fishguy1978
Legendary Member
Feeding on microworms and some cyclopseze coral food. All were free swimming as of last night.
Geophagus sp.
- Thread starter fishguy1978
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fishguy1978
Legendary Member
Day 5 in the fry container
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
Very cool. Are you counting day 1 as the day the eggs were laid? I'd like to see pics/video of these at 4 weeks after that, to compare them to the size of mouthbrooder fry upon release. I'd expect them to be smaller, as mouthbrooder females invest much more germ plasm per egg.
Looks like you've had really good fry survival, so congrats on that!
Looks like you've had really good fry survival, so congrats on that!
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
Hatch day is what I am counting from.Very cool. Are you counting day 1 as the day the eggs were laid? I'd like to see pics/video of these at 4 weeks after that, to compare them to the size of mouthbrooder fry upon release. I'd expect them to be smaller, as mouthbrooder females invest much more germ plasm per egg.
Looks like you've had really good fry survival, so congrats on that!
What do you mean by 'hatch'? Wriggler? Free swimming? Yolk sac absorption? All important stages in the developmental clock, but egg laying is the only day that is totally unambiguous.
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
Wriggler, eggs took 3 days to hatch. Spawn was 21MAR so 3 weeks either way.
Great; that's what I thought. Could you post s pic of them next weekend, closeup if possible? I've been wanting to do this comparison for a while. It would be even better within the genus Geophagus, which contains both maternal and biparental mouthbrooders as well as substrate spawners, but this will do for now. Thanks!
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
They won't sit still
They look like they are doing well
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
2nd spawn
This is the evolutionary strategy of substrate spawners- produce a ton of fry, and four weeks later, do it all over again. At this point a mouthbrooder would be just getting ready to release batch #1. Granted, some of the more primitive mouthbrooders produce lots of fry, but the the more advanced (in evolutionary terms) mouthbrooders produce relatively few fry; in Tropheus, perhaps only 4-6 per brood. This is counterbalanced by fry survival. Just two of many different strategies for preserving the germ line, which is the whole point.
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
Starting to see eyes and duds. Duds are on the edges of the spawn where milt would be in loser concentration.
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fishguy1978
Legendary Member
We often choose where we live based on distance to the nearest grocery store as that is our way of sourcing food. My striped rafael has just had a farmers market move into the area. 
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
1st group update: 3 casualties, 2 were from the sponge getting clogged and the fry tank overflowing. The little pump I was using was inducing a voltage into the tank. Figured that out by hand feeding thawed krill and having a small cut on my finger.
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
Second spawn are now free swimming but hug the bottom of the tank down amongst the small stones. The adults have pretty much removed all the gravel from the end of the tank and have moved the fry almost every day since hatch.
fishguy1978
Legendary Member
First batch