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Ivory montezumae update pics

  • Thread starter Nflytrap
  • Start date
  • #21
Not to sure what you consider a not so hard driver, cause the male you sent gives my female one heck of a time. She almost looks pissed as he runs circles around her and moves forward and back. They are both very persistent-I have only seen one "hit". Some of the males seem to be going out earlier than others. One of them is quite small and already has a bit of sword. I just hope the(now 3) "females" are what I think they are!

I hope to get brineshrimp eggs and all while I get some more supplies...laterite or Ecocomplete and some cool "must haves" we all can't resist.

Do F. fallax prefer acidic water? I've heard of using coconut fiber for spawning media, but that doesn't acidify the water according to one guy(Clint www.petfish.net)


The hybrid montys sound awesome. If I end up with a few extra males, I may do some experimenting myself. I have seen a few HUGE swordtails at the petstores lately. Makes me pretty suspicious...especially when you are looking at a swordtail bigger than the male ivory you sent! Of course, those puny, crooked swords arent half as good as the one this guy has right now.

I've been waiting on those worms! Tell me when you get them out...Thanks!
 
  • #22
Hi Nflytrap and Spec,

Nflytrap, I need your address again to send the worms. Spec and Nflytrap, the fallax are looking good sex ratio wise, so I should be able to send you some if you want them. Do you have a tank now, Spec? It will need a perfect cover as killies jump out of the tiniest holes! You'll need to tape over any holes with duc tape or tape plastic wrap over any openings. THEY WILL JUMP OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They do not like temps over 80F -- 72-75F is best. They will live fine in moderately hard, alkaline water (what they are being raised in) but for good breeding they would have to be SLOWLY conditioned over to soft acid water (6.5 pH 3-5 KH and GH) once they mature. They need frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, freeze dried bloodworms -- a good brand that is , all the live foods, mosquito larvae, chopped earthworms, blackworms, etc. Feed a variety but not too much unless conditioning for breeding as these fish can get overweight and develop dropsey and die. The males chase the females so the females need cover -- rocks, plants especially. They will eat neon size fish. Besides breeding them in peat moss and storing it away, fry are water incubating for me in the parents' 30 gallon and hatching out. This is common with many killies kept in good water with tons of plants. I still want to wait 2-3 weeks before I send but let me know if you want some for sure. They will be the yellow form as all the males appear to be the yellow form. The yellow form gets bigger and has longer fins than the orange. Shipping costs will probably be around 12-15 dollars. Killies will be fine with the swords Nflytrap unless the swords over-populate but killies do best in a species tank or with a few larger tetras or something. In a species tank you will get fry though!

Bobby
 
  • #23
How big of a box are you sending them in? Is there room for daphnia. My culture crashed and turned into cyclops suddenly(course of several days)...not to sure why
 
  • #24
Liberty mollies

He just listed a few more. I think the comment that mollies from Florida or Texas are not wild fish is pretty funny.
 
  • #25
Hi Nflytrap,

I can throw in some daphnia and use a little bigger box than I was going to use but smaller than the last one :). No problem. Cyclops if they are the real thing are a great older fry food -- very nutritious.

That's a nice liberty molly. Yeah, people think all wild mollies are now just released commercial ones. I can assure you the ditches I go to are full of wild latipinna. I've collected them for 35 years. There are so many molly species under the liberty or shenops molly label that one never knows what species one is dealing with. P. orri is the prettiest in that group or "super-species complex".

It looks like I will get the velifera and petenensis sailfin mollies in June. They will be juvies from 2 Central American wild caught tank raised populations. I can't wait. Wild velifera is a gorgeous fish -- nothing like what you see in shops.

Bobby
 
  • #26
Hi Nflytrap,

As a rule, try to keep at least 2 daphnia cultures going as daphnia are genetically programmed to bloom and bust. It's very hard to keep a steady level going. They need water changes and if food runs out they can crash just as overfeding can crash them. Green water is the easiest food. I use brewers yeast dissolved in water -- maybe a 1/4 tsp in a 25 gallon bucket. If you had pulex rather than magna then rising temps might have done them in. Pulex need cool weather. Big water changes are always good. Snails are good too. They like shade -- cooler. I try to keep many cultures going. I had 10 crash last week from overfeeding. Live food growing is harder than fish!

Bobby
 
  • #27
Not to sure what the "real" cyclops are. They are smaller than daphnia, and swim in a jerky motion. The bigger ones have egg sacs hangin on them like in the books.

I think it could be temps. They did fine throughout Sept-april with literally no attention from me...I mean...the water was clear and all(sometimes the water would drop to 1/2 an inch and I could still harvest). This was a scud culture...and still is. But now there are blackworms. That didn't cause the daphnia demise though...worms were added a month ago.

Thanks! Mind telling me what kind of daphnia you're sending?
 
  • #28
Thought this topic died lol, so I didnt check it. Could you save those fish for a while? Right now all I got is a 30 gallon stuffed full of convicts and an empty 125 gallon... oh, theres that one 3 gallon acrylic, too, but thats too small...
 
  • #29
Hey, mind lending me that 125...I could put it to good use! LOL

Not sure how much you are attached to convicts, but I'd imagine with peat filtration and soft water, that would make a good colony tank.


Any plants for the 125?


BTw, Biggun: Where the heck are your Velifera coming from? I've only seen them on aquabid once, much less a commercial site. Some kind of trade?
 
  • #30
Hi Nflytrap and Spec,

Spec, the second group won't be ready for at least 2 months so that should give you time. All you need for a pair of fallax is a 10-20 (20 long is best) gallon tan,, a SECURE cover, one light, a sponge or ( my favorite) a jumbo Lustar corner filter -- see www.jehmco.com -- the best small and cheapest long lasting versatile filters on the market since the 1950's!, a small air pump, and a bunch of java fern, java moss, anubias, water sprite, najas, and/or hygrophilia, etc. That's it, no heater, no big power filter, no multiple lights, no fancy equipment. Killies are the cheap and gorgeous fish to keep. Put the convicts in the 125 and use the 30 for the fallax. They'll love it.

Daphnia might have crashed due to lack of food or a bump in the chemistry from the blackworms going in. There is a great article on raising blackworms on the Carolina Biological Supply webpage. My daphnia are magna. Pulex would die here except from Dec-Feb. Moina daphnia are another warm water species. Check Florida Aquacultures (I think). They have several daphnia species.

Those are cyclops -- a great great food but hard to harvest due to habits of swimming. Blackworms will be a great food.

Bobby
 
  • #32
[b said:
Quote[/b] (biggun110 @ May 22 2004,6:59)]Hi Nflytrap and Spec,

  Spec, the second group won't be ready for at least 2 months so that should give you time. All you need for a pair of fallax is a 10-20 (20 long is best) gallon tan,, a SECURE cover, one light, a sponge or ( my favorite) a jumbo Lustar corner filter -- see www.jehmco.com -- the best small and cheapest long lasting versatile filters on the market since the 1950's!, a small air pump, and a bunch of java fern, java moss, anubias, water sprite, najas, and/or hygrophilia, etc. That's it, no heater, no big power filter, no multiple lights, no fancy equipment. Killies are the cheap and gorgeous fish to keep. Put the convicts in the 125 and use the 30 for the fallax. They'll love it.

Daphnia might have crashed due to lack of food or a bump in the chemistry from the blackworms going in. There is a great article on raising blackworms on the Carolina Biological Supply webpage. My daphnia are magna. Pulex would die here except from Dec-Feb. Moina daphnia are another warm water species. Check Florida Aquacultures (I think). They have several daphnia species.

Those are cyclops -- a great great food but hard to harvest due to habits of swimming. Blackworms will be a great food.

Bobby
Ok
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Unfortunately, it would cost A LOT to heat the 125 gallon, so I'm not sure if I'll put them in there...

nflytrap, The tank is complately empty, except for some display junk
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Send me the 1000 for shippin and I'll let you borrow it!
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Yea, the 30 gallon isn't secure at all... Lots of places to jump out
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I guess I'll have to get a corner filter for them and a glass top...

How big does this kili get, anyways?
 
  • #33
Hi Nflytrap,

The worms and daphnia are on the way. Don't worry about the postage as I had to use 2 boxes but just return my boxes as I will need them to send the fallax.

The cultures are in small containers. One microworm culture is mature and will soon began to fade so start 2 new ones immediately. I'd use the large throw away plastic storage containers you can buy pretty cheaply. I use cheap white bread, some oatmeal sprinkled over it and a big pinch of brewers yeast. Then I wet it so it becomes a damp but firm doughy paste. Then put in a smear of the microworms. It will mature in 2 weeks at 75F.

For the grindals, I would go ahead and set up a 10x4x4 rubbermade storage container with pin holes all over the top. Use 3/4 peat and 1/4 pure potting soil wet so its damp. It should be able to easily fluff up so not wet just damp. You might try a tsp of garden lime in there but I have never done that. It keeps the culture sweet longer. I feed the Omega One flakes -- goldfish are the cheapest. They love them. Start a second culture as soon as you are getting good production and start 2 new cultures every 3 months. You can still use the old ones if they are producing but get the new ones going just the same. Don't feed any until you have good production. I use the cut out 3" center of a coffee can plastic top to harvest. Just sit it on the soil and cover it with the flakes. In a day it is covered with worms. Lift out and feed to fish.

You can leave them in the small culture I'm sending but I wouldn't for long. Small containers usually mean failure before long.

Spec,

Fallax gets to 5 inches. It's a robust killie.

Convicts only need 72-75F so a 200watt ebo jager heater would be fine in your 125. Shouldn't cost too much. Killies do fine down to 65F usually but like 72-75F.

Bobby
 
  • #34
Thanks for the info! Would the little margarine tubs with snap on lids work for the microworms?


Also, I remember you mentioning some kind of little livebearer you had during winter which you gassed with some extra chlorine...but had a few survive and produce fry...how are they doing?
 
  • #35
Hi Nflytrap,

Margarine tubs are fine for the microworms. Once a microworm culture matures (worms all over the walls of container) be sure to start 2 new ones.

That livebearer is the goldish colored black spotted guppy size Phalloceros caudimaculatus reticulatus -- the Caudo or Caudi. It is a wonderful quiet species and very hardy. It MUST have a species tank as it does not do well competing with others -- at least in my tanks. Neons or other small tetras might be ok. It is one of my favorite fish and is quite rare in the USA because it does best alone. Mine came from Denmark. They like it below 80F and can take it down into the 60's. They eat anything small but love baby brine, mossie larvae and daphnia. The females have about 20-30 fry every couple of months. The males have long gonopodiums. My colony is in a 30 gallon with lots of najas and anubias and a jumbo Lustar corner filter.

Bobby
 
  • #36
That an actuall subspecies by the way you say it?
 
  • #37
Hi Nflytrap,

I don't think so. It was given that name in Germany 80 years ago and back then people loved to make subspecies of color varieties. I doubt the name would stand up to scientific investigation today. Hobbyist just like to still use it. There is also Phallo. caudimaculatus auratus which is an even more golden form -- but I have my doubts.

Bobby
 
  • #38
Hi Nflytrap,

And my 2 species of sailfin mollies should be coming tomorrow! I'm getting 20 juvies each of the velifera and petenensis with specific population and location data. Finally, real sailfin molly species -- no hybrids!

Bobby
 
  • #39
Awesome! I sent you a pm if you didn't see it already. But if you see this first...

By saying you need a horse trough, are they cold tolerant/


Also, do you have access to wild mollies?

Thanks!
 
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