I haven’t been able to see the egg bareing female for ages in the day time so I thought I would try at night with a torch , to my surprise she was out of her hiding place and there must have been 20 or so juveniles scattered around the tank , they are swimming around like prawns crawling up the sides of the tank they are every where , I caught the female to see if she had any thing left on her and there is still heaps of eggs hanging off her so they must drop them off in groups over a week or so ? .
I have about 8 fish in the tank with them 4 guppies and 4 redfin blue eyes I am not sure if they will eat them if I do notice them taking them I will remove them from the tank , they didn’t when I was watching but they may have already had there fill !!!
Here is a few pics of them , there is a guppy next to one of them to give you an indication of there size I have read that high mortality rates in juveniles is to be expected but only time will tell.
Hi Bill
good stuff your getting me really interested, the beds you have with the plants in, is the gravel all the same size or does it get finer toward the bottom of the tub?
Mike
Hi Mike
No its the same gravel all the way through although one bed has cracked gravel and one has pea gravel and the flow through system has expanded clay in it.
I have been thinking about combining cracked gravel with pea gravel cracked gravel on the bottom pea gravel on the top.
Cracked gravel has better surface area for bacteria to grow on and pea gravel is easier on your hands when planting then again it may be easier sticking with one grow medium as they all work and the simplier it is the better it is.
Hey Bill,
Congrats on the new bubs!!! I have just had my first set of little ones too. It is exciting seeing them all over the place! I have made little ‘feeding houses’ for my babies, by stuffing a small clear pipe (about 3/4 an inch across) with potato pieces. This allows the little ones to get inside the tube to feed without having to worry about the big ones getting them. This seems to work fairly good so far.
I stopped counting my babies when I got to 100, so there is a good number in there. I am slowly removing the mums when the little ones stop returning to her tail (as suggested by Sue), but still have 4 with eggs. It is really fascinating watching the mother fan her tail and seeing all the babies under there!!!
Anyway, good luck with the bubs, I hope it works out well for you!!!
Hey Bill,
Congrats on the new bubs!!! I have just had my first set of little ones too. It is exciting seeing them all over the place! I have made little ‘feeding houses’ for my babies, by stuffing a small clear pipe (about 3/4 an inch across) with potato pieces. This allows the little ones to get inside the tube to feed without having to worry about the big ones getting them. This seems to work fairly good so far.
I stopped counting my babies when I got to 100, so there is a good number in there. I am slowly removing the mums when the little ones stop returning to her tail (as suggested by Sue), but still have 4 with eggs. It is really fascinating watching the mother fan her tail and seeing all the babies under there!!!
Anyway, good luck with the bubs, I hope it works out well for you!!!