must be something in the water...
last night, i had time to sit down and look at the main fish tank fo a while. i could hardly believe my eyes! the female celebes halfbeak had given birth!! i could see a total of 3 halfbeak fry (fry seems the wrong word to use for these guys, they are 2cm long at birth!). from my research i understand that this species will give birth to up to 12ish young at a time and that the adults will eat their own if they are given half a chance. maybe there were more and they have already been eaten or maybe, like a guppy, the halfbeak will give birth in several sessions. i don't know.
this morning, after this video was taken, i moved the fry into the smaller tank to try and ensure their survival. there are two possible preditors in the 180 for these guys, their parents and the pictus catfish. while i touch on this topic, briefly i will mention that both these fish seem completely dis-interested in the new threadfin rainbow fish - i will post later the story of their rather traumatic, but ultimately successful intoduction into the tank. for now, check out the video of the halfbeaks. =)
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4 comments:
I never saw that fish before. Its very cool that had babies.
I see you have some loaches in that pretty big tank. Does they eat the plants?
Michelle wonders what kind of plant you have on the surface, looks pretty.
Thanks for sharing
armando, thanks for the comments.
i'm not really sure if the loaches touch the plants or not. there is one very poor looking crypt near the front of the tank which looks like it must be under constant attack from either the loaches or the suckermouths. other than that, the java fern and long grass plant (its a bulb, i forget its name) have really tough leaves which seem to stay in perfect condition.
i think, michelle, the plant you mean is the brazilian pennywort (hydrocotyle leucocephala) which is a great plant. i wasn't too keen on it as it really was quite stringy with smallish leaves for a long time. as soon as it reached the surface though it began to grow much much larger leaves and has branched out a lot on the surface. the small, thin root clusters under each leaf are pretty cool as well. :-)
finally, the remaining flating plant with the really long roots is water lettuce which is always in great condition and really is becoming a bit of a pain with its constant fast multiplication.
i might uproot the pennywort and just let it float where it wants on the surface, and remove the majority of the water lettuce (leaving a 2 or 3 with the big dangling roots). apparently if left like this the pennywort can develop quite long roots (how long/short i don't know) and can and will readily flower in an aquarium.
that would leave another place to plant something else on the left side, perhaps with thicker foliage. which would be nice. :-)
It's so exciting to have new baby fish! Enjoy watching them as they grow.
Thanks for telling me about the plant. Your aquarium is gorgeous.
-Michelle
Hey nice site.
In case those tanks get dirty, I wrote an article on cleaning fish tanks.
How to Clean Your Fish Tank
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