bigger, of course, lol - too tiny now)

Carol :heart1:

[darcy]

Congrats on the fry Terry!!!! Man I can't wait to see my pair's do that!!
I tried to jump in the tank with the babies I raised myself but just couldn't fit in ;D ;D ;D

keep us updated on them please!!
Darcy

[Ldav]

Nice going terry , should be some intersting looking fish when older.On the rpb, do u use any color enhancers??Mine looked like that but the red started to fade a little and there not so red anymore :(keep up the good work ;)

bah hummbug

;D ;D ;D

[Pick]

If I understand correctly, unless the male is of a different strain, the PB will be dominant. Since my male is the RT it should be about 50/50 I think. Any idea why some are dark and some are white? My previous 3 survivors were in the white group.

I feed Formula 1 and a home made beefheart mix. Both contain astaxanthin (the stuff that makes shellfish like shrimp turn red - it occurs and is harvested naturally)

I just started my first batch of brine shrimp eggs. Had to use the LFS high price low grade stuff. We'll see tomorrow!

TC

[joanr]

Ok Terri! That's quite a sight. I knew it would happen for you, so glad to see those pics. My fry never liked the BBS that much, they prefered the frozen Daphnia, and good thing as I could never get a decent batch of BBS going. Congrats!

Joan

[Pick]

Got about a 70% hatch rate on my bs. They did not generate a great deal of excitement in the tank but I definately saw several of the fry eat some!

7 days old.

TC

[Pick]

Can anyone tell me why about half of them are dark and the other half white? They all seem to be the same size. Surely it's not the RT vs PB?

TC

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

Congraduations Terry
Yep the darker ones are RT
and the lighter PBs
of course there will be some mixes also
Dennis

[Barb Newell]

CONGRATULATIONS TERRY!

BARB

[paulmat]

Terry your fish look great,you should get an interestimg mix with those two 8)

Paul :guitarist:

[Carol_Roberts]

Your eyes must be better than mine, Terry. I still don't see a color difference yet on my PB xRT babies. Maybe I need to go sit in front of the tank and look a little harder, lol.
Carol :heart1:

[Pick]

LOL. Maybe my glasses are better than your eyes! Check out the last 2 photos I posted. I could actually see the difference on day 3. The parents are sibling F1's from Cary. He bred their parents from two different breeders. The RT line is from Mac's Candy apple and the PB side is from Samson at Universal. How about yours?

Thanks for the info Dennis. I think I can even tell the crosses now. Man! they are growing like crazy! Oh well, time for one last round of bs and then clean up and bed time.

TC

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

Terry
I do have to admit I have a large magnifying glass that I use to look at fry, and in some crosses you can actually see the difference in color at the wiggler stage.
Dennis

[fcdiscus]

;D

[Pick]

I turned the room light on yesterday morning and gave them a quick distant look. They seemed normal, noses to the rear glass. I came back about 5 minutes later as I was leaving for work and noticed the babies scattered all over the tank and the male was almost motionless, dark, hovering above the clay pot. I watched him slowly swim/sink to the bottom of the tank while remaining perfectly horizontal. Then when he reached the bottom I saw him eat one of the fry, then another, and another...all the time super dark and on his side. I managed to net out about 2/3 of the fry but decided to let the rest go because I was going to be very late for work as it was.

When I came home they looked perfectly normal and the remaining fry were still there just like nothing happened?!?! I was not ready for moving the fry yet. I put them in the ten gallon I have heated to 87 that houses the 2L bottles of brine shrimp and their sponge filter. Still no eyeing of the cone by the pair last night so I'm hoping that all the hoopla was from the light being turned on. If they are still alive this weekend I'll post an updated photo.

TC

Its about Time Terry!


Glad to hear! cound'ent of happen to a better guy ;D

Your Friend
Cary Gld!