Snorkel

If the adults are well fed, almost all of them will survive.

Nice post Preacher. Very interesting.

That troutlet looks pretty interesting. Be keen on a few of those. And those are nice waders by the way...

Yes Stella, both males have spawn to look after. They get along surprisingly well. Interestingly the egg laying females will lay in one nest and then go and lay in the other nest. They dont put all their eggs in one basket.... The Giant Bully that I have been keeping has developed an "ovipositor"?, does anyone know what this means? I am worried that it might become egg bound and die? Mabee I should put this fish back into the wild? Mabee I shud catch a couple more?

The male just keeps on making his nest larger and larger! The nest contains eggs that are hatching and eggs that have just been laid. Its a continuous thing. Here it is at lunchtime today... .

And while I sit here typing out this, he's getting it on with another one. Crikey!

Meanwhile, back in the bully tank.... When I got back from a weekend away, I discovered that one of the male bullies managed to get another female to spawn on his nest. Thats two clutches of eggs in the same nest. Here it is...

They will not survive. I think if I raised thousands and millions of these fish and returned them to the wild, next year, there would not be any more than there is now..... All things are limited by their environment, and in this case it is a polluted filthy ditch with eels, goldfish, gambusia and inanga also living in it. Now that You've got me thinking about it, if I could remove some of the goldfish in there, that would be a good thing... unless you are a goldfish, that is.

When they hatch Caper the male bully wiggles like crazy over them and they are scattered by the current. In my tank the other bullies immediately started to eat them! I couldn't take that, so I placed them in a large plastic container I had maturing in the garden to collect mosquito larvae. It was all green and bursing with life fit for new born fry. They are doing ok. There must be a couple of hundred easy. I'm planning on releasin 'em back where I got the adults from when they are a little bit bigger. Most likely a completely pointless exercise.

Sadly, that seems to be the best way to learn something! I will never... I mean NEVER.... not quarantine animals, plants, even little pebbles before I put them in my tank again. It's just not worth it. I nearly had the white spot sorted, but I went away and before I went, I done a half water change and this must of diluted the chemical enough for it to start over again. Doh! Once again, thanx for the great links.

I know exactly what You mean. Some days all the fancy equipment in the world don't mean anything. Patience, perseverance, and a good dose of luck are certainly required. Taking photos of these fish was a steep learning curve for Me. I had difficulty getting "true to life" colors. It was the first time I had to use the custom white ballance feature. White-spot cure gives photos a weird color cast! So did the flouro light. Long tripod exposures were necassary as well. Try telling a nesting bully to be still... He just wouldn't listen! He got agitated every time I set the camera in front of him, so in the end I just left it set up right in his face. Still, every time he saw my "giant eye" looking he got nervous and started skittering around even more than usual. I used a digital SLR with a 50mm macro lens. I even had a go with my wifes compact point and shoot in a underwater case! Results were dissapointing however. The gutsy little bully wouldn't leave his nest even with all that hardware controlled by giant white hands getting right in his face! Brave little fish....

Yep, I got a 2008 that I use as a spare. It goes completely sideways no problems at all. I think it would go upside down ok too. Good luck with the Inanga. I'm jealous. The shrimp You got are the supermarket models right? We got shrimp in the billions up here, but I'm not keen cause everything in the wild here has white-spot. My fish had it when I got them and one still has it. It has proven extremely difficult to erradicate. I can't wait till the day my water is clear and not some shade of green or blue.

Thanks guys. Heres one more... Nah, make that two more...

They're hatching out now! Quite a few hatched into the aquarium, but by far the majority hatched into a bucket. There is about a 1/4 left to hatch. This pic is about as close as I can get. If Ya want any Stella, message Me Ya address and I'll send Ya a c/d with the pics I took. The fry are small, but active. Too small for brine shrimp. Green water is what they need. Lucky I got some.

Well I didn't know that.... Auckland Museum. Finally, something to do when I next visit that terrible place.