Loaches Online Forum

Is it possible to get more updates and pictures of this story? It would be nice to watch them develop.

My camera is not the best--the only one I have is on my phone. I'll do what I can, but I can't control the focusing on it. I should have a better camera in a few weeks, at least.

I need to do some tank cleaning tomorrow, so I'll try to get more pictures of the little guys' development. They're still less than a centimeter in length, so I don't know how well the camera will do, but they're looking and behaving like proper loaches now!

I'm thinking once they're a bit larger I'll start talking to magazines and see if anyone would like to do a story on the breedings and the babies.

As promised, here are the fry at 13 days old. And as promised, the pictures are really crappy... I apologize, doing what I can with what I have. If you look closely, you can see fins, and that they sure have the dojo loach shape by now.

They're so cute! How many are there? Are they all the natural color or are some golden? I remembered you wondering about the mixed parentage and genetic traits being passed on.

I have no idea how many there are! Too many to count... I'd guess at least 100, possibly more like 150 or so. In addition to them being so little, they never stop moving, so I can't get a close count...

It seems like the vast majority are gonna be natural color, but there are a few golden ones mixed in. I actually had a golden one in the bag with the others when I took the photos, but he/she/it liked to stay near the seam of the Ziploc and not come to play with the camera. It's very obvious which are golden--they're almost translucent still. All you can really see of them is their eyes, although they're starting to get a gold tint to them.

It seems like even in the first spawning, which was a golden mother and a normal father, there are some golden babies. The second mother spawned with all but two of the males, and thus it would seem that more of her spawn would be golden as well. However, in her picture, it's clear she has some natural coloration to her as well. Therefore, her babies have a few goldens mixed in, but again the majority are normal color.

Aozora wrote: They're starting to behave and look like loaches! Pectoral fins are visible, and they're staying mostly on the bottom now.

Congrats! Very cool. Where in TN are you (I'm in Knoxville)? If it gets to the point where you want to sell some, let me know.

Batch

Hi Aozora, this is a fantastic acheivment ! please keep us up to date on the youngsters .

Batch wrote:
Congrats! Very cool. Where in TN are you (I'm in Knoxville)? If it gets to the point where you want to sell some, let me know.

Batch

I'm in the Nashville area. Knoxville isn't too far away, only a couple hours drive. I'll keep in touch once the little guys get a bit bigger!





They're getting large enough that I'm starting to switch foods over. I've been using Ken's Golden Pearls in the smallest size (5-50 microns), but now I'm starting to move to Hikari First Bites. Based on their size (7-8mm), would baby brine shrimp be an option for them now? I have experience with adult brine shrimp, and I'm concerned about them sinking to the level where the little loaches could eat them.

Do you think they would be able to eat Decapsulated shrimp? You get it at Ken's also.
Congrats on the fry!
Carol

Weekly update on the babies! They're now 21 days old, and becoming much stronger swimmers. They've also reached 1cm in length. Continuing to switch them over to slightly coarser food--still hesitating a bit to try baby brine shrimp.

Everyone was very agitated in the pictures, as I was doing a water change. I finally got a blurry picture of one of the golden babies; compare its color to the others.

baby brine is a good food for tiny fish. week old angelfish babies can eat them.
you do need to take care that you vacuum out the ones that don't get eaten as they die off within hours and will wreck your water quality. they also spread out rapidly all over the tank. a small air hose works to get them off the bottom but you have to watch out for sucking up the babies! vacuum into a bucket just in case and move slowly.

how are the kids doing now??

Sorry about the lack of updates recently, grad school has really been rough these past few weeks. The kids are doing great now, they're all up to around 1/2 inch with some getting even larger than that. They keep growing so fast, it's amazing.

A better camera took the photos this time, so the kids look clearer than in past updates. Still too small to really get a focus in, but you can still tell they're getting to be big, healthy little loachies.

Kids on the bottom:


Kids during dinnertime:


And he refused to show off for the camera until now, but here's Dad. They all look like they're gonna grow up to look like him.

fantastic. congratulation. I hope it will be happen with my botia