Correction: Chinese hillstream loach, not Borneo loach fry

[Epiphanaea]

So that was easier than anticipated.  

 

I don’t know if these are gastromyzon or pseudogastromyzon, and I discovered them because I disturbed them while vacuuming the gravel!  I had not even entertained the possibility that there could be fry yet.  Hopefully I didn’t suck up any.  
 

It seems more likely they are pseudogastromyzon, since there are more records of those breeding in captivity, but I can’t find pics online of either at this stage so who knows?  
 

They’re about 4mm, and hanging out under the sponge covering the filter intake, so very high flow area.  Food and waste also collect there.  That end of the tank is also likely a little warmer, as the larger filter generates some heat.  Room temp is around 70F, tank is probably a degree or two warmer due to the filter - did I mention I wasn’t watching this all that closely yet?

 I only have dipstick readings, I just did a water change, and I was trying to get the pH and mineral content in general up, since that seems to be key to keeping these guys happy.  Per my dipsticks, pH 6.8 - 7, GH 25, KH 40, TA 40 - but again, those are all lower than intended and lower than I had been keeping the tank / the quarantine tank they were in before generally.  Based on what I sucked out of the gravel and the presence of detritus worms, I was overfeeding, plus *so many bladder snails* all pooping, so that was messing things up.

 

The adults getting mostly spirulina flakes, and frozen daphnia a couple times a week.  Algae is just starting to take off in the tank, no idea on species - some mossy stuff, some hairy stuff.  Tank was infused with whatever random infusoria I’ve been culturing from a local pond, the microscope I ordered from Amazon sucked and is being returned, so again I am clueless, but I can see cyclops and there were scuds in the culture jar.  I didn’t introduce any visible scuds and haven’t seen any, but microscopic fry are a possibility.  There are an abundance of bladder snails, breeding as they do, so plenty of newly hatched snails to munch on if they’re into that.  I also have ghost shrimp in the tank, one of which was pregnant with eggs developing nicely, but then no fry.  They could have failed to hatch, but they also could have been eaten by the loach fry - I think probably not, they’d be too big, but it’s possible.  
 

So. Yeah.  I fail as a scientific observer, because what the heck, fish, you’re supposed to be hard to breed and it’s been less than a month!  But, fish babies.

Edited April 11 by Epiphanaea

[Tlindsey]

On 4/10/2024 at 5:14 AM, Epiphanaea said:

So that was easier than anticipated.  

 

I don’t know if these are gastromyzon or pseudogastromyzon, and I discovered them because I disturbed them while vacuuming the gravel!  I had not even entertained the possibility that there could be fry yet.  Hopefully I didn’t suck up any.  
 

It seems more likely they are pseudogastromyzon, since there are more records of those breeding in captivity, but I can’t find pics online of either at this stage so who knows?  
 

They’re about 4mm, and hanging out under the sponge covering the filter intake, so very high flow area.  Food and waste also collect there.  That end of the tank is also likely a little warmer, as the larger filter generates some heat.  Room temp is around 70F, tank is probably a degree or two warmer due to the filter - did I mention I wasn’t watching this all that closely yet?

 I only have dipstick readings, I just did a water change, and I was trying to get the pH and mineral content in general up, since that seems to be key to keeping these guys happy.  Per my dipsticks, pH 6.8 - 7, GH 25, KH 40, TA 40 - but again, those are all lower than intended and lower than I had been keeping the tank / the quarantine tank they were in before generally.  Based on what I sucked out of the gravel and the presence of detritus worms, I was overfeeding, plus *so many bladder snails* all pooping, so that was messing things up.

 

The adults getting mostly spirulina flakes, and frozen daphnia a couple times a week.  Algae is just starting to take off in the tank, no idea on species - some mossy stuff, some hairy stuff.  Tank was infused with whatever random infusoria I’ve been culturing from a local pond, the microscope I ordered from Amazon sucked and is being returned, so again I am clueless, but I can see cyclops and there were scuds in the culture jar.  I didn’t introduce any visible scuds and haven’t seen any, but microscopic fry are a possibility.  There are an abundance of bladder snails, breeding as they do, so plenty of newly hatched snails to munch on if they’re into that.  I also have ghost shrimp in the tank, one of which was pregnant with eggs developing nicely, but then no fry.  They could have failed to hatch, but they also could have been eaten by the loach fry - I think probably not, they’d be too big, but it’s possible.  
 

So. Yeah.  I fail as a scientific observer, because what the heck, fish, you’re supposed to be hard to breed and it’s been less than a month!  But, fish babies.

Congrats to be honest never kept hillstream loaches but apparently the environment is ideal for them to spawn. Looks like the fry is definitely finding food. @Epiphanaea

[jwcarlson]

Suprise fry are always great!  It's interesting how different the fry look from the parents.  I've got one little borneo sucker and that fry doesn't even look like it has all the fins the adults have.  

[Epiphanaea]

On 4/11/2024 at 12:29 PM, jwcarlson said:

Suprise fry are always great!  It's interesting how different the fry look from the parents.  I've got one little borneo sucker and that fry doesn't even look like it has all the fins the adults have.  

After some more digging online, it is almost certainly pseudogastromyzon, of which I have two species, 3 of one and 1 of another.  The group of three were acquired because I thought they were a gastromyzon species, and the singular one because he(?) didn’t look like any fish I’d seen before and was all kinds of distressed in the store.  
 

I’m pretty sure the solo fish is pseudogastromyzon changtingensis, while the others look vaguely like several species and exactly like none.  I think they look kind of like the offspring of a Jurassic Park style velociraptor and a slug, and have been referring to them as such, but this is not a formal designation.  
 

The fry look most like the changtingensis, but - there’s one of those?  And they’re not livebearers, so couldn’t have come to me already pregnant.  Which leave hybridization or parthenogenesis. Or them being the other species, of course.  We’ll see.

I have half of the pseudogastromyzon moved into a different tank because they were bullying the gastromyzon, and those are what I really intended to breed.  Half because the little bleeps are impossible to catch.  

The possible parents - one of which is hanging out near the fry, and I’m not sure if I’m seeing parenting or attempted cannibalism.  There are only a few fry.  
 

This is Sesame (like Sesame Street, because one of these things is not like the other ones):

 

And these are some of the unnamed ‘triplets’, aka the velociraptor slugs, who I can’t tell apart most of the time:

 

[jwcarlson]

Those are beautiful and they look quite different than mine... so they do look a lot more like your fry.  The proportions seem quite different compared to mine.  Or at least I think they do.  Mine is a lot darker.

[Epiphanaea]

On 4/11/2024 at 2:11 PM, jwcarlson said:

Those are beautiful and they look quite different than mine... so they do look a lot more like your fry.  The proportions seem quite different compared to mine.  Or at least I think they do.  Mine is a lot darker.

Yup, I need to correct the post title.  Yours are what I intend to breed, the ones above are the result of a long yet boring story that can be abbreviated to “I am a sap and hate dealing with unfriendly salespeople.”

I have some like yours too, they were all in one tank, the skinnier ones were bullying the flatter ones, I was trying to separate them and surprise, fry!  
 

The one, single, solitary description of gastromyzon fry I could find said they do start out cylindrical so I wasn’t positive - but I found some video of pseudogastromyzon fry and they’re identical to what I’ve got.

[jwcarlson]

I think you've got better ones that I do.  Or at least I like yours more!

[Epiphanaea]

On 4/11/2024 at 2:35 PM, jwcarlson said:

I think you've got better ones that I do.  Or at least I like yours more!

LOL, well, if these fry survive, there will be available velociraptor slugs in a few months.

[Epiphanaea]

And besides, I love my little spotted nom-noms (yes, I like nicknaming things).

[Epiphanaea]