Borellii's exhibiting breeding behaviors!

[ervis]

I came home last night after a weekend away and enjoyed a pleasant suprise... My female A. Borellii in the honeymoon tank was hiding under the bog wood in a small cave she has excavated. When she did come out breifly, she was a vivid dark yellow color. I'd had a cory cat in the 20g for clean up duties and took him out, along with 4 of the 5 neons. Now there is only the breeding pair and a lonely neon.

20 gallon long
silica sand, 12 "skipping stones" river rocks
AQ junior
bog wood
Java moss and Java fern
3 flower pot caves, one coconut half
3 oak leaves

Here's to babies by the new year!!

steve

 

[cdawson]

Congrats!

but get that neon out, it's best to remove all fish because it distracts the females attention away from rearing the brood. You'll want all of her attention on brood caring for the next little while. although I realize it's probably still in there because it was difficult to catch =) Go in with a flashlight after dark, you should be able to catch it that way.

It looks like my borelli is caring for some eggs as well, and my cockatoos are caring for a brood of about 35 right now! It must be the time of the year, my angels are close to spawning again as well. !

 

[ervis]

Borellii babies! Baby Borelliis!!

I was showing my son where the female had been hiding, a hollow piece of bogwood. He looked around the back side to see if he could spot her and said, "look at all the little ones on the glass!" Sure enough, she was hiding behind the log with about ~30 fry. Through out the day she had them moving about, close to the log. I took the male out since he would sometimes lurk close by in the java moss until she saw him and chased him away.

Later tonight I was again showing my son where he could find the male, in the 55 with the other pair and the rest of the community. Oh my gosh! There was a brood in the moss by the logs there too! With 25 neons and two angels I knew they were bait, so I vac'd up the babies and put them with their mom in the 20g with the other family.

So much to do now!

 

[cdawson]

That's awesome, my borelli's are caring for 3 day old fry right now and my cockatoo fry are about 1.5 weeks old and I haven't lose one yet. There was a small weak one that wasn't growing very quickly, but at last look it was still doing fine.

 

[ervis]

Borelli fry update...

That's awesome, my borelli's are caring for 3 day old fry right now and my cockatoo fry are about 1.5 weeks old and I haven't lose one yet. There was a small weak one that wasn't growing very quickly, but at last look it was still doing fine.

Update on my Borellii:
http://www.geocities.com/erviservy/fry12_30d.jpg

These are three week old fry. Between the two females, I have approx. 60 fry. They're all in a 20g long tank and the females take care of a differing number of fry on a daily basis. One day, nearly all the fry will be with one female, then the next day the other female will have more than half.

I'm keeping them fat on decap. briny's. I've found myself sitting for over an hour watching them move around. It's really cool to see them appear, seeminly from nowhere. to make a group of over 50 exploring a new area.

steve

 

[cdawson]

That's the best part, watching the fry grow from tiny little wrigglers into minature versions of their parents?

 

[ervis]

That's the best part, watching the fry grow from tiny little wrigglers into minature versions of their parents?

Update, for those who care to see, the fry are now over a month old. I've updated the main page, and put the rest of the pic files on 3 other pages.

http://www.geocities.com/erviservy/Borellii_Breeding.html

I'm having so much fun,
steve

Side bar: About 3 weeks ago I was explaining to my son the status of the tanks and all about the new stuff I'd learned. In doing so, I brought up C02 and avowed I'd never go there. I explained to do it right was too expensive, and the DIY yeast method was time consuming and not predictable. "All that for a plant? Those people are obsessed", I exclaimed.

Guess what? Yeah, yeah, I know, been there done that. Now I've got a veritable tarzanian jungle with every kind of plant I could find in Washington! C02 bottle producing 80bpm, KH buffered to about 3 deg and a pH around 6.7... Amazon swords, Ludwiga, Rotala, dwarf marsh grass, jumbo mondo tall grass... Ain't this great!!