Apisto Borreli Opal had fry. What do I do?

[Sordbodan]

Not sure if I can post frogbit to you but will have a look at the rules.

Thanks for the offer - that is very kind of you. Even if it was permissible (and I don't think it is w/o an import/export license), it'd never make it in the winter weather up here. Even on-line stores stop live shipment, except through overnight delivery, which is prohibitive for plants. I'll have to wait until either the lockdown is eased, for a trip to an LFS, or spring, to order online (whichever comes first - and this point it is not clear).

 

[Sordbodan]

An update. Totally unrelated to the opals but I was so thrilled I wanted to share - my panda cories had babies. I just saw three 1/2" fry swimming through the bottom. Wow. I am speechless. This was supposed to be a showcase tank for my underwater plants with the fish added just to keep it interesting. The fish are thriving, whereas my plants are in a sorry state suffering from algae attack after algae attack due to lack of maintenance on my part. I guess it is a good thing that for my next tank I’ll back off from hard plants and focus on fish instead. Go with whatever works

 

[Samala]

My tanks frequently turn out like that: something lovely but totally not to plan! I have pencilfish juveniles turn up every so often out of the jungle. Never know what you'll find when you break a tank down. (Incidentally, never had this luck with my marine tanks..)

You must have quite a community of microfauna to support cory fry to that size. Those little devils are cute as adults, can't imagine how darling the babies must be.

 

[Flyfan]

An update. Totally unrelated to the opals but I was so thrilled I wanted to share - my panda cories had babies. I just saw three 1/2" fry swimming through the bottom. Wow. I am speechless. This was supposed to be a showcase tank for my underwater plants with the fish added just to keep it interesting. The fish are thriving, whereas my plants are in a sorry state suffering from algae attack after algae attack due to lack of maintenance on my part. I guess it is a good thing that for my next tank I’ll back off from hard plants and focus on fish instead. Go with whatever works

That is awesome. I'm always amazed when a couple of babies show up. "life will find a way" is so true. Something that has helped me in the past is the BBS in a jar from Ocean Nutrition. When it will be a couple of days before you can get some live ones hatched out, and the fry could starve during this time, these are a great temporary measure. They last for months when refrigerated and they are the smallest food that I've found other than powdered 'flake' foods. I have also frozen some micro and Walter worms in water for emergency use. Obviously, they don't have the movement and other benefits of live ones, but when desperate times call for desperate measures... PS: I don't have any reason to recommend them other than wanting to share my experiences with them. Matt

 

[Sordbodan]

My tanks frequently turn out like that: something lovely but totally not to plan! I have pencilfish juveniles turn up every so often out of the jungle. Never know what you'll find when you break a tank down. (Incidentally, never had this luck with my marine tanks..)

You must have quite a community of microfauna to support cory fry to that size. Those little devils are cute as adults, can't imagine how darling the babies must be.

That's awesome abut your tanks. The babies are cute. I find the adults irresistible with their wiggling and the way they "dance" together - I have 10 adults in the tank. The babies are even cuter.

I am guessing all the BBS I have been feeding has helped sustain them. I also seriously overfeed the cories with Cory wafers - I had read that unlike most fish, cories should be overfed. Perhaps even the little ones can graze on the wafers?

PS: I am going to try a marine tank for the first time. I have a 55G setup that has been sitting empty for a while as I configure the new FW tank. Once the new FW is set up and everything else broken down, I'll work on setting the marine one up - hopefully by mid spring. We'll see how that goes. A lot of people told me that high tech planted tanks are more work, because Marien tanks do not require as much trimming. We'll see.

 

[Sordbodan]

That is awesome. I'm always amazed when a couple of babies show up. "life will find a way" is so true. Something that has helped me in the past is the BBS in a jar from Ocean Nutrition. When it will be a couple of days before you can get some live ones hatched out, and the fry could starve during this time, these are a great temporary measure. They last for months when refrigerated and they are the smallest food that I've found other than powdered 'flake' foods. I have also frozen some micro and Walter worms in water for emergency use. Obviously, they don't have the movement and other benefits of live ones, but when desperate times call for desperate measures... PS: I don't have any reason to recommend them other than wanting to share my experiences with them. Matt

Thanks for this. I always welcome people's experiences and usually learn something new from them. I'll see whether Ocean Nutrition is available in Canada and if so, I'll give it a try. I also worry about what to do in the 24-48 hours it takes for BBS to hatch. I have been culturing micro-worms, but I really wonder if the fish eat it - impossible to see, given how small they are. I have found that Hikkari first bites works well as well.

 

[Sordbodan]

A brief update. I finally moved the fry over to my 23 Gallon tank. The only fish in there are 5 corys and a few ottos. There were also couple of honey gouramis but I moved those to the main 40g tank. My hope is that if they lay eggs, it will give them a chance to grow out. Here is a grainy picture taken in the dark. Surprisingly, after an hour they were not hiding - except one of the females would dash off as soon as she saw me. They are all huddled together though - I guess familiarity must help with what must be a very scary experience.

 

[Sordbodan]

A brief day-one update. They seem to be happy in their new tank. Much to my surprise, they have been hanging out together (see if you can locate the third one)

Hint: She is right above the left male's head.

The back of this tank is adjacent to my desk. I now have multiple apistos gathering at the back glass watching me work like little aquarium puppies- I guess the expectation is to be fed . It is an awesome feeling to have raised 4 fish from fry and to have built an actual rapport with them. This is why I consider the Apistos to be so much more interesting than the other fish I have had.

Here is a view from my desk while working:

These fish are so awesome!

 

[Samala]

They are truly lovely. So good to see they continue to do well in their new home! Imagine they will become less chummy with one another with time. Curious to see if the two brothers will tolerate each other more than typical over time.

 

[anewbie]

Can't speak for borelli but my hongsloi brother get along wonderfully in a 29. There is one definite sister in the tank and one unknown - either it is an extremely runt male or a large female - who knows...

 

[Sordbodan]

They are truly lovely. So good to see they continue to do well in their new home! Imagine they will become less chummy with one another with time. Curious to see if the two brothers will tolerate each other more than typical over time.

Can't speak for borelli but my hongsloi brother get along wonderfully in a 29. There is one definite sister in the tank and one unknown - either it is an extremely runt male or a large female - who knows...

Thanks for the feedback. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out. Also, I do plan on moving them to the 4ft tank when that is set up in a couple of months. Work has been so busy that the set up has been very slow. In the meantime, the brothers are inseparable so far. They do not stray more than a couple of inches from each other. And both nights they slept immediately next to each other. I’ll keep you posted.

 

[Sordbodan]

Brief update. The brotherly love thing did not last. The two females have staked their territories close to the two caves I put at the opposite ends of the tank. They seem to stick to their cave area, and do not engage each other. One of the females colored up, and started being aggressive with the dominant male (courtship?). The dominant male, in turn started chasing the lower male around the tank. There didn't seem to be any serious physical engagement. I gave it a day, but when I noticed the lower ranked brother spending time at the top half of the aquarium, behind the filter inlet, I figured he is very stressed. So I moved him to the main tank. My 23G has the dominant brother with the two females, and I no longer see aggressive chasing - except the coloured up female occasionally charges the male. The second male is in the 40G with a honey gourami, rasbora, green neons and panda cories. Speaking of the panda cories, they had more babies - there are once again 1/2" long small fry in the tank. The older fry are now at almost an inch. They are a happy bunch apparently.

One question. I do not have any caves in the 40G for the male, though it is very densely planted - jungle like. Do I need to give him a cave, or given that there are no females, are the dense plantings sufficient?

 

[Samala]

If your female is bright yellow and bossing around the male she likely has eggs in that cave. That's the only time I see my female push around the big guy.

 

[Sordbodan]

If your female is bright yellow and bossing around the male she likely has eggs in that cave. That's the only time I see my female push around the big guy.

That makes sense. I'll keep an eye out for the fry. Hopefully, the eggs will hatch this time, unlike in the fry holder.