Samala
Active Member
- Messages
- 101
- Location
- Oviedo, FL
A little update from my fish room on the Borellii colony I started about year ago.
This is a US 40gal (roughly 120x30x40cm) with a handful of Nannostomus beckfordi and originally one pair of Borellii. My last good count is closer to 15 Borellii (one pair, one young adult male that I'm keeping, many subdominant/juveniles) plus a recent "super spawn" of which there are definitely too many survivors. I catch out juveniles as they color up and hit the 1" mark. It's harder to place them locally than I anticipated. Currently considering fry predator options given the dominant female's larger clutch sizes lately and increasing success with raising fry.
After a year of successive batches of fry I'm really surprised: a) that the blue/yellow color morph males always seem to grow the fastest, b) how small juvenile females are when they take on yellow breeding coloration, and c) how lucky I've been with aggression and sparring not leading to any injuries or deaths. Surely wouldn't get away with this with other species (?).
They are a joy to watch as a colony with all the multi-layered behaviors and relationships that have sprung up.
"Jefe", about eight months, along with a juvenile female that flirts with him all day that he ignores
Juvenile male, seems he will be a blue/yellow color morph
Another juvenile that looks to be blue/yellow along with a little female that dominates this part of the tank (she's maybe 1/2"!)
Terrible quality but this little guy with beautiful pink markings is hard to photograph as his stomping grounds are in the back of the tank (he's up front for BBS and trying to hold his ground here)
Cute little males that have started to show yellow throat markings with their sisters/clutch-mates going gold
This is a US 40gal (roughly 120x30x40cm) with a handful of Nannostomus beckfordi and originally one pair of Borellii. My last good count is closer to 15 Borellii (one pair, one young adult male that I'm keeping, many subdominant/juveniles) plus a recent "super spawn" of which there are definitely too many survivors. I catch out juveniles as they color up and hit the 1" mark. It's harder to place them locally than I anticipated. Currently considering fry predator options given the dominant female's larger clutch sizes lately and increasing success with raising fry.
After a year of successive batches of fry I'm really surprised: a) that the blue/yellow color morph males always seem to grow the fastest, b) how small juvenile females are when they take on yellow breeding coloration, and c) how lucky I've been with aggression and sparring not leading to any injuries or deaths. Surely wouldn't get away with this with other species (?).
They are a joy to watch as a colony with all the multi-layered behaviors and relationships that have sprung up.
"Jefe", about eight months, along with a juvenile female that flirts with him all day that he ignores
Juvenile male, seems he will be a blue/yellow color morph
Another juvenile that looks to be blue/yellow along with a little female that dominates this part of the tank (she's maybe 1/2"!)
Terrible quality but this little guy with beautiful pink markings is hard to photograph as his stomping grounds are in the back of the tank (he's up front for BBS and trying to hold his ground here)
Cute little males that have started to show yellow throat markings with their sisters/clutch-mates going gold
