Are these blue smokey?

[Wendy]

I found these two lovely fish last week and put them in my community tank....no quarantine....I know I'm bad but the QT tank already has some other fish in it...so I took a risk. I think they might be blue smokey, can anyone confirm this please? Also they are laying eggs today....they are only about 5cm from nose to base of tail. One is definitely female coz she has layed eggs, the other one is acting like a male but doesnt seem to have any "equipment" on display. Considering their smallness I'm really surprised they have got this far and I doubt anything will come of the eggs considering the competition in the tank. The Male? is doing a good job of guarding, but I think thats all he(if he is a he) has figured out yet. Its great to watch them, the tank is in front of my desk and I am getting absolutely no work done!!!lol!!!

[Mattzilla]

yep

and they have some zebra in them... as you can see by the bar through the eye and the almost solid bar through the body

hard to tell from the pic of the male but i'd say it's probably a male. when it's breeding tube drops it will be thin and pointy.

good luck with them

[ILLUSN]

not to sure Matt, they look a little green ubder the pectral fins, might be regular smokeys?

what type of light do you have them under Wendy?

[Wendy]

The light is a Heto T5 HO 48Q I'm afraid I don't have much of a clue with lighting but this is what the LFS suggested. So far the plants are happy so that makes me happy...

Glad to hear about the zebra too Matt.... perhaps if they successfully breed I might get some blue zebras too...wouldn't that be great!! I think zebra is my favourite pattern.

They ate the eggs by the way, but hopefully they will grow a bit before they try it again.

[Mattzilla]

You'd probably get silver zebras with a blue sheen to them

[Wendy]

Excellent!!

[Wendy]

Well it seems I have definitely got a male and a female! They have been spawning every week or so in the community tank since I last posted and the eggs dissapear in there very quickly. 2 weeks ago I watched them trying desperately to save them and they had no chance against the much bigger other occupants of the tank....so I took pity on them and moved them to a smaller tank in the shed. They were a little timid by themselves and I was on the verge of bringing them back in to the big tank, but with xmas didn't get round to it. The day after xmas, I went to do the morning feed and the female was looking to lay eggs so I left them be and before long a pile of eggs was soon deposited. They have been dutifully tending them and today according to what I have read I can expect wrigglers. This morning there was still a healthy pile of eggs. I have just checked the tank and the eggs have dissapeared.....I thought "damn they must have eaten them......but they were hanging around a piece of rock in their tank and acting most concerned. So I looked carefully and I can see a teeny weeny tail wiggling along the edge....I think they have moved them to a new spot. I can't see properly as they are on the side of the rock that faces towards the back of the tank, but I am hoping that if I can see one tail there might be more!!

[Merrilyn]

Congratulations Wendy, that's great!

There's bound to be more than one baby. The parents are pretty good at hiding their young.

[Wendy]

Mum has moved some of the babies to the top of the rock now so I took a couple of pics, it seems there are quite a few! The white bits are just sand she has picked up with them.

I had to take Dad out this morning, mum was attacking him a lot and had even managed to damage one of his gill plates, poor guy, he's takin a breather now with some youngsters.

[Wendy]

Babies started swimming today....think I had a few dissapear and I think mum was eating them as they started to swim. So I moved her to another tank. I have been feeding microworms and have seen them snatch a few so I hope they will do OK. Also I have a brine shrimp hatchery started, but I'm a total noob with these...i'm just following instructions on this site....with fingers x'd.

[Wendy]

The babies are doing very well on a mix of microworms, baby brine shrimp and occasionally some powdered fry food. They have aproximately doubled in size and are now about the size of a newborn guppy! I think they are starting to change shape a little, body's deepening slightly and their nose is getting a bit more pointed, its so cool to see the changes! I think there is about 50 of them...so hard to count the busy little swimmers!!

[Merrilyn]

Well done Wendy. For a "total noob" you've done pretty darn well :P

[Wendy]

All the instructions on this site have helped me enormously. I had a few failures with the brine shrimp at first but got there in the end. Microworms I have had for years....my baby guppies like them. The microworms also kept the baby angels going while I tinkered with the brine shrimp.

[Wendy]

I took some pics of the babies......darn hard to get the camera to even focus on them they move so quick!! I gotta get myself a proper camera!
Anyhow here they are at almost 2 weeks freeswimming.

[Merrilyn]

Good fat bellies on them. They're doing well.

[Nev]

Fingers crossed for you.

[Wendy]

The babies are now at three weeks freeswimming so I took a few pics....they are starting to get their little angel wings!!

Also mum and dad have been busy again and I have another batch just starting to swim today....they look so tiny compared to the first batch, its hard to remember them being that small.

[Nev]

Hey congrats mum!

[Mattzilla]

good work, keep it up

the fry look nice and fat ad healthy

[Wendy]

Whew....so hot here this week! Got to 43 today, I ended up buying a airconditioner just to keep the fishies cool in the shed! I'm lucky the husband is the understanding type....

[Wendy]

I took some more pictures today as it is now 5 weeks since the first batch started swimming. Fairly sure I have between 40 and 50. They all seem to be the same colour at this stage, they have about 6 stripes across their body, I'm thinking this must be a juvenile pattern? it seems strange that they would all be the same. Does anyone know when their true colours become obvious? The curiosity is killing me....
Have put some pictures up with the thermometer in the shot to show their current size.
So far I am not seeing any bent fins or obvious reasons for culling, I don't want to raise duds so any advise on what to look for would be most apreciated.

The second batch is also doing well....and there is lots more of them, I think a hundred or so at least but counting them is a problem!

[firthy13]

very nice, they are coming alone very well.