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HOOYEAH !

Friday June 27th, moved 2 of my adult female splendid inornatas to the 20g breeder, and so began the conditioning for breeding which consisted of mainly of high protein foods (frozen and freeze-dried)and plant-veggie matter, duckweed, spirulina, mushy peas, FRESH mushy cucumber, glassworms,bloodworms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, live ghost shrimp, tubifex worms, live daphnia magnus , fed 3 times daily in a alternating pattern of foods ie. 2 veggie meals- 1 protein meal then 2 protein meals and 1 veggie meal, and water changes every 4 days varying in % of amount of change-out but keeping temp a even 76F, minor fluctuations of PH were observed and countered as needed, but objective this time is to see if there is any influence that PH and water temp. have on the sex of the developing eggs. My last spawn/hatch earlier this year was in 6.8-7.0 PH and a temp of 78F, this time the PH is held @ 7.5 and temp is 76F and stable. conditioning period - 2 weeks.

Friday evening July 11 just before lights-out, moved 1 male into the 20g housing the 2 fems ( rather plump at this time)planned to keep the 3 together in the 20 for 3 days, in case of multiple spawns, I never actually saw the release of eggs, but having faith that nature took its course, the male and females were removed from the 20g on the 14th and back into community, 55g, the 46 will now be the grow-out, and the wait began....
Went out of town this last weekend for a river rafting trip and returned Sunday the 20th to discover that there were dozens of wrigglers at the surface!!!... now that 2 days have lapsed, the number seems to increased a bit, not sure if there were more swimming near the bottom or mid-strata, a specific number is nearly impossible at this moment, best guess on groups and masses, gonna make a stab at 50-80 fry, last batch was rather small - 24 -, but time will tell as to how many there really are this time.... gee... I wonder if the 46 is a big enough grow-out !! lol

Current water perams taken today 7-22-8,
PH 7.5
GH 14 deg.
KH 6 deg
NH3 0 PPM
NO2 0 PPM
NO3 5 PPM

Water temp 76F
Substrata temp 74F
some pics;
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/ironhand74/20%20g%20breeder/5-20g-7-21-8.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/ironhand74/20%20g%20breeder/6-20g-7-21-8.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/ironhand74/20%20g%20breeder/7-20g-7-21-8.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/ironhand74/20%20g%20breeder/3-20g-7-21-8.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/ironhand74/20%20g%20breeder/4-20g-7-21-8.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/ironhand74/20%20g%20breeder/20g-7-21-8.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/ironhand74/20%20g%20breeder/1-20g-7-21-8.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/ironhand74/20%20g%20breeder/2-20g-7-21-8.jpg

wee little rodents aren't they ?? hehe
best guess, they hatched Saturday the 19th, current foods are crushed (ok, more like powdered) hikari algae wafers mixed with freeze-deied cyclopeze also powderized mixed with Hikari "first bites" fry food, WARNING !! do NOT sneeze in food bag....hehehe.

will try to post more pics as the buggars grow, and keep tally of male to female ratio produced.

J.

excitement short lived, literally...
all was looking good last night, everyone still active and eating,all water perams were ok, was looking like things were well on their way.
Awoke this morning did the morning feedings, but noticed that the numbers were significantly reduced, could only account for 17 fry, not the 60-80 from the previous night!!!!, tho the filter p/u is screened, I checked inside the filter its self, even removing the filter pads, no fish in there, then I observed something odd, it looked like some of the powdered food flecks were swimming-jerking around in the tank, near the surface to maybe 4in deep, my first thought was survivor daphnia or larvae of daphnia, that was intended to be food for the adults during conditioning, but I'm not so sure thats what it is, tried to take a few pics but turned out like fuzz..
possibly some sort of bug larvae, a gnat or something, the tank is covered with a full hood closure, but not screened, *note to self*
currently the tank has been treated with 1/2 dose of API general cure, that should eradicate most all crustations and good sort of parasites, see if I can save whats left... this count 5.
The unwanted critters are super small, smaller than the eyes of the fry, whitish in color, swim in erratic directions and occasionally come to the surface for a few min, then dive to about 3-4 in, jump and kick around for 3-5 min then resurfaces... any ideas anyone ???
think its time to get a used microscope, CCD would be nice...
Thoughts, input greatly appreciated


J.

Here it is, Saturday morning, all fry have perished, extensive clean-out and sterilization begins...

Better luck next time.

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Im sorry hope it goes better for you next time around!