Well well well... look what I found in my plant trimming bucket.

[jwcarlson]

As you can see, this bucket is a catch all for plant trimmings and as the water evaporates I top it off at water change time from the tanks nearby (and it has its own light).  I've recently moved plants from QT into the bucket after it was occupied by pencilfish for three weeks.  And I've also pulled some plants from CPD jungle tank into here fairly recently.  It's unheated and I think the temp probably sits somewhere between 65 and 70.  

Which do you think these are?  It's almost got to be CPDs, but I have no idea how pencilfish lay their eggs so maybe it's likely that there would be eggs in a floating mat of hornwort.  I will say they are right at the surface, so I think that's one point for pencilfish.  I've never seen a CPD above the midpoint of the tank they're in unless I'm trying to net them. 

Just the two fry so far (both in first picture).

[ange]

Surprise babies in the bucket are one of the simple joys of the hobby. It's been awhile since I saw any.

[Comradovich]

While I don't have experience with either CPDs or Pencilfish, I will caution you that sometimes the fry of a particular species prefer the opposite end of the tank from their parents as a survival mechanism. For instance, my Tiger Teddys are top dwelling livebearers who spend all day in amongst my floating plants. Newly dropped fry head straight to the bottom of my tank and hang out in the driftwood and plantings there for awhile. They're not really fry eaters, but I figure the fry aren't taking any chances. That little guy's staying close to your plantings, which could potentially be either species's MO for fry.

Either way, congrats on your surprise!

[jwcarlson]

Well, they're big enough to eat baby brine.

[jwcarlson]

There's at least three fry in this bucket and it is teeming with little critters for them to eat.  

Pencilfish or CPD?

 

I am leaning hard to pencilfish based on body shape and markings.

Edited December 8, 2023 by jwcarlson

[Tlindsey]

On 12/7/2023 at 9:16 PM, jwcarlson said:

There's at least three fry in this bucket and it is teeming with little critters for them to eat.  

Pencilfish or CPD?

 

I am leaning hard to pencilfish based on body shape and markings.

@jwcarlson that's awesome!

[reefhugger]

On 11/20/2023 at 7:36 PM, jwcarlson said:

this bucket is a catch all for plant trimmings

A noobi-ish question....why do you keep the trimmings in the constantly renewed bucket?  I've tended to compost them.  Your post has me seeing I'm overlooking something.  Fun to see those babies...have you id'ed them?   Thanks.

[jwcarlson]

On 12/9/2023 at 3:53 AM, reefhugger said:

A noobi-ish question....why do you keep the trimmings in the constantly renewed bucket?  I've tended to compost them.  Your post has me seeing I'm overlooking something.  Fun to see those babies...have you id'ed them?   Thanks.

Mostly to populate new tanks with plants.  Or when cleaning out QT the plants can go in the bucket for awhile if there's any concern about disease.  At times there are no fish in QT, the whole bucket might end up in the QT tank.

I also feed trimmings or throw away pieces to our chickens.

[gardenman]

CPDs tend to spawn a lot, like daily, with each female laying twelve to twenty-five eggs per day. They're also voracious egg eaters and fry eaters which is why the world isn't overrun with CPDs. If I was betting, I'd say they were CPDs.

[smm333]

Awww! Suprise baby fish are the best! Congratulations!

[Shawnmrose1983911]

That’s the best kinda surprise congratulations