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hmm.. looking at them, they don't have any legs.. only feelers at the front - and they seem to use this to propel themselves along. I say that they look like they are 'running' because they move fairly quickly and in a coherent manner. The smaller ones tend to move in a jerky manner especially when they are swimming up and down the water column. How big do they get? I guess I could try and culture them and see what happens.. I'm a bit reluctant to feed them to the fish until i know what they are.. :-?

Thanks guys. Caper - The female's belly goes red when she is ready to spawn and appears to stay that way during raising of the spawn. I have a few more pics to add. The fry have now been free swimming for 2 days and both parents are taking excellent care of them. Its cool to watch how they take turns guarding the brood. When the GBA comes near the cave, both parents launch themselves like mini missiles at him and now he knows not to go near that area . I still have not fed them yet. The parents are leading them towards the plants where they start to pick away at micro organisms on the leaves. I have some brine shrimp brewing away but want to try feeding powdered cichlid pellets. Will this be ok? Mum and fry: After feeding at night, mum picks up the little ones in her mouth and puts them all back in the cave..

I had a look in a bucket thats been left outside for a while now and noticed some little orange dots swimming around. Upon closer inspection, they appear to be little orange mites. They can swim fairly quickly through the water and also run along the sides and bottom of the bucket. They are oval in shape and appear to have feelers at the front of their heads. I put a few into a glass tube and tried to take a picture - but its not very clear. The biggest is about 1-2mm in length and the smallest is just a dot. I am not sure if they are daphnia because after some online searching, I have learnt that they are also called water fleas and should 'hop' through the water. The ones that I have appear to 'run' through the water! The pic is not great - but shows the size difference. The dots are the little ones.

I bought 2 pairs of Kribs a couple of weeks ago from bigmills and today, I woke up to a spawn of little kribsters. They are such cool fish to raise and their colours are so vibrant especially around spawning time! Here are a few photos leading up to the spawn and of the spawn itself.. Heres a pic of the pregnant female. Note the cave she has selected behind her. Heres a pic of the krib pair: This is the female the day before she laid the eggs. After the eggs were laid, she spent about 1 week in the cave, coming out briefly only during feeding time. The male would patrol the territory and give the other occupants a hard time - there were two other kribs, a female fighter and a GBA in the 120L tank. And this is what I woke up to today :lol: . Both the male and female were herding the spawn around the cave. The little babies would pick away at the sand looking for food. I have not fed them yet, but their bellies are round and golden - maybe the last remnants of the egg yoke. I plan to give them microworms and crushed pellet food in the next few days. Hope you guys enjoy the photos. I'll try and update them as the little ones grow bigger .

Yes, I think pearling means your plants are doing very well! Heres a couple of pics of riccia pearling..

Looking good - this maybe a stupid question, but what colours were the parents? (or were they just pale pinkish?)

Firemouths are cool! I just bought a pair - well they were acting like a pair when I bought them, but now the male is harassing the female a bit, might need to add more rocks and plants.

Congrats with the fry and good pics too!

google "bosemani rainbow".

I had a similar problem with siamese fighters that I was breeding - they would always be fighting each other. I didn't want to hav to jar them - managed to sell off most of them though. I can take some off your hands if ur running out of space :bounce:

Maybe the blue gouramis are being reclusive because there is not enough floating plant cover? If you are wanting to replace them with fish that hang in the upper part of the tank, maybe livebearers are a good choice: guppies, mollies or swordtails. Else, I think blue or bolivian rams would be a good addition - they are not too fast and fairly placid (except during breeding). They tend to be mid to bottom dwellers.

The 5 gouramis you want to get rid of - what type are they?

I have 4 bristlenoses and 4 SAEs in my 4 footer - no green algae or that nasty hair (black beard) algae.

I only have a few at the moment - limited by the number of tanks I have: Suckermouth Catfish Common Bristlenose Catfish (L???) - keeping and breeding. Can't seem to get the fry past 1 week old tho... :oops: Golden Blackeyed Ancistrus (L144) - keeping and hopefully breeding soon. Currently 2 adult males, 2 females, 2 juveniles. Corydoras Panda Corys - 5 - keeping and constantly breeding. Have a bunch of fry that are a couple of weeks old. Find new eggs every week!

It looks like you are doing the right thing with the med.. the tank will go blue when you initially put in the white spot med and then go clear again. 30 deg is a high enough temp to speed up the cycle of the white spot parasite. Make sure there is adequate air circulation because increasing the temperature leads to a decrease in dissolved oxygen in the water. You just have to be patient and follow the instructions on the med bottle. As for your clown loaches not coming out to eat, it maybe because they are not normally fed at this time of the day? and so do not come out for the food..

a single male would be the best option, unless you want to get a betta barracks to divide them up.

hey sharn, thats the exactly the type of things I've been hearing about them but i decided to give them a go and purchased a pair a couple of weeks ago. They are doing well at the moment and look like they will be spawning very very soon. Fingers crossed that the spawn goes well and that the parents are hopefully hardier than what I have read about them so far.

I agree with Sharn about the bettas.. from what I understand, male and female bettas in the wild only come together to breed. If the female is not in breeding condition, she will be constantly harassed and chased away. Having a group of females is a good idea. I would suggest getting at least 3 because if you only have two, then the dominant one might constantly harass the other one. Having at least 3 will spread the aggression.

Good idea suphew but the boxes they have are very big - too big for what I am looking for which is about 5L in vol. I found what I was looking for at Barnes plastics - thanx for the replies guys.

hey, i got a bunch of juveniles from phil as well.. the parents were wild caught and labelled as Apistogramma juruensis. But the juveniles seem very similar to the ones in ur pics. I guess i'll have to let them mature a bit more and see. Have yours started spawning yet?

cool.. did you manage to raise the other spawns?

Cool bristles hes got! How old is he by the way?

Nice looking ram! How long have you had him for? I keep reading that they seem to go belly up for no reason after a couple of months?

Trying posting it in the apistogrmma forum - Might have some luck with the ID there. Did you get these from Phil Collis?

ah ok thanks caryl.. the 2L bottle of hot water is a good idea, but a bit bulky for delivery. I remember that at the snowboarding shop, they sell those hand warmers where u giv it a rub to release the heat. Might give those a go. And thanx Wok, I'll give those places a call. Cheers guys.