Motionless wigglers

[Corie Dora]

I have a female caca who has been guarding a clutch which was spawned 7 days ago. I can easily see into the cave; there are only 10 wigglers as there was an issue with an extra fish accidently being in that tank on day 3.

Thus far, I have only seen one of the wigglers move. They all just lay there, still as can be. Sometimes when the mom swims in and out I can see them move in the current a bit.

I kept thinking they were dead, but they are definately developing. I don't have a camera so I can't take a pic to determine if they've adsorbed all their yolks or not yet.

Is this normal, or is there something wrong with them? In all my past experiences, the wigglers moved around a bit, and were trying to get off the ground by this point.

Your thoughts appreciated

Thanks

 

[fishgeek]

doesnt sound right to me, they do usually wriggle or agigtate and certainly more so with age

what are your water parameters?
andrew

 

[Corie Dora]

Shucks. I was hoping someone would tell me that this is normal sometimes

Water parameters are: Temp. 76F, dkh 5, ph 7.2, nitrite/nitrate 0, doing water changes twice weekly of about 25-30%.

I'm feeding the mother bbs, frozen bloodworms and red wigglers.

Are they usually free swimming by 7 days? They look like little fish now, with a big head & eyes and a long skinny tail. (well proportionately of course).

The mother is still fanning water on them occasionally, and she re-arranges them sometimes. She leaves the nest a little more than when they were still eggs.

 

[fishgeek]

yes i would have thought that swimming by 7- 10 days
maybe some of the more experienced members have some more idea's

andrew

 

[drudnick]

I am definitely not overly experienced, but I have been told temp plays part in development. And usually mine are freeswimming at about 7 days in 78 degree water. Due to the lower temp, that may be slowing development slightly. I had one instance where tank temp got up to 80 and they were freeswimming even sooner.

 

[Corie Dora]

Well, I'm still hanging tight then. I don't want to raise the temp as I'm trying to get a good even mix of males/females so 76 is supposed to do that. I swear they're eating though, as the only time they move is when I squirt bbs into the cave. I don't see how it could be possible to have this many belly sliders....my dh thinks they're just lazy...

 

[Mike Wise]

The only way you could get so many belly sliders, that I can think of anyway, is if you changed water sometime during their development and the water was too cold and affected the development of their swim bladders.

 

[Corie Dora]

Nope. Actually I didn't even change water from the time they spawned until today, I was too scared I'd disturb the mother. They left the cave yesterday. And even then I was very careful to heat it to one degree above the tank temp, using the same thermometer (the extra degree is to compensate for heat loss during transfer).

Apisto-Nut, who posts on this board and is also in my club said his caca fry were on the bottom for a while and then started swimming as per usual. So I'm still holding out.

They've been on the bottom outside of the cave for 2 days now, eating bbs, and trying to follow the mama around. It definately takes more work than usual for her to get them to follow or to go back into the cave, which she's done with them both nights now.

I'm not sure how long I should give them to start swimming normally, before culling them. The female is filling up with eggs nicely, and my other female isn't showing much interest in mating with the male right now.