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.

 

[Apistonaut]

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.

Keep an eye on salinity. In a 20 gallon, I was doing daily water changes to keep the TDS down, almost all of which was from the salinity of frozen brine and hatched brine. I rinsed the lived baby brine well and that worked.

 

[snowb]

Keep an eye on salinity. In a 20 gallon, I was doing daily water changes to keep the TDS down, almost all of which was from the salinity of frozen brine and hatched brine. I rinsed the lived baby brine well and that worked.

Appreciate the information. I hadnt thought about that. The water hasn't been changed in 2 days and the TDS is 27 ppm. Doing a change today tho. Trying to introduce them to some dry food. They dont seem to be liking it to much so far LOL.

 

[anewbie]

To be honest even wild macs arent' that sensitive and domestic less so with regards to hardness. Of course if you said 127 it might be another matter

ammonia is another matter and nothing produce ammonia faster than decaying food... though i guess at least in theory low ph helps there.