Tropical Fish Forums

[unissuh]

Came home today, peered into the tank as I fed the fish as usual and lo and behold...I have fry. Of course it's not the fish I was trying to get to breed at all, it's my Microdevario kubotai which are fat little buggers even though I just feed them sparingly once a day with NLS pellet. I did an extra unscheduled waterchange a few days ago to vacuum out extra mulm that'd been building up and it's been raining a lot here over the last few days (possibly pressure changes too?), so that was probably enough to trigger it.

If you squint you might be able to see two little specks of dust just above the branch and below the frogbit. They are friggin' miniscule, barely macroscopic.






I've moved 'em out to a tiny spare tank for now so I guess we'll see how it goes. Not really prepared for such tiny fry.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[rales12]

Cuuuuuuuute. Congrats on the unexpected delivery! I hope you can get a few to survive, at least.
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- Rachel

[katienaha]

my they ARE tiny
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Let the current take you where you may not always want to go.

[unissuh]

I think I've fished out most of the fry, got a few more out this morning. At least 21 but probably closer to 25. Feeding them Sera Micron & some sieved egg yolk for now which they seem to be eating, belly looks nice and bulgy so fingers crossed. Hopefully they're like the parents & not fussy.

I think they stick onto the tank wall when just hatched then start becoming free swimming a day or two later. Might be able to see a couple stuck to the wall (middle of the photo) if you look hard.


Adults are doing something strange;

Sort of like follow the leader at the surface. Don't know if this is a spawning behaviour or something, pretty sure theres nothing wrong with the water.

EDIT: Hmm, now I'm starting to wonder whether there even is a "wall attachment" phase. I haven't noticed any becoming free swimming in the last couple of days and looking through a magnifying glass, the ones stuck to the walls have a couple of black spots at the base of the anal and caudal fins that are absent on the free swimming fry. The only other option is Otocinclus fry, but that seems very unlikely & the fry don't really look like it either.


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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[rales12]

Otto fry would be awesome!! Maybe they are deformed somehow?
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- Rachel

[Caton]

Google oto fry, look at the images...it might be oto fry...

Questions;

What is your pH?
What is your tank temperature?
How many Microdevario kubotai are in the tank?
How many otos are in the tank?


I would really like to know if these are otos or not just because they are so hard to breed.
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[unissuh]

I have referred to Google, the holy grail of knowledge. They don't really have that flat head look that Oto fry have which is one reason why I discounted it. The picture is a side view I think, I still have no idea how I managed to get it in focus with my point and click camera plus the magnifying glass. I'll try and stick up a higher resolution version when I get home, shrunk it to post on the forum. I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether they become free swimming. If I had to pick an option to put money on, I'd still guess they're probably Microdevario fry. Perhaps they take 2-3 days to become free swimming instead of 1-2 like I originally thought, though this seems a very long time for the yolk sac to last.

I never test pH (or much else for that matter), but it's probably what comes out from the tap:

[Caton]

There is one way to find out what it is...wait a month or so


I wish I had a pH of 7.0...I know my african wouldn't like that but it is easier to rise a pH than to lower it without hurting the fish.
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[unissuh]

So much for that theory...starting to notice more free swimming fry so I would guess they're probably not Oto fry after all. Pretty strange, that means there is an "attachment" stage of at least 3 days after they hatch. Once they become free swimming I don't see those black spots on the body anymore. Theres heaps more fry than I originally thought, at 30+ free swimming (up from 14) right now and theres still a few stuck to the walls.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[Caton]

Dang! You gonna sell them or set-up another tank just for them?
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