Melody
Nov 3rd 2006, 04:00 PM
FINALLY! I've had these fish since Spring. Bought them as young adults. Rainbow Goodeids (Characodon lateralis, Los Berros), critically endangered in the wild. My most rare and expensive fish. The breeder would part with precious few, so I got greedy and didn't distribute them. ;)
This trio survived being lost by DHL (which they never did reimbuse for) for a full 7 days during a chilly April. Heatpack had long since run out so I was very surprised to have only lost a few fish from the entire shipment. It was sad to see endangered species arrive dead. Won't catch me using DHL again.
Regardless, Goodeids have to be inseminated each time - no storing females. With one male I figured he'd kick off within a month because that's just how my luck goes with such things...lol. However, all three survived and grew, but no babies :( .
Just when I'm thinking that the male survived because he's sexually challenged, I notice a big, fat female. Their pregnancies last for like.... EVER....lol....so I had all but forgotten about it other than adding Java Moss.
Tonight I'm doing a waterchange and notice a few younguns! I'm all excited. Then, as she often does, one of the females jumped out - worse than Hatchet fish they are. I can't find any of my 93 fishnets, so it takes a bit before I round one up and pop her back into the tank. I decide to stop half way through the waterchange and get some pic's of the babies while the female calms down.
I start snapping away when I notice that the female who jumped out is giving birth! I've never seen a fish with an umbilical cord enter the world. She looks to be on her last fish and he's almost out, so I'm frantically trying to get a decent pic (in a plastic, dimly lit tank no less). I got a couple of bad ones but at least you can tell what's going on.
Looks like around 7 babies plus 2 stillborn. She appears to be done. I was expecting large fry but man, there will be no BBS for these monsters. I may have to pick up sardines :laugh: . I'll post pic's in the picture section.
Hope the female makes it after the birth, water change and hanging out on my kitchen floor. :wideeyed: With the babies that size, it never even occured to me that she might still be birthing. The adults showed no interest in eating the fry and I daresay they couldn't if they wanted to.
Anyways, just thought I'd share :D . This is where most hobbyists would sit and reflect, patting themselves on the back for increasing the number of an endangered fish, saying things like "Because of me, this species will not completely disappear". Me, I sit here thinking "Wow, they survived in spite of me!" lol As my friend says about his brief venture into Goodeids "If the survival of this species depended on me, we'd never see one alive again."
Off to post the pic's!
This trio survived being lost by DHL (which they never did reimbuse for) for a full 7 days during a chilly April. Heatpack had long since run out so I was very surprised to have only lost a few fish from the entire shipment. It was sad to see endangered species arrive dead. Won't catch me using DHL again.
Regardless, Goodeids have to be inseminated each time - no storing females. With one male I figured he'd kick off within a month because that's just how my luck goes with such things...lol. However, all three survived and grew, but no babies :( .
Just when I'm thinking that the male survived because he's sexually challenged, I notice a big, fat female. Their pregnancies last for like.... EVER....lol....so I had all but forgotten about it other than adding Java Moss.
Tonight I'm doing a waterchange and notice a few younguns! I'm all excited. Then, as she often does, one of the females jumped out - worse than Hatchet fish they are. I can't find any of my 93 fishnets, so it takes a bit before I round one up and pop her back into the tank. I decide to stop half way through the waterchange and get some pic's of the babies while the female calms down.
I start snapping away when I notice that the female who jumped out is giving birth! I've never seen a fish with an umbilical cord enter the world. She looks to be on her last fish and he's almost out, so I'm frantically trying to get a decent pic (in a plastic, dimly lit tank no less). I got a couple of bad ones but at least you can tell what's going on.
Looks like around 7 babies plus 2 stillborn. She appears to be done. I was expecting large fry but man, there will be no BBS for these monsters. I may have to pick up sardines :laugh: . I'll post pic's in the picture section.
Hope the female makes it after the birth, water change and hanging out on my kitchen floor. :wideeyed: With the babies that size, it never even occured to me that she might still be birthing. The adults showed no interest in eating the fry and I daresay they couldn't if they wanted to.
Anyways, just thought I'd share :D . This is where most hobbyists would sit and reflect, patting themselves on the back for increasing the number of an endangered fish, saying things like "Because of me, this species will not completely disappear". Me, I sit here thinking "Wow, they survived in spite of me!" lol As my friend says about his brief venture into Goodeids "If the survival of this species depended on me, we'd never see one alive again."
Off to post the pic's!