Had Erectus Fry Today! New Pics

L

Lee1

We didn't even know we were expecting as we never saw any kind of courtship ritual and since they have been growing so fast since we picked them up from Carolyn (equinecpa), we did not think he was pregnant. We did not have bbs ready and were freaking out, but waterbeing (Doug and Joanna) gave me some rotifers and brine shrimp (lot of other great people offered free bbs and advice as well and I thank them all for that). The pictures are not great because they are so unbeleivably small, but you get the idea. In one photo, one of the fry was hitched on a single strand of algae. That is a strand of chaeto to give you an idea how tiny they are. In the pic with the 3 of them hitched, the "flower" part of the fake plant is about half the size of a dime. They are eating the rotifers, swimming and hitching. We have about 9-10 right now and they are in a 5-gallon tank. Wish me luck. My wife is officially hooked. :D

Lee
 
Congratulations! I believe I'm going to be a Grandma many times over this week -yours and then I have one that should pop this week. I'm actually surprised - they hardly seem mature enough to be mating but then again in the last month they have changed so much.

Did you get some bbs into them? If they're anything like their parents they will be voracious eaters. I fed their parents 3-4 times a day when they were fry. They were easy to convert to frozen. I had them eating frozen cyclopeeze at about 3 weeks old. I have one fry now from different bloodlines who is almost 3 months old and still won't try the frozen. In fact he hardly eats the brine shrimp but feasts on pods all day long.

Good luck with them, and keep us posted on their progress!

Carolyn
 
We started out with 12 fry and have 9 today. They are eating bbs like crazy. I'll keep updating as there are changes. Carolyn, let us know when yours are born.

Lee
 
Congratulations Lee! If you need anything just let me know.

Keep us updated and keep posting pictures.
 
We have 9 left, and all but 1 of them seem strong. Below are some new pictures as they are getting larger and my crappy camera is finally able to focus a little better although not perfect. Their belly color is caused by the color of the bbs packed in there. I also added a picture of our bbs hatchery that is set up in our office (everybody needs some heavy duty shelves in their office - these guys have taken over).

Lee
 
They sure are cute. :) I just finished off an entire container of Jelly Bellies this week, and am soaking it. It is a nice hex container, and I thought it might come in handy for something like baby seahorses one day. It holds 1/2 gallon, I believe. (64 oz)
 
Thanks, all. This is definitely a lot of work, but fun. I am glad my wife is taking part in this as well. Marc, that is funny about the container - you know you got it bad when you are looking at ordinary household items and thinking how you could use it for your fishtank somehow (I do it all the time). Just yesterday, I was throwing a mini-Gatorade bottle in the recycle bin and as I was doing it I thought, "I wonder if I should keep that to make bbs"?

Lee
 
Yeah, well my plan may not work out. It soaked all night, and most of the paper label came off but the glue and some backing is still on the container. Unless there is a suggestion how to get it off, I may have to just recycle it or use it to hold powerhead parts perhaps.
 
Zippo lighter fluid will get the sticky stuff off. You'll just have to clean the outside really well before putting it in the tank.

It's the only thing that I can think of that won't bond to the plastic and will wash off easily.
-Donovan
 
Sounds like a good idea. Hopefully it won't ruin the clarity of the plastic. If it doesn't work out, I'll just toss it or use it for storage.
 
Well, we have 8 fry left and they seem to be strong. Tomorrow they will be 1 week old. They are starting to lose their transparency and getting darker. The adult male we have also appears to be pregnant again. See pics below (time to buy a new camera).

Lee
 
In anticipation for the next batch of fry, I built this "fry basket" out of eggcrate and fiberglass window screen. It is positioned right behind the overflow teeth and is submerged 3 inches below the water line at an angle to hopefully catch the tiny fry. This should hopefully cut down on any fry getting into the skimmer like the first batch. Surprisingly, more than half of the ones we found got sucked up into the skimmer and did not seem to be harmed by the pump. I do not want this to happen again so we will see how this works.

Lee
 
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