Vinm

Yes mountain. The nose of the male is a little shorter but he is also quite a bit smaller than the female so I just chalked it up to them being different. Kinda like people look different. But who knows I'll have to wait and see on the juveniles as they grow if the long nose trait is a thing to identify male to female. I've lost a few of the juveniles here and there at random and I think it's due to feeding. Some are taking cut up frozen blood worms and others are not. I have to feed bbs like 4 times a day to keep the others fat but it causes issues with hydra. So cleaning the tank once a week to get rid of as many hydra as I can and feeding as much as I can to keep them fat is a constant balance and struggle. They get skinny in like a 10 hour period if I don't feed frequently. Wish a lfs sold live black worms or blood worms near me it would make this waaaaayyyyy easier. Gonna have to perfect a different set up next time to make it easier. I'm thinking like what Dean does with his fry in the small containers that are in a large container so that the water volume is much greater and harder to foul.

The one at the top is the male Posted in the pictures below is the female. Let me know if you guys notice any attributes that would distinguish the 2 if you've never seen them before. As you can see they both have hairs or are hairy. The only reason I know which is which is that I've seen the one in the nest laying the eggs and after the male guards them and won't let her near the nesting area.

The eyes and head shapes look very similar to one another and any variation, because it is so minor, I chalk up to just being that it is a different fish just like people look different. I'll post pics of each soon so you can see.

Well..... The male ate the eggs again around day three. He does it at night time so I don't see him do it. I'm thinking the next batch I'll pull asap and get an egg tumbler to put them in. Any input on the tumblers on how well they work? I've never used one before. I'm still debating on what to do with the baby puffers. Whether to sell them off or keep them and raise them up until they pair off so I can be sure to have more chances to breed these amazing puffers. I have about 25 left as of now. I lose 1 here and there and it's usually the smallest. I'm pretty sure the others stress the weakest out to the point where they don't eat and die a few days later. There seems to be a pack of ten or so that have grouped up and stay in one corner of the tank. It's the corner I usually feed in. The others scatter around and forage else where in the tank. Weird part about the big group is its not all like the biggest ones. There is smaller ones apart of that group too. I was extremely lucky to recieve a pair that mated from only purchasing two from a supplier who told me that they only had what they thought were males due to them all having the hairs on their face. This was another source, which I have seen elsewhere as well, that relayed that the females do Not have the hairy appearance and are suppose to be smooth. This is clearly not true which makes distinguishing males from females almost impossible. I stare at these puffers almost every day and I am not able to tell and major differences between the two. The female is quite a it larger but other than that the coloration, fin orientation, hairs, demeanor, habits, not while mating, are all the same. This is the main reason that makes me want to keep them until pairs start showing themselves but housing them all will be a challenge. If I decide to part with them I'll definitely let you guys know. This is my fish rack right now

Today the parents laid there third round of eggs. Fingers crossed these ones last. Last ones were eaten up in two days. Yes mountain they change their colors from light brown to the dark colors you see in the pictures but way slower than the parents can. The only time I've seen them puff up is when they bite each other during feeding by accident but that rarely happens. I've seen it two times. I'll try to get some pics of he new eggs asap. The mother won't move from the top of them this time which is weird. Normally she lays and then bails. I did noticed that this time I did tank maintenance and cut back the plants as they were outa control and did a water change about 30% with cooler water. The next morning they laid eggs

Little up date. Babies are growing like weeds. Still have about 30. They are 1/2"-5/8" now and eat brine daily along with frozen blood worms and mysis shrimp. Here's some pics

Moved to their new home today. 6 gallon cube. There is 30 still going strong. They started eating frozen blood worms and mysis shrimp.

I started with 7 of these guppies and now have quite a few probably 50+ the males take a few months to color up. They will be adult size before the do and the color starts off real faint then darkens over time. I have Alot more females than males. Like 2 to 1 ratio. Hope this helps.

At this point they act very similar to the adults and are constantly searching for food. I feed them about 4 times a day. They are still on bbs but hoping to go to blood worms or maybe mysis shrimp soon. I haven't seen any real aggression yet but there are a couple that are Alot smaller than the other ones. I'm probably going to have to move all the smaller ones to one of the breeding boxes and the larger ones to the other at some point. I have a 20 g set up for when they outgrow the breeding boxes and are on a larger food.

Looking like little puffers now! Eating tons of bbs.

Came home yesterday to find that all the new eggs that were laid were gone or eaten. Not sure what happened this time but there was only one thing that I change. I increased the lighting on the tank so I could see my side tanks better. Not sure if he didn't like the increased brightness. Other than that the only thing I can think of is that over the last two weeks while he was guarding the old batch he eats very little and I mean almost nothing. So maybe he was just hungry. I offer him food everyday but he will not eat it as he is focused on guarding the eggs. On a better note the fry are growing extremely fast. They were able to eat baby brine shrimp about day 2-3. I still offer them vinager eels as well and they eat everything I put in there immediately. When the lights come on today I'll post some pictures.

The male and female are housed together. As with every fish I've had I would assume it's dependent on how aggressive your individual puffers are. Throughout the years I've had success house fish that usually don't go together but again it is dependent on the individual fish.

Some close ups of all the babies.

Day 16 all the eggs are hatched in the main container and in breeding box 1. Also the adults laid new eggs again.

Day15 update. 10 have hatched from the main tank pot and there's about 21 eggs still left that need to hatch. Some of them are hunting and eating vinegar eels today and some seem to be resting from the hatching event. 1 of the 3 eggs left in breeding box 1 also hatched today and he is swimming around exploring his enclosure.

Three little guys still going in breeding box 1.

Alright guys today was the day. Day 14. 5 babies swimming free.

Yes mountain. Next batch I'm going to let go until about the 12 day mark where the eggs look like the last picture I posted. I think they are very close to hatching at this point. The fry are very active in the eggs and the eggs are about 3/4 of the way full with the body of the fish. They also are colored just like the adults. Also all the eggs I pulled in the beginning that went into the breeding boxes were pulled from the gravel. I noticed the eggs after I did tank maintanenece and a water change and must have blown some out of the cave. Now that I know what to look for I'll be much more careful.

Lights turned on today and they were back at it.

Day 12. THE 2 that hatched and were on the outside of eggs in breeding box 1 have a fungus on them even though I was running methanol blue. Not sure why. There is 3 eggs still not hatched in that breeding box. The eggs I pulled from the main tank that the father raised look completely different. The fry have similar colors to the adults unlike the eggs that were in breeding box 1.the egss and fry were clear. Not sure if they hatched too early or what. None of the eggs that were pulled from the fathers tank have hatched but they are quite active inside the eggs. Attached is a photo. You can compare these to the photos previously posted and see the difference in color.

Breeding box 1 has 5 of 6 eggs still viable and 2 of those are on the outside of the eggs pictured above. Breeding box 2 seems to have failed but it's really hard to see through all the Java moss and mulm. The 32 eggs from the main tank are all alive but all still inside the eggs. I removed the entire pot last night and placed it in its own container for the remaining of the hatch out because they would be Un retrieveable from the tank because it is heavily planted. Any ad ise on if the fry staying attached to the egg is normal or not would be awsome.

Here's what's going on today. Puffers seem to be stuck to the egg. Anyone know if they eat by mouth at this point or are they just absorbing the egg?

Came home today and when the lights came on I found wiggles trying to get out of their eggs!!!