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Old 01/10/2008, 10:13 PM
carlso63 carlso63 is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Lehi, Utah
Posts: 453
01/07/2008

1 Month Old

The fry are now 1 month old and eat frozen Cyclopeeze for the most part - with occasional feedings of live baby brine (when I remember to start a culture) and I have even offered some crumbled flake food a few times. Some of the fry ate the flake, some just ignored it.

In recent news - I have started to sell of this brood of babies already. While I would have liked to have waited a bit longer to allow them to grow larger, I need the nursery tank for the next brood - which is due anytime after the 12th of January (probably around the 16th or so)...

Here is the most recent pic I have:



That photo was taken by one of our local Aqurium Club members... she bought a pair of the babies (as have several others). Of the 12, I only have 6 left in the nursery; the others have all found new homes. The remaining 6 fish are already spoken for, and all will be gone by the 12th...

She also got a good shot of the (once again) expectant parents, who still, even now, spend most of their time alongside the nursery tank keeping watch on the first brood:



Once again you can clearly see the males expanded throat "pouch"... BTW, after he releases the fry it very quickly goes back to the normal size and then it becomes more difficult to tell the male and female apart at a quick glance.

I charged $15 each for these fish; which I felt was a more than fair price for tank-raised juveniles. Here in Utah wild-caught adults go for between $19 - $29 each, depending on the LFS you patronize.

I already have 4 more requests (for 2 babies each) from this next brood. This time I will isolate the male after he releases, to allow him more time to recuperate from his month of starvation, and also that will mean a longer time between spawns so I can keep the 2nd brood in the nursery tank longer before I let those be sold off.

At this time I have no plans on keeping any of the babies... yes, they are very cute - but I am happy with just keeping the mated pair of adults for now.

I will update this journal this weekend (January 12 - 13) when I will be returning the male to the nursery tank for "Round Two" - as soon as the last of the first brood leaves my house sometime this Saturday...

My wife says she is sad to see them go, as she has gotten attached to them since she took care of a majority of their feedings while I am working... they seem to almost "recognize" her face and swim to the front glass quickly whenever she looks into their tank...

I told her she won't have much time to miss them - as the next brood could be out and about within a few days of saying goodbye to the last from the first bunch
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