FRY OVERLOAD

It's really been a crazy couple weeks in my little fish room. I have every tank in use and all four of my tumblers are running too. Looking at my furthest along in my tumbler I was able to move one brood into a playpen freeing up a tumbler this afternoon.

I like my fry babies to spend a couple days in a playpen so I can just observe their progress. When the are first out of the tumbler I l keep them in a smaller area then just loose in the tank so I can make sure they are finding the food and eating well. If I just released them it would be harder for those little ones to find food in the 10 gallons than it is in the playpen. After a couple days they are usually ready and I am satisfied, then I release them.



The brood I moved today are Dragon Blood fry. There are 25 healthy babies and they will be joining 27 Dragon Blood babies that are about 5 days older. I'm fine putting fry together but I do like to keep their age difference within 7 days.

I have a couple more moms holding in my Mbuna tank so I'm very happy to have a free tumbler. I don't have room to allow the moms to spit themselves so I must strip them. I like stripping free swimming fry best but having them in the tumbler gives me a little extra time to get things moved around. Love my babies..

BEAUTIFUL POND PLANTS

About a week ago I brought in some pond lettuce to put in each of my fry tanks. This plant floats but below the water is had a beautiful system of roots that resemble feathers. They look very pretty and my fry seemed to really love swimming through the fronds.

These lovely plants do need light or they won't survive. I had placed one floating lettuce plant in an empty tank. Because the tank was empty I kept the light off forgetting about the needs of this plant. After a couple days I notice the roots were breaking off and sinking. It was then that I realized my mistake and decided I better remove the plant and clean the tank.

After removing the plant I used a little net to scoop out all the little bits it left floating behind. I was satisfied and didn't do any more cleaning as I felt it was sufficient.

We were going away camping for the weekend so my neighbor agreed to take care of MLFR while we were away. I was not going to feed my show tanks as the larger cichlids are fine to go without food for a few days. In fact it's very healthy for them to fast even up to a couple weeks. This was only for 3 days but I didn't want to leave my fry without food for that long, as they are very young and need the nourishment. My neighbor came over so I could give her instructions for my fry care.

While she was here she asked what was in the empty tank. I told her there's nothing in there and that it's a hospital tank just in case I need it for isolating a sick fish. She pointed at the tank and said well then what is that? We both looked closely and found three very tiny fish in the tank. Not having a clue where they came from I began to think what they could be. It then dawned on me that I had pond lettuce plant in this tank for a good week before I removed it. The pond lettuce is straight from my pond that is home to my goldfish. I soon realized they must be baby goldfish. They are incredibly small and could easily be mistaken for bits of dirt that swim.

I instructed my neighbor on feeding and added that she should feed these interesting little guys as well. Just in case they needed the lettuce as protection or even a food source I went back out and picked more and added it back into the tank at least for the time we would be gone. I kept the light on this time.

When we returned I was very excited to see these little guys. I still can't believe how tiny they are. I
removed the lettuce and rinsed it off carefully making sure no babies were stuck in it. I ended up finding a whole bunch of them. Now in the tank there are 8-10 goldfish babies. To that tank I also added my youngest from their tumbler. I knew they would need to be moved when we got back. I put them in the same aquarium. The Dragon Blood fry are at least 5xs bigger. I hope they do okay together. I have watched them as I feed them and everyone seems to be eating. My DB fry stay on the bottom but the new little ones dart all over the tank.. up and down and everywhere.

I will be keeping a close eye on this tank. I'm excited to see if these new little ones will grown as quickly as my cichlid fry do. They have to grow fast as I empty the pond in October and bring the fish in for the winter.

WATER CHANGE DAY IN MLFR

DAILY OBSERVATIONS

After doing my rounds in MLFR. Feeding everyone and checking each tank as I did so. Everyone looks terrific. I have currently 4 month old fry in my 30 gallon grow out. I have 2-3 month old fry in my 20 gallon, 1 month and 2-3 weeks old in two of my 10 gallon and wigglers in my tumbler. That sounds like quite a little breeding room.

Next I came down to check my three show tanks. My juvenile tank is great although for some reason they do not want the NorthFin Pellets. I have been feeding this group the tetra Cichlid Crisps and they really love them. I have been mixing the two trying to get the switched over. I have also been introducing Spirulina to all my cichlids. The large one seem to love the it. So I give them a pinch once a day around 4pm.

Looking at my tanks this morning. I have 2 more mom's holding. There's a Yellow Lab in my Mbuna tank and my Electric Blue has one of his females holding as of today. I got some footage of the action but I'm not sure if I will upload it or not. The view was slightly obstructed due to my lovely new rocks!

I have more dancing and shaking going on so I'm expecting a couple more females to be holding by weeks end. I can see they are very close to
dropping their eggs.

It's always fun greeting my Cichlids in the morning.. they are uber excited to see me as they know what I bring. I love seeing them as well because they always seem to have a surprise for me as well. I love my Cichlids.

LOOK AT THE ADORABLE WIGGLERS