AquaticSuppliers.com     Cafepress Store

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 16 to 24 of 24

Thread: David's Breeding Timeline

  1. #16

    Default Re: David's Breeding Timeline

    Parents were removed today due to the continued deterioration of the female's fins as seen below:



    Additionally, three of the fry seem to be struggling with heavy breathing laying flat on the bottom side of tank swimming only to feed and stay with the group of fry if they move to the other side of the tank. There is no flashing or rubbing symptoms indicating possible flukes, so I have decided to treat with Kordon's Acriflavine as per the instructions on the bottle (1tsp/10gals). According to Kordon's website (http://www.novalek.com/kordon/Acriflavine/index.htm) lights should be off, redose in proportion to amount of water during water changes, and "Water conditions in which there is a notably acid pH (below 7.0) will inhibit the activity of this product."

  2. #17

    Default Re: David's Breeding Timeline

    Week 4:

    I moved the fry to their new home, which is a 30G tank in my four-season room. It doesn't have a background on it, so you'll see we're having a rainy Monday here in eastern, PA.











  3. #18

    Default Re: David's Breeding Timeline

    Much to my surprise, I think my fry have been genetically altered and are really piranha...why you ask...I introduced them to Al's beef heart mix and frozen blood worms this week and they devour them. So now they're menu consists of eating frozen baby brine shrimp, AngelsPlus High-Pro Growth flake, Al's beef heart mix and frozen blood worms. I'm such a proud aquatic parent...LOL

    Pictures to follow this coming Monday.

  4. #19

    Default Re: David's Breeding Timeline

    Week 5: Signs of Peppering

    Feeding time with high protein growth formula flake








    Thinking there should be a change to the face of a quarter


    Last edited by David Rose; 02-01-2010 at 06:59 PM.

  5. #20

    Default Re: David's Breeding Timeline

    Week 6: First Culling

    Fry appear to be doing well and eating well. Their diet consists of AngelsPlus High-Pro Growth flake 2x or 3x a day, Al's Beef Heart Mix 1x, NLS Thera A+ 2x. I replace the flake or Thera pellets with Hikari FBW 1x every other day or FBS. There continues to be noticeable growth.

    From earlier weeks, there was a suspected bacterial infection with a few of the fry in which I treated with Acriflavine, but did not notice any change. That said, now that the fry have more size on them, I believe these few fry are having developmental issues. A couple of the fry would only swim in a vertical position during feeding time then return to the bottom of the tank to rest. A few of the fry's dorsal fins do not appear to be developing evenly, which you will see in the below pictures.

    The downside of this week is that I decided to cull some of the fry with developmental issues.










  6. #21

    Default Re: David's Breeding Timeline

    Week 7: Update

    Fry are doing well and growing. Not much new to report other than I've continued to cull any fry with dorsal fin deformity, which in general may be due to water quality issue. More specifically, it could be a result of insufficient minerals such as calcium and or hardness being added back to the RO water that I use. Keep in mind that I have well water with a whole house brine water softener system and decided not to use tap water in any of my tanks, but rather use remineralized RO water. That said, I suspect the problem may be due to me not adjusting my RO water in the first few weeks of free-swimming, which should have been done gradually almost immediately once the fry went free swimming.

    At least I suspect that this is my issue rather than it being caused by a nutrient deficiency in the parent's diet prior to spawning. My pair were feed a good beefheart mix, flake, pellets, frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp all containing added vitamins and minerals for a balanced diet.

    In short, both proper minerals and nutrients are needed for good fry development.

    As for the pair, they are doing well. I took the plunge to trim the damage caudal fins on the female and they have now fully re-grown and she has healed up nicely from the fry aggressively feeding on her.

    Going forward, I will post pictured every two weeks given there is not a lot of change in a week's time.
    Last edited by David Rose; 02-22-2010 at 03:14 PM.

  7. #22

    Default Re: David's Breeding Timeline

    Week 8: Update









  8. #23

    Default Re: David's Breeding Timeline

    Week 9: Update

    I very sad to report that I woke up this morning to find all my fry dead overnight. I had 17 remaining fry.

    The cause was due to me dosing the tank with APIs Algae Destroyer for the first time yesterday afternoon after doing a 100% water change and wiping down the inside tank. I'm a little in shock given I had plenty of extra aeration and there were no signs of stress by the time I went to bed last night, which was more than six hours later. I can only conclude that there was a reaction the the additive.

    My apologies folks, but there will be no new updates until there is a new batch of fry.

  9. #24

    Default Re: David's Breeding Timeline

    Hi Folks,

    Just to update you that I have a second batch of fry from this pair that are three weeks old today. This time around the process is much smoother for all involved . It was great to see the fry this time around feeding on both Mom and Dad, which was less demanding on Mom from the first batch and little to no damage. That said, I did introduce live BBS earlier this time around at the end of the first week and they accepted it between 5-7 days. Given this batch seems more independent of their parents schooling around on their own about 25% of the time, I separated them from the parents over the previous weekend (2 1/2 wks) and they are doing great on their own and have doubled in size.

    Here's a shot just before the move.





    I'll keep you posted of any significant changes, but will resume my updates once they reach 9 weeks.

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

Cafepress