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The saga of N. Guentheri...


Soothing Shrimp

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Lol that I understand. I was that age once, it's good for them. But I realized the past couple of weeks while I was in the break room at work.... Technology is taking over personal conversations. Everyone was on there phone and no one was talking with 7 people in the room.

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Okay here's some pics as of today.  The male is aggressive and has nipped some fin away from one of teh fem's tails, but he one of the prettiest fish I've ever seen.  I only see one.  Very easy to tell the difference between male and fem as you can see.  I also think I've seen some eggs already laid on the bottom of the bare bottom tank.  So probibly breeding already.

 

Male views:

gallery_2_31_21449.jpg

gallery_2_31_43116.jpg

 

A fem:

gallery_2_31_30296.jpg

 

Late maturity? Belly sliders right now:

gallery_2_31_38364.jpg

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I don't have green water. I have a powder you put in the water to inocculate it. Ita a mix of spirulina and some other stuff.

green water is easy to make. Just put a high light on water on all the time and put a piece of decaying plant matter from your tnk in it.

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So some belly slider males are starting to get colors in the small tank now.

 

While trying to figure out why I have 4 that swim and are large (1 male, 3 fem), and the rest belly sliders, I ran across this interesting post.  Here's a segment of it dealing with killies:

 

"The main reason why bellysliders are found in killifishes is because the embryo has developed in the egg, but it actually is not a mature fish yet. What one does is one dries out killi eggs such Nothobranchius and one puts them into peat so that they can develop slowly but surely and when they have fully developed, then one puts them into water and they can hatch and grow and become normal fishes. Now when we look at killi eggs that have been incubated in peat, then we sort of assume they are ready for hatching, add water and they hatch, but often they have actually not sufficiently developed yet. When this happens the swimbladder often has not developed enough and even if the fish hatches, the swimbladder cannot inflate, it just simply has not developed yet. The tiny fry cannot catch up and it remains a belly slider, and you cannot do anything about it. You have added water to the eggs too early and they cannot swim normally and grow normally, and will eventually die. This has nothing to do with bacteria it has to do with being able to identify when the eggs have developed enough to be hatched. Experienced killi keepers know when to do this, when you are a beginner you make mistakes and you can have all fry that hatch being bellysliders and this then means they will all die."  http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?14952-Belly-Sliders&s=9a407e2ff1f68c05fd5bf8daadf2e616&p=202050&viewfull=1#post202050

 

Makes sense, especially since the belly sliders are much smaller in size.  They hatched, but developmentally they weren't far enough along to inflate their swimbladders.

 

It states they will die, but mine haven't.  Perhaps I'm doing too much care and they are surviving?

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Having the bellysliders, I going to have to disagree with the article as far as being doomed.  They actually look very healthy and maturing nicely.  They just swim along the bottom like a pleco. heh

 

I just did a quick count in my small tank, and I think 3 of the bellysliders are maturing into males.  So, while they may not "fly," it is not genetic and they just hatched as premies basically.

 

Which means these belly sliders could still spawn.  :)

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That would be awesome! Keep taking photos and document everything, maybe you'll have a breakthrough in the killifish world too :)

 

The swim bladder may not have been the only affected organ, though, just the most obvious one. I wouldn't be surprised if they were more susceptible to infections due to a compromised immune system. Underweight neonates often don't make it for a variety of reasons, sadly.

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Although I have had a blast raising these, and the male is by far the most awesomely colorful fish I have ever had, I think I'll be selling these off to whomever wants to try their hand at breeding them and storing the eggs.  They should breed very very well, and all 3 flying fems look loaded with eggs.  Heck, I'd even include the bellysliders just for the tank room.

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