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The young males are often using sneak mating tactics, which seem more effective than displaying. I'm thinking of removing some to the pond, but i'm unsure of what to do with the smaller males. Perhaps do a cross of some sort? Have you ever tried crossing montezumae into highfin or lyretail swordtails?
Actually I have one young male (monty x helleri) x hi fin helleri growing up and my friend in florida who made the monty x helleri cross is sending me some females from a back cross he did between the (monty x helleri) and just a red velvet low fin helleri. The m x h cross was so infertile after 3 generations that we both went back to the helleri males. It seems the m x h females were fertile somewhat but the males were duds. So now hopefully I can cross this hi fin hybrid to the backcrosssed hybrids and get fry. The lyretail cross will be tough unless the hybrid males are fertile. My friend says the backcross still has the long long sword which was what he was going for. The round dorsal gets lost -- so far. I want to cross nezzies to hi fin variatus and get a hi fin nezzie. That could be cool.
Get the little males out as they will do all the breeding with those sneak attacks.
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Thats pretty impressive. My cruddy(but hardy) petstore strain swordtails seldom lived over 1 year and a half, and by that time you could tell they were winded. They were at there prime in 6-7 months...diss of being tiny I guess.
If you keep them around 72-74F they live longer as they grow slower. You can make store swords large if you raise virgin females and keep selecting the big males that develop late (if the strain still has the gene). In a few generations you can have 4 inch fish. Plus feed 3-6 times a day; at least 2 live baby brine feedings, big tanks and 2 80% water changes a week. They just raise and sell the store swords so fast.
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I've seen BBS in little vials and in cans. How long does the smallest can last? I assume if you arent fast enough you will have a whole bunch of "mummies". Guess I will find him in the phonebook...or do you have an email? Do you know of any club situated in Fresno?
The eggs last a long time if kept dry and cool. Alot of people keep them in the freezer but I do not as I worry about moisture. I keep mine in the 70's and use a 16oz can in 2 months and get good hatches. Always buy from places like brineshrimpdirect and just get a 2 oz can to start and see how it goes. Roger Brousseau's email is: <dr_rog@yahoo.com>. He may collecting in Brazil right now but email him. He is a very nice guy and can put you in touch with great killie guys in your area. Killie guys always have other rare fish too and real fishrooms with livefoods. Great people to know. Roger has an excellent book on south american killies. Just give him my name. I think he is in Sacramento but I forget.
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I heard that they often spawn under cryptocryne leaves. I spawned paradise fish(first egglayer!) under a lid from a yogurt container. Only diss was that it tended to tip and eject parts of the nest. I wish I could try P. dayii, but i'm short on room as of now.
dayii is pretty much like kretseri. I need to get a crypt or anubias in there can't believe I ignored that choice! Thanks for the reminder. The germans have all kinds of wild regular paradise that are gorgeous. Look at the german lybrinthfish association webpage -- intense color. I want the roundtail paradise from China. It can take being outside all year here as it needs the 40's in winter to do well.
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Hets laying eggs? Naw...Whats it like?
Oh they embrace like paradise fish and lay eggs under a crypt leaf. Very interesting to watch.
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I will try the nighttime stalking thing on the cull and some smaller males. That cull is starting to make me mad...eating so much!
LOL. In the wild monties will jump 3 feet up a water fall to escape netting i am told!
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Also, after SIX days in the mail, the bluespotted sunnies finally arrived. The guy on the other end made a bit of a mistake and sent them out on wednesday(he normally only ships on Monday). They didn't arrive on friday or Saturday...and Sunday and 4th of July holiday added another 2 days.
Someone was not thinking.
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Luckily almost everyone made it, and he through in tons of extras. I think I have at least 8...counting juvies. 3 died on the way, one larger juvie and 2 small ones. I've managed to get them to eat live blackworms and frozen bloodworms. He also stuck in a tadpole madtom(basically a mini(2inches...will grow to 4) channel cat), a central mudminnow(little relative of the pike...definetly not going in with any small fish!), and a tesselated darter(but this one died on the way). None of the extras are in with the monties.
Sounds like you have a great native pond going now. really keep those away from the monties. I have a deep distrust of all of those fish.
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Thanks! Go ahead and give me a report on the show-never been to one. You entering any of your fish?
I never made it as I came down with a cold and just didn't fel up to it. I was going to enter some huge Nothobranchius kafuensis Mambova I have. It's a new location and very robust. I have a bunch of eggs so I hope to have lots of fry in 2 months or more.
My Gnatholebias gave me 5 females and 11 males so I am pretty happy. Now 5 pair go in a 30 for community egg laying. They blow peat out of an 8 inch bowl like bombs -- it goes everywhere when they dive to lay eggs. Amazing.
The replacement P. petenensis are to be shipped tomorrow. I can't wait. A friend tried to bring back 3 locations of velifera, P. orri and P. salavoris from the Yucatan but he didn't get permits so the airport took them away. He has collected Endler's in Venezuela and has fantastic strains. He is sending me some Poceilia picta, a neat guppy like livebearer. He has a great cross between wild florida P. latipinna and wild P. petenensis mollies that I have. They are marbed and get to 4 inches with big sails. Really nice hardy regular mollies. His whole yard in florida is ponds so he has great fish.
Bobby