Daniel Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Just this week on the forum we have had several posts about unexpected fry. @Sliceofnature found hill stream loach fry, @Dawn had surprise babies (either danios or rainbow fish), and @Hamaquatics had guppy babies sooner than expected. My guess is our fish breed more often than we are aware of. And you don’t see what you don’t expect to see. Yesterday, when @Brandy and I were messaging, I said that I wished my Apistogramma would spawn. At the time I said that, it is likely they already had and I hadn’t even noticed. Probably what kept me from noticing was just the assumption that they had not spawned. One of the lessons is to assume less about what is going on in your tank. When something is different, don’t blow it off, figure out what the cause might be. And realize that the fish don’t read the books. My Apistogramma nijsseni are said to prefer to spawn at a pH of 6 – 6.5. The source of this information (the ichthyologist Uwe Römer) is impeccable, yet my pH was 7.38 at time they spawned. Fish don’t read the books. So maybe the default assumption should be that fry might show up at anytime. This is good a reason to keep planted tanks and even a bit of a floating plant like hornwort as this provides cover and first food (infusoria). It also is another reason to have a brine shrimp hatchery ready to go at 24 hours notice. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickS77 Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 I've been thinking about this recently too. I'll often notice big round egg bellies on my Rummynose tetras. Tetra are notorious egg eaters so I don't think I'll ever see any fry. I think someday I'll pull a few pairs out and try to raise up some fry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamaquatics Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Based on when I had Guppies in the past, probably once to twice a month since there are 4 females and 1 male. My surprise this time was the females were newly purchased and did not look big enough to produce fry as yet. I forgot how small they start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H.K.Luterman Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 When I was quarantining my catfish, I put hornwort from my 29 into the bin, for cover and water quality. Weeks later, the catfish was done with quarantine and I was breaking down the tank. Just as I went to dump out the last bit of water, I noticed little wiggling things in the mulm: BABIES. I panicked, and managed to get them out, putting them in my snail tank. Within a week or two they grew into little baby panda cories. There must have been eggs in the hornwort I didn't see, and they hatched and somehow survived being in the bin with the catfish! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted July 21, 2020 Author Share Posted July 21, 2020 50 minutes ago, H.K.Luterman said: ...There must have been eggs in the hornwort I didn't see, and they hatched and somehow survived being in the bin with the catfish! A lot of accidental breeding seems to involve hornwort! Like @Lynze who has a love/hate relationship with java moss, I have a love/hate relationship with hornwort, probably more on the love side. As @H.K.Luterman notes above it makes great cover for tanks without lids, helps with water quality, and is a good hiding place for so many kinds of fry. It is where my pygmy sunfish always like to nest. The only downside is that is grows like crazy in all kinds of water in all kinds of lighting conditions! I have composted my fair share. Now, if I could only start a business based on hornwort production I would have a very sweet retirement plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted July 21, 2020 Administrators Share Posted July 21, 2020 This happened to me while filming on Sunday. While filming in my fish room you get to see me freak out real time on camera from finding Albino Kribensis babies. In another post on the forum I mentioned how this pair would just not breed for me after like 4+ months. Even though I’ve bred them before, I still get really excited for new fry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sliceofnature Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 @Daniel its crazy to think just how much is going on in these little ecosystems we create that we are unaware of. Thats what really fascinates me about this hobby, you never know what to expect or what might have changed since last time you looked into that tank. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcalberto Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 I have a tank with 9 congo tetras and they seem to breed at least a couple of times a week. I've even manage to catch them in video while releasing eggs and sperm into the water Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy's Fish Den Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 I had a tank that I had a group of praecox rainbows in as well as some aspidorus spilotus to grow out. I had a spawning mop for the rainbows in the tank, left it in tank for a week. I took the mop out and put in a separate tank to hatch, which I started seeing little fry swimming after a few days. A week later, I could tell they were aspidorus fry and not the rainbows I was wanting to spawn. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted July 22, 2020 Author Share Posted July 22, 2020 On 7/21/2020 at 9:56 AM, Hamaquatics said: Based on when I had Guppies in the past, probably once to twice a month since there are 4 females and 1 male. My surprise this time was the females were newly purchased and did not look big enough to produce fry as yet. I forgot how small they start. Exactly, I definitely underestimated how small they start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted July 22, 2020 Administrators Share Posted July 22, 2020 I think this happens quite frequently. I found new fry yesterday I didn’t know I had. I think it happens to me a lot cause I’m busy. When I’m in tune with the fish room not as many surprises. But I kinda set it up so I do get the surprises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 My wife just told me we have brand new Red Wag Platy fry today. I didn't think the female would drop fry for another week or so but sure enough there's little babies the size of a grain of rice. New fry are always a pleasant surprise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandra Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 I just happened to me too with my guppy tank. Two days back I had my new 29 gallon which was cycling and to my surprise, I found a Golden wonder Killie fish fry survive. I was so happy and the fry is doing so good. I'm new to this hobby but this hobby keeps giving me new surprises every day. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wmarian Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 Found three daisy rice fish fry in the daphnia/scud culture bin. I had put an algae covered plant in there for scud clean up...and apparently it was carrying a few eggs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andres Cordero Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 I think that a stable tank its a lot better than an unstable tank with the books parameters. Soo maybe thats the key to success Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikeg Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 I just found a baby panda cory cat that hid long enough in my 55 gallon to not get eaten. It's crazy because I remove and raise lots of eggs from that tank but it's always my Albinos. Would have loved to have found the panda eggs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForestJenn Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 We started up a 10-gallon tank for cherry shrimp and added some chili rasboras as well. I knew they were egg scatterers and assumed that we'd never see any fry. But lo and behold, we spotted a tiny litty fry swimming around near the surface in the tank. I can only assume that all of the cover we added for the shrimp allowed this one little guy to survive. I happened to have some Sera Micron growth food on hand. So I was actually prepared for once! It turns out that the rasboras love the stuff as well so at least I'm not over-feeding the tank trying to get food to one fry. 😛 Unfortunately, no pictures. He's super tiny! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrostiesFishes Posted September 23, 2020 Share Posted September 23, 2020 (edited) It happens often and Is also a matter of timing. For example I can tell when My angelfish are going to lay eggs by the breeding tubes and check daily. But I’ve seen a fat female, with her egg tube out then the next day the same fish skinny But no eggs. The obvious answer is they were eatin within my two inspections. If you aren’t keyed into this stuff you’d never even know it happened. Edited September 23, 2020 by FrostiesFishes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nataku Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 Yes I suspect there's more breeding going on in my tanks even than what I catch. And I know at least in the last week I've seen two different tanks have angels spawn, the bronze corydoras have laid eggs, and I've caught the congo tetras spawning. Oh and the rainbowfish are doing their dance every morning because its a big enough school that someone always has eggs but thats just rainbows. Am I actively trying to raise babies of any of these fish? Not right now. So they are being left in community tanks and eggs are getting eaten. Any eggs that make it to fry are also getting eaten. But could some fry make it? Maybe. I mean a few make it in nature so I gotta figure the odds aren't horrific when the adults are being kept fat and happy being fed daily in home aquaria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Smith Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 Just discovered clown killi fry in my nano-pond tonight! Wasn't sure it was going to happen, but so exciting! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 Is that brilliant photo lit with those underwater lights you installed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Smith Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Streetwise said: Is that brilliant photo lit with those underwater lights you installed? Yep, single pond light just below the surface, aimed diagonally down. My SUBARU thread covers the installation. No other lighting. I now prefer checking my ponds at night. Edited September 24, 2020 by Bill Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I was away for the weekend. So naturally this happened. Anyone know with Acaras, who guards the young, the male or the female? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nana Finopolis Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 (edited) They can be sneaky little buggers. https://youtu.be/ORnFumpP5x0 Edited January 25, 2021 by Dice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now