2012 Simply Discus Challenge Pictures/Video, Harry Marsh Alex Piwow Red Turk Babies

Al is indisposed, so I'm documenting through videos here...until it can be moved to the appropriate area.

If I don't do this, I'll forget videos at some point.

Water conditions. 70 TDS
I use 'safe' to dechlorinate
Water changes vary, but 20 -75% per day (most days). I'll skip a day on rare occasion if things get too busy.

I start by feeding baby brine shrimp
I remove the babies pretty quick from the parents (14 days or so)
Another 14 days and I move to golden pearls
And then a varied diet from that point on.




Alex Piwow parents
I will start with pictures of the parents. The male is a straight line
The female is a weirdo. Past batches show the babies end up looking like the father


Male
http://s17.postimage.org/pwlghs3un/New_male.jpg
gif hosting

Female.
http://s14.postimage.org/4675rec41/w...emale_Copy.jpg
upload images

May 16th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gduS-sjOgjM

We will call these guys '0' day old (first day free swimming)
The aquarium is dirty. I don't do many water changes, hoping they attach

Here is my timeline.

Most people seem to go by 'free swimming' for aging (from what i can tell)
Mine lay eggs. 55 hours they will hatch. roughly 4 days of 'wiggling' on the side of the cone is followed by 48 hours wandering the tank before they attach (above)
You could easily argue these are a week old, but one day 'free swimming'

You will notice only the male in these pictures. My female eats the eggs about 40% of the time, so I often remove her. This male is an excellent parent

May 22nd, when I heard about the contest. (i took a video of a weather map from online with the date on the bottom)

5 days old
You can't tell much difference. They went from long, narrow little slivers to barely starting to look like fat tadpoles
I start brine shrimp on day 4 or 5 of free swimming. They don't normally eat it yet, but I have it in the tank


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4G6shEKclE

May 24th. 7 days old

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_1UOJjlEmA

My male really hates this camera. You can see brine shrimp in the water. Also the babies are starting to flatten out a bit and look like fish

Sidenote: All of my fish become very dark when breeding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk2mG58Z-l0May 27th = 10 days old
You can see the babies are starting to 'round' out a little bit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQF7RehZztM


May 28th = 11 days old
Removed from male and in their own aquarium
Maybe a little early...but I had the female paired with another male that created eggs. I wanted this male as the surrogate parent

May 30th
13 days old
The largest one is almost the size of a dime. Not as tall, though.

They have been moved to a 20 gallon 'tall' aquarium

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvG6UxFcVFo

I do frequent, small water changes. I feed as much baby brine shrimp as I have time to put in the tank

June 6th, 2012 20 days old
Surprisingly slow growth, frankly. I usually feed a bit more brine shrimp. But they're all looking healthy

The smallest are the length of a dime (maybe not quite as tall). Some are larger than dimes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6WtFj-7mXk

Note. No culling, to date. There are probably 7? runts I could pick out. Usually, they'll die when I transition to golden pearls

June 9th, 23 days old

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aFe8dt81U0

Still eating brine shrimp, but i'm trying to transition to golden pearls
They aren't happy about it

June 11th, 25 days old

This is the first day I've seen any eating golden pearls. That means I'll quit brine shrimp and force all of them to eat them

I'd guess 2/3 are longer and taller than dimes, at this point. 1/3 are close to the size of a dime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCsR8ro82mk

Bonus video, for those curious

Here's how simple my brine shrimp setup is
(and the male with some more attached fry)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq4ic-pHvDU

27 days old on June 13, 2012

I made a second move, from a 20 gallon tall to a regular 55 gallon
Maintaining the 20 gallon was becoming a chore (dirty looking water shortly after cleaning)
This 55 should serve them for 2 or 3 months before I need to split them up again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_iQ5auV7cM

June 17th update
So, what? 31 days old?
One month old?

The smallest one is probably the size of the penny, maybe slightly larger
The largest one is almost twice the size of the penny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzkLXS8-qCo

June 22nd update
36 days old.

These poor guys were abused over the last 3 days. One feeding a day, one water change a day.
I moved to a new house and here is the start of the fish room.
So, now they're back to multiple feedings and water changes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqIGnLBEtE4

And another, 38 days old (today)
Automatic water changing setup almost completed


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOKC6ljlUko

very nice

nice