51 replies to this topic

[tranced]

thats one awe inspiring tank youve got there

[Den]

I thought the recent spawn was infertile because the female kept driving the male away from the eggs, he did manage a few fast passes over the eggs, so fast that I didnt think it was enough time to allow him to spill his beans. The eggs looked infertile and I watched fungus creep over them, however I was wrong, last night I noticed the female collecting fry and seperating them from the fungised eggs and spitting them in a pile.

I syphoned out 365 wrigglers today, had to individually pick them out of the soot and gravel using a little syringe thingy, so thats why I could count them, it took bloody hours.

Hopefully some will survive, I heard they are hard to raise, I put them in a fry tank using the same water they came out of, Im slowly cranking the temp to 30C to prevent whitespot which Ive heard they are prone to getting. I also have baby brine shrimp hatching in next 48hrs in case they dont like powdered food.

Cheers
Den

[ice]

Congrats mate, that's awesome news! Cant wait to see pictures of them as they grow

[Bowdy]

Awesome den. Fingers crossed for ya mate

[jslayz]

Good luck Den, great effort to get this far.

J

[dazzabozza]

Top stuff Den. You don't really see many of these around Perth for sale especially juvies hey??

Daz

[TWiST]

good luck man, they are very tempermental at that size, the biggest one tends to choke on the smallest one so you need several tanks to keep seperating the more dominent (larger ones) the guy i got them from said it was a nightmare he had 3-4 tanks with different size fingerlings in them

they were three cm when i got them all and i started off with alot more the 5, i was a bit inexpericenced when i first got them tho

[ruffaz]

congrats mate the biggest mistake people make is not feeding them anough when they can get worms in to them expect about 30 then about half of them will kark it unless you can spend 12 hours a day with the little terrors they need soft sand to burry them selfs in to as larve

[Matty77]

Hey mate could you please let me know if some are for sale when they are alittle bigger?

[Den]

Thanks everyone, I will try my best to raise them, especially since they seem to be getting rare in the hobby and it would be very sad to loose them, if they survive I will set up the tanks needed and I work from my home office so I can give them attention all day, fingers crossed!

Cheers
Den

[Den]

these fry are difficult to raise, Ive been feeding them at least 1-2 times every hour with bbs & powdered food and I still expect to loose at least 25% of them to what looks like starvation, about 10-15% have already wasted away and died, and about another 5-10% look small and weak, but the rest of the fry are more than double in size and looking strong.

I suspect part of the problem is that some of them will not eat the sera micron and the hikari first bites powdered foods, I also dont think that the bbs are nutritious enough even though Im trying my best to ensure they are getting them freshly hatched with yoke sack attached, I was thinking to start them on micro worms but cant find any around,

anyone know a place where I can get live food suitable for small fry?

Cheers
Den

[Terry]

I bred these fish in 2004 and as you have found out raising them is the hard part. Keep the fry in a small container at first so that the food is there for them, if they have to hunt they will lose condition. Their first food should be BBS fed to them as often as needed, the frys stomach should be full and glowing pink with the BBS, as they grow start feeding crushed high protein pellets this will give them a taste for pellets when they are adults, this is very important because weaning them off live food will be difficult. Start mass producing feeder fish, I did it with angel fish if you can get hold of hybrids:) it would be better. Feed the feeders with BBS as soon as they have eaten the BBS give the feeders to the fry. When they are about 3 cm you can start feeding them guppies, feed the guppies first with crushed high protein pellets.The guppies must be less than 1/3 the size of the monoculus. Now the hard part starts, the biggest fry will eat the smaller ones so you have to grade them about every 5 days.
I have seen a 1 inch fish choke on a 3/4 inch sibling resulting in the loss of both fish. And on a brighter note when they are adults they will have developed a taste for FH and I would recomend to people that they be kept together.
You will need heaps of BBS. The pics show my BBS hatchery and a small tank with monoculus fry.Take note of the low water level vacuum the bottom daily and gradually raise the water as the fry grow.

Good luck with them

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[highlucks]

if you can get hold of hybrids:) it would be better.

No shortage of them at Den's Place Sorry I could not resist,

Good luck with raising the fry mate.

[Den]

Thanks heaps Terry, can I ask what brand of BBS eggs you use and where you get them from? I cant see any shells, so Im guessing that your using decapusated? I cant find any.

BTW heres some photos to cheer you up,

[Terry]

Lovely pics its obvious the peacocks had a poor start to life.

I buy Salt Creek select brine shrimp eggs from an eastern state supplier, hatch rate is about 90%. I decapsulate them myself, I usually only sell to shops but since you are useing them to condition those terrible monsters for feeding I will bend the rules for you. My current stock of BS eggs is 2.7kg how many would you like, I can decapsulate them if you want.

[werdna]

Wow, thats what a club is about People helping each other out!

Just out of curiosity, how do you decapsulate BS eggs Terry?

Andrew

[Terry]

I have a very small egg cup, place the egg in the cup and hold it in your left hand, using a matching very small Knife..........

[Terry]

Sorry couldn't resist
The eggs are pre soaked in water then chlorine is added stir gently for about 10 minutes then rinse the eggs until you can't smell chlorine. Put the eggs into a very brine solution and store in your fridge. They will be viable for about 3 months after that the hatch rate will drop.
If enough interest is shown I will give a demo at a PCS meeting, there is a video in the library that Ronda and I made about 10 years ago

[Den]

I have a very small egg cup, place the egg in the cup and hold it in your left hand, using a matching very small Knife..........

That would be awesome Terry, I'll send you a PM to discuss further.

Cheers
Den

[Terry]

Lovely pics its obvious the peacocks had a poor start to life.

This comment is not about the quality of Den's fish, they are as good as you can get and Den should be very proud of them.
I am refering to the fact that they do not eat FH so they were not trained properly when young.