I was very lucky and managed to film every step of the spawning process with my most recent spawn. One of the most beautiful events you can watch in the fish keeping world!
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My friend Joep wants to push our FaceBook group discussions towards genetics, which I am 100% all for! Since I am contemplating which pair to spawn next, I decided to turn it into an exercise :) This short video is for practicing - watch the video, decide which male you would spawn to the female, and, most importantly, WRITE DOWN WHY you would! Remember that I spawn to both the IBC and the B4A standards :) The reason I did a video instead of photographs, and also why I was super lazy and didn't take them out of their home jars, is because you need to develop the judging eye to be fast and accurate - even while the fish is in motion, the water is stained with IAL, and the lighting is bad. Practice makes perfect! I had SO much fun livestreaming that I decided to do it again the next day. I really can't make this a habit! It's just too addicting! Anyways, I do want to start "Q&A Demonstrations" - that is, in the livestream I will be doing something, and then people in the chat can ask questions and I will answer them as I get to them. I again had technical issues (skip to 12:00 minutes in lol) but otherwise I thought it went well. It was really fun to share some of my fish room doodling with other fish addicts on a Saturday afternoon :) Woohoo! Time to see my family in the Philippines for the holidays! Only drawback? None of my animals and plants can come with us :( Since we are gone for a pretty long time (longer than 2 weeks) I dropped my lizards off at a boarding facility and also spent a lot of time preparing my fish for vacation. I wouldn't recommend asking someone to take care of your fish unless you are gone for longer than a week and a half AND they are an experienced fish person you know you can trust (in this case, my friend that is taking care of my fish is a WAY better breeder than I am). It all comes down to how well you know your fish! Major things to consider: 1) If you know you are going to be gone for a long time, PLAN AHEAD. Don't spawn fish and have tiny, vulnerable fry in your tanks right before you leave! (Unless it's unavoidable/unplanned, then you have no choice). If someone is looking after your fish, all fish should be able to eat the easiest to measure food possible, like dry pellets with a measuring spoon. Put fish in the largest volume tanks they can be in with tankmates that you know will be peaceful pairings. The larger the volume = the more stable the water parameters. 2) Make the last major changes at least 2 days before you leave. This gives your fish time to settle down so you can observe their real behavior before you go. If someone is taking care of your fish, you can accurately measure out exactly how much you want them to feed. 3) Water changes at least a day before you leave. These don't have to be major ones. Again, you need at least a day so you can observe your fish. 4) Don't overfeed the fish! If you have been taking care of your fish well, then they don't need any help surviving a week without food! 5) If someone is taking care of your fish, leave EXPLICIT, SPECIFIC instructions on both paper AND on the tanks. I use bright yellow tags as tank ID's and blue painter's tape for instructions so that everything stands out very easily. 6) Put everything on timers. Seriously, it makes everything so much easier (even when you aren't on vacation). Some people recommend dimming the lights, shortening the light cycle, cooling the temperature, etc. etc. I like to keep everything exactly the same. It's up to you if you want to experiment trying to slow down their metabolism. I just find it easier not to change anything that I don't absolutely have to. Happy Holidays Everyone! Due to copyright issues with the music I embedded into the previous upload (sigh...always check copyright law) I had to re-upload this video. Totally worth it though! Jim specializes in Nothobranchius killifish, which are gorgeous peat spawners that have a significant incubation time. An engineer at heart, Jim has streamlined his entire fish room for both effectiveness and efficiency. I learned a LOT from him! Thanks Jim! Menu:
1:38 Nothobranchius kilomboriensis TAN 95-4 2:26 Nothobranchius guentheri Zanzibar 3:34 Lucania goodei 4:26 Fundulopanchex filamentosus Majideen 5:35 Procatopus similis 6:52 Uneven Male:Female Ratios 8:01 Fundulus chrysotus 9:18 Fundulus lineolatus 10:50 Soft water fish 11:35 Aphyosemion australe 12:17 Pseudepiplatys annulatus 13:47 Aphyosemion splendopeure Ikondo Titi 14:13 Rivulus mahdiaensis GUY 06-4 15:56 Fry Rack 17:08 Dripping in RO Water 18:13 Hard Water Treatment and Changing 20:56 Flubendazole 10% Prophylactic Treatment for Glugia (http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/FlubendazoleTreatment.pdf) 22:35 Baby Brine Shrimp 27:45 Incubating Eggs in Home-made Incubator 29:42 Hatching Eggs 32:00 Culturing Walter Worms 33:28 Cheap LED Lighting Some of the most common questions I get involve how to heat betta jars and tanks. Using Flex Watt heating tape makes heating many individual jars very easy! Multiple Flex Watt tapes can also be plugged into the same thermostat, giving you central control over all of your jars and tanks in one go. Check out the updated Spawning section for some new helpful videos! I use CCW plastic square jars, size SG (which is about 1 gallon). They can be heated effectively with one 4" strip of Flex Watt. I also heat 6 gallon square tanks, which fit perfectly on the 12" wide tape. The heating tape and accessories can be found at Big Apple Herp. My phone has such limited storage that it can really only hold one video at a time, so I have to upload it as soon as I make it. It really sucks, but hey, at least it makes me be more active! I know it seems like I'm doing a ton of things, but really, this is just a day in the life of my fish room is like. Just lots of little things :) Here I share some new cheap spawning caves (thanks Greg Jones and Cory for the tip!) and also baking soda for keeping my fish room smelling fresh.
Paramecium are a great food for your tiniest fry that can't eat BBS yet. I started using them for my Elassoma fry especially and have noticed a better survival rate. Quick and super easy to culture and harvest, I recommend these for anyone working with itty bitty fry! The one I culture is Paramecium aurelia, which is the smallest one you can get. San Francisco Bay Area Killifish Association did a group buy on a culture from Carolina Biological Supply, which we distributed among members in the club. Remember, always try to get multiple people culturing live foods just in case yours crash ;) Enjoy! Another easy and quick fish keeping tip! I made some new grindal and white worm cultures for a killifish friend that was visiting from SoCal this weekend. Always share your cultures! That way you can ask for them back in case they crash :p Wow! I've been on a roll with this short videos. YouTube Capture app is awesome because I can quickly shoot videos when I'm just hanging out in my fish room like I would normally do. It's wonderful that I get to share more of my every day activities with you guys! Here I share the way that I hatch Baby Brine Shrimp. It takes less than 10 minutes a day. The easier it is, the more likely you are to do it :) Cheers! |
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