Loopy

hmm... best i could do again. Can't wait to see what they look like after another 6 hours or so! Still amazed about how quickly it seemed for their eyes to appear!

wow! Just got home from work and in the space of about 9 hours the wee guys have suddenly sprouted eyes! they now have two tiny little black specks to gawk at me with! . . . . Oh alright i will go and take a photo for ya!

Ok got about 14 babies :bounce: Funny thing is they actually look really pink! not grey like i was expecting. Still absorbing yolksacs but at a wild guess i would think we could have free swimmers in about 36 - 48 hours? I wish i had time to take another photo too but i have to leave for work in ten minutes might try when i get home.

Redwood Aquatics has some skunk loaches for less than $5.00. They are only little so it will take a while for them to grow to their potential 10 or 22cm. (silly books are rather inconsistant!)

I think i would like to have those things in there with them but worry about contaminating the tank. It is a paranoia thing. We are losing a lot to fungus( a lot more than you normally would with other species) about a 50% hatch success. But I am fairly confident that they will not go hungry if they make it that far. We always have various foods available for the other multitudes of mouths we have round here! It is more a case of " we will cross that bridge when and if we get to it"

Ok i finally just tried again to get a piccy of the silver dollar fry again. This is the best i could do. We must have about 10 or so still alive and well! They are happily absorbing their yolksacs and going totally nuts whenever they get uncovered. It is SO hard trying not to disturb them too much!

Milet. How many tanks have you counted?? :-) You should knock on the door and come in for a coffee. Also message me when you see graffitti on the alleyway as it's me who paints over it. Mr Loopy

hmmm got me stumped. Nothing stood out to me when i flicked through some of my books. got any more clues?

ok tried to get a couple of photos but they didn't turn out. i had camera on wrong setting. :roll: I will try again later. The wee guys really don't like the light much and go spastic. They wriggle and swim all over the tank in short bursts when i uncover them. I have had a towel over the whole tank except the end of the tank facing the darkest part of the room since i put the eggs in. A pre-cautionary measure because silver dollars are a member of the tetra family and most tetra eggs are light sensitive. And there are at least a dozen hatched now!! :bounce: :bounce:

jeez you must have been in there when i was! Didn't notice the loopy cichlid though. Couldn't make up my mind what to get. Is it bad that i went straight from Redwood to Organisms?

Finally managed to convince our silver dollars to spawn again. A bit of viagra in the form of a huge handful of duckweed did the trick! Sent them all mental for 3 days! Our gold severums thought it was Christmas with eggs flying everywhere. So managed to siphon out a lot more eggs than last time and put them in their own tank with meth blue and waited. Now we have wrigglers this morning! and a lot more eggs still looking clear. My goal is to get at least one fry to swimming stage this time round!

freshwater talking or listening

Each to their own in my opinion! Everyone will probably have something different to say! I don't use any chemicals. I leave eggs/fry with the parents as long as my gut instinct tells me to. I have success rates which i am very pleased with (300ish fry per spawn= a good amount for me to handle). I have one pair of angels who have kept their babies for over a month now and still going well! And another pair who can keep fry for upto a week from spawning and i know that if i want to keep the fry i siphon them out then. I believe one of the joys of breeding is in getting to know and understand YOUR fish not just the species. Watch them and learn. and if something doesn't work, keep trying! Good luck!

?? all the photos i have are already posted. The pic of the fry is at the bottom of the first page of this thread

unfortunately no. The last one dissappeared the day before the last Totally Tanked meeting. Been waiting for the daft fish to spawn again so i can try hatching some fry again. At least i got the photo of that fry! keep stareing at it occasionally think "WOW that is a baby silver dollar!"

I had sort of resigned myself to thinking it was not possible to breed them and wasn't even going to try. (like "clown loach type" breeding= very expensive to even try and get the correct conditions and time consuming) Stop it you are putting ideas into my head! Still can't even convince my whiptail cats to breed again :evil: Let alone three rather antisocial puffer fish!

Oh boy i think it would be the coolest thing in the world if these guys BREED! I can't even sex them. i don't know how they breed. I have a HUGE amount to learn about them still. Their previous owner had done tonnes of research and said they have only heard of one recorded breeding ever!

The previous owners got these guys from redwood aquatics. I think they would get some in if they got the impression that there is aenough genuine interest. Organism might be the sort of place to ask too. The tanks that were in the middle of the room have been put onto the stand and the fish have been rearranged a bit. tryed VERY hard not to start up any more new tanks. Still have the other 10 tanks sitting out on the lawn :oops:

I really like the last one there!! was actually taking a pic of something else and when i was skimming through to see which pics to keep and delete i glanced at that!! :lol: Reason i was taking photos was i am intriqued at the blotch of yellow and black spots on the danios tail. she is the only one out of the four that has it. looks really pretty.

I should add that my puffers are the actual fish in that thread i linked to. I didn't get them from a store. Their owner made the painful decision to part with them and i offered to take them. Hi Wilson, Things have changed kinda dramatically downstairs there since you saw it all! take a look at the last photo and i think you might see what i mean. The whole "unit" that was in the middle of the room has been replaced with that monster. Can fit 15 2ft tanks on it! Some more pics i just took. Tank looks much better now with a light and some indian fern that i raided from another tank.

We set up a new tank. :bounce: And just got 3 Palembang Puffers!!! :bounce: :bounce: and the new inhabitants are settling in and checking out all the new furniture Been dreaming about these guys since i heard about them on this thread ...http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/palembang-puffers-very-pic-heavy-vt16888.html Sorry about the poor photos, there will be plenty more much better ones to come!

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/my-pictus-cat-is-soo-cool-vt16055.html Seen it myself! couldn't stop drooling! took a photo of it but didn't turn out as well as the one above. I like those strange looking critters!

In my opinion severum are worse than convicts!! We had a pair of convicts that laid once for us and then never again! Can't stop our severum though!!! Every couple of weeks they are doin' it again :roll: Have finally given up trying to save and raise all the babies all the time. Good luck find home for all your fry!

I don't see any problem. some one might have the space to raise them all but never bothered to try breeding themselves. I have sold a whole spawn of 4 week old gold severum fry to a guy before. All he wanted to do was enjoy the process of raising the fry. And he really likes severum! Try to remember folks! There is no real right or wrong way of doing things when it comes to keeping fish. Try not to get too picky about minor details! The only time i would really worry is if i see a clear and extreme case of abuse.

i think your tank could look good with a few silver dollars. But it does depend on the tank. dollars need a long tank to swim in. and comfort in numbers.