What is this thing?

[Katherine]

I'm wondering if anyone can identify this thing in my tank. It's roughly 1/8 of an inch long and appears to have eyes. It looks to be stuck on the glass and is not moving at all.

(Intentional) Tank inhabitants are black phantom tetras, zebra danios, glofish tetras, a nerite snail, and bladder snails. 

Inert gravel substrate and plants.

It just slightly changed it's angle. The 'tail' appeared to vibrate as it turned.

[Brian]

Fry.

   At this  size/stage could be anyone if the fish listed

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by Brian

[Katherine]

On 5/2/2022 at 6:36 PM, Brian said:

Fry.

   At this  size/stage could be anyone if the fish listed

 

Oh, neat. I'm guessing maybe the danios, since that's the ones I've seen obvious breeding behavior from. I'm not expecting it to make it, but it'll be fun to watch for a few minutes anyway.

[Katherine]

Here's a side view! This is so cool. I've never seen fry in person before. (I bet that was obvious by my question!)

[Guppysnail]

Congratulations 🎉🎊 cutest thing ever are fry. 

[Tihshho]

If you've got a breeder box, ideally a breeder net box style for something this small, you probably have a good chance of rearing up the fry to adulthood. 

[Katherine]

On 5/2/2022 at 8:48 PM, Tihshho said:

If you've got a breeder box, ideally a breeder net box style for something this small, you probably have a good chance of rearing up the fry to adulthood. 

I don't, and I'm also not sure how I'd even catch it. It's keeping itself pretty much at or below the gravel line.

[Tihshho]

A straw or a turkey baster will be the best way to capture them if you had the means to house the fry safely. Otherwise, if you roll the dice with nature taking its course there is always a chance it will feed and grow. 

[Katherine]

Is there a trick to catching them with a straw? On the slim chance that I can find it in the morning I might try to catch it out into a cup temporarily and make a quick run to the store for a mesh breeder box. Petco's website says they have some in stock locally.

[Tihshho]

Put your finger over one end with it out of the tank and when you release your finger when the straw is underwater the release of the air will create a vacuum that will suck the fry into the straw. Once you get it in the straw you can quickly cover the end to recreate the vacuum and lift it out and release the end again once it's over the breeder net. Viola! Cheap and easy fry catcher. You can also do the same thing with clear airline tubing so you can verify you caught it. I like to lightly rubberband the hose to either a bamboo stake, some cheap unused disposable chopstix or something you can safely put into the tank to assist with getting the shot lined up. 

Edited May 3, 2022 by Tihshho

[Katherine]

We found it again today, but I only succeeded in scaring it back into the gravel when I tried to catch it with a straw. I picked up a mesh breeder box and we'll try again later.

Do you guys think it would be worth attempting a pop bottle fry catcher? I haven't looked into it much, but it seems they come up a lot when you search for how to catch fry.

[Tihshho]

If you have the materials to try it, sure. If anything you might trap the parents or get the fry caught in a place it can't escape from a parent that might get in there.