Spawning Upland Bullies!

[fishfreak]

well neither freshly hatched brine shimp nor tiny daphnia were small enough.

I figure feeding them strained pond water would probably work, many very tiny critters in that.

I raised common bullies about 10yrs ago starting with liquifry (wardleys from memory) followed by freshly hatched brine shrimp may work for uplands or redfins u never know.

[preacher]

Hi all

I drained my pond a bit yesterday after all the heavy rain weve had the last month. Since the waters been so deep and murky of late its been hard to spot anything other than one Koura who has made a home under large rock, and lots of shrimp. I was very pleased to see, a second Koura patrolling some rocks, lots of shrimp and a few bullies. Im not sure, but I think I spotted a 3rd Koura duck back quickly.

What interested me was a small tail poking out from under a large rock, I thought at first it was a shrimp. A closer look and it was more like a fish, so I gently brushed a stick against it and a Bullie shot out and sat in front of the entrance. It just sat there staring at the stick. All the other Bullies were swimming around in the open, which makes me wonder what it was up too under that rock...

The Bullies all seem very healthy, no signs of disease that I could spot. They are beautifully patterened (its a bit hard to tell in the dark with a torch) but appear to had a light stripe across the base of their pectoral? fins (the swimming ones).

P.

[preacher]

another late night look and the bullies still under that same rock... How long does it take for bullies to hatch?

P.

[Stella]

possibly a bit early for bullies to be spawning, but they do behave like that when guarding eggs.

Was the fish particularly dark when compared to the others? They do change quickly, but a very enthusiastic male can be as velvety black as a 'black moor' goldfish.

It takes about three weeks for eggs to hatch, depending on temperature. The chances of any surviving depends on their need to go to sea or not. Redfins, giants, bluegills need a marine stage, uplands and cran's don't. Commons can go either way.

Most bullies have that cream stripe on the pectoral. More telling signs are the pattern on the face and coloured stripe of the first dorsal on the male. Have a look at the photos in my galleries in the sig link below to get what I mean.

Good that they are all doing so well!

[preacher]

Your the best.

No, under the torchlight it wasn't black, the usual light brown/grey. Maybe a female spawning? I know we caught a pregnant one on our last spotlight, I wasn't sure I had brought it home though. I notice its there one day, gone the next, then back again. I haven't noticed any other bullies under hiding under rocks like this one has been.

P.