South American Paludarium Build

[fishorama]

Lots of fry now!

I did notice there were varying shades of egg colors in your red dot pic. From tan to paler to off white to white with a slight grayish middle & then a white I'd call just plain really white. It's great to know there's always hope. I never cull eggs unless really fuzzy, they usually get eaten in community tanks but I love surprise fry. You have some less usual species & a definite knack for spawning them.

Keep the baby pics coming, so cute whatever they turn out to be.

 

[NoodleCats]

Flippy is doing good, healing up very well.


She posed very nice for a photo for me too


Fry first food today, and a little sand from the parent tank

 

[fishorama]

Flippy is looking better & better! I noticed she posed with her good side showing, head up, fins nicely spread. She's a natural!

Is it just me or do I see tiny saddles on a couple fry already? LOL, I know many cory fry can look pretty much like that. It'll be exciting to see what they turn out to be.

 

[NoodleCats]

Flippy is looking better & better! I noticed she posed with her good side showing, head up, fins nicely spread. She's a natural!

Is it just me or do I see tiny saddles on a couple fry already? LOL, I know many cory fry can look pretty much like that. It'll be exciting to see what they turn out to be.

I've got photos of 7 day old fry off Google and planet cat to compare once they're bigger.

Screenshots of the images I'll be referencing to make a guess.
If they're splendens, I'll know for certain soon, that dorsal they start getting is unmistakable



But, can only wonder before they start changing. They all look very similar at this age, few look different (pygmies are one that look extremely different straight from hatching)

That said, I'm leaning towards splendens thus far. The dark marks past the bigger dark mark are suspicious.


As for Flippy, I know shes your average wild coloured bristlenose, but something just really appealing about the traditional colouration. Shes a very nice looking fish.

 

[fishorama]

I prefer natural looking fish too. Less into long fins, albinos or color variations, but that's just me.

I'm going to early guess the fry are not loxos. Thanks for the b. spendens fry pics, those dorsal fins are pretty distictive...& cute! You should know soon-ish. What, another week or 2? I'm still kinda hoping they're eques...but what do I know? Either way it's very cool! I tend to distrust google pics more than PC but we do the best we can based on limited data. Your fry will help ID them better, keep taking lots of pics so we all learn

 

[NoodleCats]

I prefer natural looking fish too. Less into long fins, albinos or color variations, but that's just me.

I'm going to early guess the fry are not loxos. Thanks for the b. spendens fry pics, those dorsal fins are pretty distictive...& cute! You should know soon-ish. What, another week or 2? I'm still kinda hoping they're eques...but what do I know? Either way it's very cool! I tend to distrust google pics more than PC but we do the best we can based on limited data. Your fry will help ID them better, keep taking lots of pics so we all learn

I am fussy on the google images, I will check what site they're from to verify if they're accurate or not. Scotcat is a good source.

Flickr, not so much as its whatever the owner of the account uploads. But, its a tricky one to locate, despite its apparent ease of breeding--loxozonus.


I would automatically rule out loxozonus to begin with anyways, just because of the number of eggs and none of my loxo girls were showing any signs of even carrying eggs. No bulk, nothing. Trim corydoras lol

112 eggs for a 1.2" fish that isnt even showing signs of being gravid is a little bit of a reach imo.

My splendens weren't porky, but have seen breeding tendencies from them. If splendens, this would be a small amount of eggs apparently. Heavy layers according to most reports--but, given my brochis still aren't full sized (they're just passing 2.5-3" tops), and it being a first spawn, a smaller number of eggs isnt abnormal and this would be within reason for them.


Now the eques, all the ladies have been fat. Very rotund. I've had some folks joke and tell me they look like balloon eques lol
They're not as fat as they have been, but same time I been on the "dry season" diet of less food portions and a fasting day 1-2 times a week.

Did they slim down due to it being the dry season in my tank, or did they lay eggs?
Too soon to tell haha


But I'd still be hoping some make it, as I want to keep some to up my shoals--whichever they wind up being. But especially splendens as I only have 5 of them and would love to boost them to 8

 

[NoodleCats]

I topped up some sand, some spots were thinner than I liked. Also added a cheap light to darker side for viewing. It doesn't light it up a lot, but just enough to highlight the branch tangles on that side.



It is unfortunate to say that none of the fry made it. Likely a temperature issue as we dropped temperatures like crazy this week the day before they all dropped. Or, simply just unlucky. Either way, it is what it is, I hope to try again if they spawn again.

Temps dropped from 86F to 61F in one day.

I've been sitting no heaters all summer because the heat was nuts, then boom fall hits and summer comes to an abrupt end.

 

[NoodleCats]

Just a very relaxing tank to watch

Some pics

 

[NoodleCats]

Added more leaf litter--its that time of year again!

 

[dudley]

Do you save fallen leaves for use throughout the year?