[b said:
Quote[/b] (biggun110 @ June 29 2004,11:24)]Hi Nflytrap,
This is great news. With any luck the next batch won't be too long and in a few months you will know the fun of overpopulation. All my little monties are sexed out too and looking good. I'm especially excited by a couple of particularly big nezzie males developing -- very nice.
The Velifera mollies are doing great and eat like pigs. They are so much thicker than domestic mollies and the long dorsal fin base is very evident. Hopefully the petenensis will come next week.
I sent a friend some Phalloceros and all arrived well, so hopefully that will become a colony.
Gnatholebias are easy to keep and breed but the peat is difficult to incubate as it needs a constant 80F for 5 months plus you need to wet it for an hour at 4 months and then redry and hatch at 5 months and at 6 months. Eggs can take 9 months to hatch. Plus they have horrible sex ratios. My 15 fry look to be 13 males and 2 females -- ugh! They are a big gorgeous peaceful fish though that just love fruit flies!
I have Simpsonichthys whitei right now which was a Cynolebias for 50 years. It is from Brazil and this is a new population a friend collected last year. The breeders are F1's. I hope they are prolific as usual and I should have 100's in 2 months! Whitei is a great beginner's annual. They are a beauty.
I also have what was once called Cynolebias lacortei and is now in a new genus something like Macroara or the like. It is a beauty and very weird looking -- look it up on the South American Annual site or cynolebias group on Yahoo. It is named after my old friend and the world's greatest breeder of all kinds of tropical fish Rosario LaCorte. Nemobrycon lacortei is also named for him -- the Rainbow Emperor Tetra, a real gem. Emperor Tets are great plant tank fish.
Nigripinnis and bellottii can take near freezing weather as they come from Argentina. They like temperatures in the 50's and 60's part of the year but breed better in the 70's. They need to be hatched in cool water and not raised too warm. They have been collected from iced over ponds in Argentina. There is no prettier fish than a good male nigripinnis. Stunning. Like stars on a dark night.
Read the Beginner's Guide on the AKA webpage for a good intro to killie keeping.
Boy you should see the F. fallax now. Some of the males are stunning and 2 orange males did appear among all the yellows. I also cured the other batch of velvet but lost the plants in the tank from all the salt.
I'm getting some new young Scriptoaphyosemion (Roloffia) "calabarica" killies as the pairs I had refused to breed. Once a month the females would just dump their eggs unfertilized in a big clump -- very strange behavior for killies. The females hated the males and the males gave up chasing them. I have never seen this in almost 40 years of killie keeping.
My Malpulutta kretseri gouramis refuse to breed. They are a very very very shy species but quite delicately beautiful. I don't know the problem still working on it.
Glad the java moss did so well. You have mean Hets! I'd leave 3-4 male swords in the tank and put the rest outside to see. Of course catching them will be a female.
Bobby
I'll break this up into little bits.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]This is great news. With any luck the next batch won't be too long and in a few months you will know the fun of overpopulation. All my little monties are sexed out too and looking good. I'm especially excited by a couple of particularly big nezzie males developing -- very nice
Yup...the young females are quite plump, And I'm guessing maybe 2 weeks till they both drop fry! They are pretty small, so I think I will only get around 15-20 and then you have to subtract the dumb ones that can't run fast enough.
Btw, do any of your young male montys show vertical bars above the stripes on their sides(the dorsolateral stripe?)? I'm guessing its just a teen thing, as the male you sent me has no sign of them. I'm watching one of my young males in particular, he is the largest, and yet his dorsal fin hasn't developed and he still looks much like a juvie. I wonder how big he will be?
Also, I remember you mentioning that the male you sent was still young and hadn't grown the full length of his sword and dorsal. When will he be at his prime? Both(but most noticeably the dorsal) have grown quite a bit since you sent him(as you saw from the pics).
Good luck with those nezzies! I agree that late bloomers are always exciting. I had some with petstore swordtails, but it was usually the difference between a 1 inch male to a 1 1/2 to 2 inch one...LOL
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]The Velifera mollies are doing great and eat like pigs. They are so much thicker than domestic mollies and the long dorsal fin base is very evident. Hopefully the petenensis will come next week.
Great to know! If you ever get a camera, I want to see pics! I've seen supposed Velifera online, and the dorsal size varies quite a bit-from the same size as a nice male latipinna, to a huge sail that actually peaks in the middle.
BTw, did you see the wild molly auction(I believe in was caucana...not sure) on aquabid? Went up in flames! They didn't exactly resemble mollies, maybe giant blue mosquitofish with a cool dorsal-but that was enough to perk interest.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I sent a friend some Phalloceros and all arrived well, so hopefully that will become a colony
Sounds good. They sound very nice to keep. What I really like about livebearers is maintaining a colony, and having members grow mature, and reproduce in the same tank.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Gnatholebias are easy to keep and breed but the peat is difficult to incubate as it needs a constant 80F for 5 months plus you need to wet it for an hour at 4 months and then redry and hatch at 5 months and at 6 months. Eggs can take 9 months to hatch. Plus they have horrible sex ratios. My 15 fry look to be 13 males and 2 females -- ugh! They are a big gorgeous peaceful fish though that just love fruit flies!
I have Simpsonichthys whitei right now which was a Cynolebias for 50 years. It is from Brazil and this is a new population a friend collected last year. The breeders are F1's. I hope they are prolific as usual and I should have 100's in 2 months! Whitei is a great beginner's annual. They are a beauty.
Wow...the hatching process sounds pretty complicated for the gnatholebias. Not only do you have to keep them dry for a few months, then you wet them at the proper time and then wait some more. Do you ever have trouble with your bags of egg drying up while in "storage"? I've seen pics of Whitei, nice lookers. Dunno where I would ever find most kinds of killies though, and i'm not sure if I would be comfy starting from eggs.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I also have what was once called Cynolebias lacortei and is now in a new genus something like Macroara or the like. It is a beauty and very weird looking -- look it up on the South American Annual site or cynolebias group on Yahoo. It is named after my old friend and the world's greatest breeder of all kinds of tropical fish Rosario LaCorte. Nemobrycon lacortei is also named for him -- the Rainbow Emperor Tetra, a real gem. Emperor Tets are great plant tank fish.
Nigripinnis and bellottii can take near freezing weather as they come from Argentina. They like temperatures in the 50's and 60's part of the year but breed better in the 70's. They need to be hatched in cool water and not raised too warm. They have been collected from iced over ponds in Argentina. There is no prettier fish than a good male nigripinnis. Stunning. Like stars on a dark night.
Wow! Thats pretty cool! I've seen pictures of that species of tetra in the books, but only Emperor tetras in life. I'll have to look up the "Macroara"...splitters in control? LOL
Have you seen the nigripinnis in life? Again, only pictures for me. Yeah, the book quoted someone who described them as"like stars in a summer night". Gorgeous fish. I bet that you could even do an "annual pond". Line the bottom with peat and/or cocofiber, and simply allow it to dry up after your fish spawn themselves out. Keep it moist while there is no water, and at the right add water and instant fish! Or maybe just wait for it to rain.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Boy you should see the F. fallax now. Some of the males are stunning and 2 orange males did appear among all the yellows. I also cured the other batch of velvet but lost the plants in the tank from all the salt.
I'm getting some new young Scriptoaphyosemion (Roloffia) "calabarica" killies as the pairs I had refused to breed. Once a month the females would just dump their eggs unfertilized in a big clump -- very strange behavior for killies. The females hated the males and the males gave up chasing them. I have never seen this in almost 40 years of killie keeping.
Actually, I have never seen them! LOL *nudge*
Don't other "killies" normally lay clumps of eggs. What pops into mind is the medaka.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]My Malpulutta kretseri gouramis refuse to breed. They are a very very very shy species but quite delicately beautiful. I don't know the problem still working on it.
You're very lucky to own those guys. I couldn't give any suggestions besides the obvious stuff like"Do they have a place to spawn? Is the water soft and acidic?" but I do wish you luck! Perhaps I will see their descendants someday.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ] Glad the java moss did so well. You have mean Hets! I'd leave 3-4 male swords in the tank and put the rest outside to see. Of course catching them will be a female.
Its growing nicely. Yesterday I was adding laterite to the tank and since I had to stir up the sand, the tank was pretty cloudy(the laterite wasn't as bad as I expected actually). The java moss in the foreground looks like it has been sprinkled with brown snow. Hope to get rid of that soon.
lol about the mean hets. Would you believe they fight over food? If you put lots of food in the same spot, the females will often try to defend it. They lighten to a golden color, raise their fins, puff their cheeks, and circle and "charge" each other(no damage though). Its pretty amusing because while 2 or 3 fish are doing battle, everyone else is gobbling the food. Often, when the victor chases the loser away, the loser comes back after a minute or two to help herself to the food while the winner is still chasing the other fish. Even little 3 mm long fry show this behavior.
BTw, do you have any suggestions on catching them? They may be even harder than a CAE to catch! Fast, and unlike most fish, seem to be able to think ahead(very helpful when you are trapped in a corner and one net is billowed out and another one is coming towards you and you realize that you can go up!)...
I tried the classic jar on a string trap, but they didn't bite. Any suggestions?
Thanks! I really enjoy finding out what progress your specimens are making.