Minnow update
Posted by Anja on April 20, 2009 at 14:16 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 03:17I fished the largest one out (about 7 mm), so he doesn’t eat the tiny ones (2mm) and plopped him in with his parents. He’s doing well so far. The others I’ll keep separately until they are bigger. They munch happily among the duckweed roots, and infusoria (well, as far as I can tell). So, I think/hope they’ll be ok.
Tags: Tanichthys albonubes | Categories: 10G River | Comments Off on Minnow update | PermalinkWell, I’ll be darned
Posted by Anja on April 19, 2009 at 11:56 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 04:04We’re sitting peacefully at the breakfast table this morning, when the tiger suddenly bends down to check out one of the big pots we’re overwintering our tropical pond plants in. “There’s something swimming in there,” he says, frowning.
We look at each other going, “Shoot, mosquito larvae.”
It certainly is the right size, but it doesn’t wriggle, looks more like lashes with eyes, and there’s a bluish shimmer to it. “There’s another one.” – “And there.”
To make a long story short, we pulled five WCMM hatchlings out of the various pots, which we now all checked, of course. It has to be said that I use the old aquarium water to water the plants, but the last time I changed the cold water tank downstairs was two weeks ago. You may easily imagine that the water in those flower pots was not of pristine quality.
Weirdly, there are no babies in the tank itself. So, now I don’t know, if they just got eaten there by their parents, or if, maybe the temperature downstairs (18C) isn’t warm enough yet for them to hatch.
Any clues, anybody?
I now have 5 teensy WCMM in a holding tank and don’t know if I should put them in with their parents or not. The only other fish in that tank are two hill stream loaches. Are they baby snatchers?
I’m quite, quite floored. And totally awed at the sheer survival power of those little guys.
Tags: breeding, Tanichthys albonubes | Categories: 10G River | Comments Off on Well, I’ll be darned | PermalinkI’ve been busy setting up the 10 G river tank
Posted by Anja on November 9, 2008 at 19:47 | Last modified: July 9, 2012 19:49… for the WCMM in the basement. It has a bit of wood and some medium sized rocks, but mostly pebbles of three different sizes. I scrounged some parrot feather and salvinia out of the pond and one of the little water hyacinth plantlets, added some java fern and African fern from the big tank and dumped in a Japanese moss ball and a few physa and MTS. Here’s a shot while I was planting:
In early October I started to scoop the minnows out of the pond. I found nine out of ten. One of them had had a spine deformity – he looked like a Z from above, and we were always amazed that he was still swimming along with everyone else. But in the end, I guess he didn’t make it.
The nine seem happy enough in their smaller quarters. I put a little powerhead in for them, and they love swimming right in it’s stream.
Two days ago I added Cthulhu, the Bristlenose from the blackwater tank. I’ve carefully acclimated him to the cooler and somewhat harder water over the past 10 days. And while he seems a little shell-shocked by having been moved twice in two weeks, he’s slowly regaining his colour and starting to explore his new home.
I took him out of the big tank, because he’d been harassing the Ranger Pleco, who’s a bit of an emo kid. Rory, the Ranger kept showing up in the mornings with torn and ragged fins and grew more and more shy. Now, the fact that his nemesis is gone slowly dawning on him, he’s finding back to his happy scamp self, and, ye gods, is he ever beautiful, proudly displaying tail and sail and with all his fins fully healed.
Tags: Ancistrus, Pterygoplichthys weberi, Rory, Tanichthys albonubes | Categories: 10G River, 25G South American | Comments Off on I’ve been busy setting up the 10 G river tank | Permalink