GrahamC Posted April 24, 2012 Report Share Posted April 24, 2012 A couple of months ago I setup a 60L tank with some Pam's potting mix, and covered the mix with fine pumice ( most of which sank ), and then planted a couple of plants that weren't doing so well elsewhere. As I recall nitrates were pretty high and I left things alone. My neighbour gave me a bucket of plants from his tropical tanks 2 weeks ago. Rather than try and plant them into fish tanks, I thought I'd use this 60L tank as the quarantine tank. Included were vals with leaves over 1 m long, some crypts, java ferns, oxygen weed (from his bath tub ) and a few other things. I washed them in aged water to try and get rid of most of the algae and planted the rooted plants. I moved the tank to a window, but left it unheated. The crypts melted, but looks like some new leaves are appearing. A couple of day ago I saw 4 fry swimming there. Odd really as he thinks he only has live bearers, and hard to imagine that fry survived washing, and a cold tank! His tank did have guppy and some swordtail fry present. To give them a chance I put a heater in set at 20 deg. The tank heats up to about 25 deg in the sun, and most all of the plants are bubbling away. The fry are 3-5 mm long head to tail, and neighbour suggested I just feed them with powdered tropical flake. I presume that they have been living on algae, or microscopic aquatic life. After I put the flake in yesterday, I can only now see 3 fry, so perhaps I'll just let them eat algae and protozoa. There are also a few tiny worms, white tiny things that swim in a brownian fashion, and lots of snails, and algae. Ammonia is < 0.02ppm, and nitrates have dropped from very red several months ago to 0-5 ppm when tested today. I did a 90% water change at the time I added the new plants so that might explain why the nitrates have dropped so much. Pam's potting mix doesn't explicitly added fertilizers though they say there might be some present. So, should I remove these fry and put them into a net and raise them in a tropical tank? Or just let them get on with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted April 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Well, I've decided to let them just be where they are. I guess it'll be a few months before I find out what they are .... and the missing 4th one has now reappeared. I have no plans to add any mechanical filtration, just let the plants and rock do it. Although their heads are just the size of a pin head, it's amazing that they can find each other in this 60L tank, and exhibit schooling behaviour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 My very first fry turned up in a tank where I didn't know there had been breeding and all the other fish would have eaten it. It must have lived among the gravel and plant bases for at least 6 weeks before I saw it. I thought it was a guppy for ages until I was kindly informed it was a swordtail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted April 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 If they're guppies, or swordtails, how long would it take them to reach 5 mm from head to tip of tail since being born? They must be pretty robust to have survived what I put them through inadvertently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karina Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Years ago I moved flats and had taken all my fish and the water out of my tank and only left the stones in it (it was a small tank by my standards). Anyway when I refilled it hours later all these platty babies came from no where out of the stones. Didn't even know I had them. Also had black neon babies survive like this once. Guppies and plattys etc are pretty tough little fish. Did he have any fish where the oxygen weed came from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted April 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 No, I didn't see any fish there and I think the only thing growing in the bath were oxygen weed and mozzies. I'm hedging my bets though .. in case they're cold water fish I've set the heater to 20 deg in case some WCMM eggs got into the tank. Or even goldfish eggs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 I think guppy fry are at least 5mm when born, certainly they are much bigger than the killie and CPD fry I've had that hatched from eggs. Livebearers seem to have mini fish rather than critters that look like sperm and then grow into a fish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted April 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 Okay, that would suggest that these are fry from his tropical tank then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunbird73 Posted April 25, 2012 Report Share Posted April 25, 2012 A couple of day ago I saw 4 fry swimming there. Odd really as he thinks he only has live bearers, and hard to imagine that fry survived washing, and a cold tank! His tank did have guppy and some swordtail fry present. Its amazing what they can do to hide. I was trying to catch newly hatched guppy fry from a tank I was emptying and the buggars kept burrowing into the gravel to escape. Even when the water was almost fully drained they would find a droplet to get into and then a couple of stones to hide between. Will be watching with interest to see what they grow into! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 got any photos Graham? we love photos of mystery fry :rotf: :digH: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livebearer_breeder Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 I think guppy fry are at least 5mm when born, certainly they are much bigger than the killie and CPD fry I've had that hatched from eggs. Livebearers seem to have mini fish rather than critters that look like sperm and then grow into a fish Its entirely dependent on the mother fish, how big she is, how old she is, how well shes fed, how often water changes are done, her genetics, her specie. Livbearer fry can be tiiiiiny and look like a tadpole! and then other times they pop out HUGE and seem to be a miniature formed fish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted April 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 not sure it will help ... my camera autofocusing wasn't able to cope with the small size, and the only time I could lock on was when one was near the surface ( in the middle of the picture ) amongst the duckweed and flake food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirt Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 Looks like my mystery fry :slfg: I was thinking of putting it in a bigger tank and slowly upping the temperature now because it's getting colder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livebearer_breeder Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 Not a livebearer. Definatly an egg scattering species Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted April 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 well that makes it interesting! I only have WCMM, goldfish, and zebra danios that lay eggs, and I just don't remember transferring any plants from their tanks to this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 yes it is a fry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danval Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 My guess is goldfish... but just a guess. I have had WCMM and you can usually see the iridescent stripe from an early age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 yep I think an egg laying offspring, it's only days old, a week at most Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted April 26, 2012 Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 its got that spermatozoa look Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted April 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 Very hard to focus on such a small animal moving in 3D. Here's the best profile shot I could get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted April 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2012 its got that spermatozoa look Hmm. My dog does do a bit of climbing ... :slfg: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted April 27, 2012 Report Share Posted April 27, 2012 Goldfish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted May 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 Larger one is now about 1 cm and I see some stripes so I think they might be Zebra danios. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamC Posted May 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2012 Two and a half weeks later ... don't look like anything in my tanks. Have yellow on their fins. Only 3/4 have survived so far. Do they still look like goldfish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted May 12, 2012 Report Share Posted May 12, 2012 Bit hard in that shot, not quite square or close enough (appreciate that fish don't make the best models...or take instruction for that matter...) Looks Danio to me based on what I can make out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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