alright so not entirely an exciting update. but an update nonetheless.
day 77
i have three of the original fry left. about two weeks ago, during the course of 12 days i lost two of the five little guys. the only thing i can think of for their sudden demise was aggression. there is one fish who is growing far more rapidly than the others, and i suspect this fish bullied the other two to death. so i separated the weakest of the three, and so far, no more tattered fins or aggressive behavior from the largest guy. sort of bizarre really.
forgive the photography, but theyre impossible to take pictures of. this is the best i could do, but at least the mass and shape of the fish is easy to discern in comparison to previous pictures.
growth seems to have picked up a bit these last two weeks. theyre only getting flakes at this point, a mashed up composite of cyclopeeze and spirulina. the three of them are between 1/2 and 3/4 of an inch at this point.
beyond that, i took about a four week hiatus from the active rearing process. surprisingly enough life got in the way of my hobby for a bit. and after two nests with a 100% mortality in the first few days, i put it all on hold.
however, as of now i have about 20 fry who are about 8 days old now. i decided to add an established sponge filter to the tank, and it has helped tremendously with water quality. the next nest hatches wednesday evening, and i will try a sponge filter/1.025 salinity combo to see what happens, instead of lowering the salinity to 1.020 on the second day as ive done in the past.
so there you have it. any suggestions on foods or any other aspect of this im neglecting?
thanks again everyone for your help.