New MacMasteri Fry

[snowb]

I'm just curious about fry color. I have some macmasteri fry that are around 4 weeks old and there is one that is a real dark gray and another that is a medium colored gray. The others are light grey. Why the color difference so early?

 

[MacZ]

Fry colouration is camouflage colouration by default. Why the nuances: Frankly, nobody knows.
Wild guesses:
- If they all had the exact same colour they might stand out more from the background and so the whole group would be in danger of being spotted.
- Maybe the two are sick?
- Maybe it's genetic.
- Maybe...

You get the gist. Nobody will really know and to my knowledge nobody has put research into this.

 

[snowb]

Fry colouration is camouflage colouration by default. Why the nuances: Frankly, nobody knows.
Wild guesses:
- If they all had the exact same colour they might stand out more from the background and so the whole group would be in danger of being spotted.
- Maybe the two are sick?
- Maybe it's genetic.
- Maybe...

You get the gist. Nobody will really know and to my knowledge nobody has put research into this.

Appreciate your thoughts. This is the best place i know with extensive apisto knowledge. Other than the coloration , their behavior seems normal. Time will tell. I'd thought about isolating them just to see.

 

[MacZ]

Isolating before the mother stops caring reduces survival rates drastically.

 

[snowb]

Isolating before the mother stops caring reduces survival rates drastically.

All of the fry have been moved to another tank. They were being cared for by both parents for 3 weeks and then she started to show less interest and i removed them after that. She showed behavior as if she was wanting to lay another batch of eggs. I didnt want to chance her eating them. The parents started to show aggression to one another. Once the fry was removed. The parents went back to normal behavior.

 

[Apistonaut]

All of the fry have been moved to another tank. They were being cared for by both parents for 3 weeks and then she started to show less interest and i removed them after that. She showed behavior as if she was wanting to lay another batch of eggs. I didnt want to chance her eating them. The parents started to show aggression to one another. Once the fry was removed. The parents went back to normal behavior.

I had great success at this stage removing the mother as well. When the mother's behavior shows a disinterest in the school is a good queue. I think I had 2 losses out of ~50, raised until maturity. One spontaneous, one leapt.

 

[snowb]

I had great success at this stage removing the mother as well. When the mother's behavior shows a disinterest in the school is a good queue. I think I had 2 losses out of ~50, raised until maturity. One spontaneous, one leapt.

Awesome! So far i havent lost any that was moved. I have seen 2 left behind in the main tank and i'm just going to leave them in there. Looks like my female is on another batch already. I'm guessing from her behavior about 2 days in. She selected a different cave this time and its in one that i can see easily. Its closer to the sponge filter as a food source. I'm wondering if she moved the site for this reason or something else.

Feeding the fry with frozen baby brine shrimp using a pipette around every 2 hours during the day. Water parameters stay solid 0 ammonia , 0 nitrites , 10 - 20 nitrates. Probably out of the norm but i squeezed out the mulm from 2 filters into the tank and that is the substrate lol. The fry dig through that contantly. I also have a resurrection jar with micofauna culturing. I periodically pour that into the fry tank. Using water lettuce and anacharis plants for stability.