I am not a 'one trick pony'! lol -Roy

Seattle_Aquarist · October 14, 2022

Hi All,

Normally you find me over in the the 'Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers' sub-forum answering questions and offering assistance but I am not a 'one trick pony' I also enjoy the fish side of our hobby.

Last month our local aquarium club, Greater Seattle Aquarium Society (gsas.org) hosted Gary Lange the renowned Rainbowfish explorer, breeder, and author from St. Louis for the fifth (5th) time in the last 20 years. Gary and I have become friends over the years, my wife and I hosted Gary during one of his visits to Seattle and we were invited to visit his fish rooms at his home.

The trip last month Gary brought me a present; a reverse trio of Melanotaenia 'Kali Tawa' juvies.

Gary said that although they were young they should be old enough to breed and suggested I put them in a 10 gallon with a mop and see what happens. Since the fish were a total surprise I did not have a tank prepared but the previous month I had set up a 10 gallon bare bottom tank on the workbench in my garage with a pair of Pelvicachromis pulcher (Kribensis) that I had picked up at a LFS and were feeding heavily to induce breeding. Well when the 'Kali Tawa' showed up I moved the Kribensis to a community tank with a breeding colony of Corydoras sterbai and about a dozen Melanotaenia praecox F3 juvies.

So I put the 'Kali Tawa' in the 10 gallon and started feeding heavily with protein foods specifically frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. A week later I did my weekly 33% water change, added a nylon yarn floating mop to the tank and continued to feed high protein foods twice a day.

A week later I pulled the mop and inspected it. Lo and behold there were 'Kali Tawa' eggs in the mop. I pulled 20+ eggs from the mop and took them to a 10 gallon set up at 82 degrees F I have in my office where I floated them in a small container. I did 1-2 water changes per day for a week and after about the 7th day this is what I found.

Yep, fry! I have counted (quickly) about 12 fry in the container. I immediately started feeding Golden Pearls 5-50 micron size 3 times per day continuing water changes and added a airline doing a slow 1 bubble per couple of seconds to avoid a protein film cutting off oxygen to the fry. The fry are about four days old now and doing fine. A video of the fry is here : https://vimeo.com/760115786

So what about those poor displaced Kribensis you ask? Well a week after I moved them into the 30 gallon community tank they started digging pits under the driftwood in the tank and a week later this is what showed up!

And here is a video of the proud parents and fry: https://vimeo.com/760125390

Thanks for reading! -Roy