Bassetluv
Well-Known Member
Until recently, I have had absolutely no luckwith aquariums. Fish were always dying off or disappearing, never to beseen again (I was secretly wishing they had packed their little aquasuitcases and headed to clearer waters, rather than the more obviousexplanation of their demise). I had a small 10-gallon tank, and hadinadvertently kept it overstocked (which explained much of the mysteryof the sick/disappearing fish). So several weeks ago I upgraded to a30-gallon in a last-ditch attempt to give my little finned friends abetter chance.
Well, not only are they now thriving, but they are breeding! About 3weeks ago one of my sunburst (or is it sunset?) platys gave birth to abrood. Unfortunately most of the little ones fell prey to the adults,but I did manage to save four of them, set up a floating baby saver,and they have been doing quite well in that. And now my other femaleplaty is due to give birth soon, so I've been checking daily for anysigns of new ones in the tank. I only have one baby saver, so the planis to capture any new babies and put them in with the other fourexisting young. (Ideally I need another baby saver to put the adultpregnant female in, but haven't been able to get to the pet store tobuy one...for some reason none of the smaller pet stores in the areacarry them.)
So this morning I was checking the aquarium...but the female hasn't hadthe babies yet. But as I was looking, I thought I saw something tinydart across the bottom of the tank. At first I thought it was a bit ofdebris that was being pulled toward the filter, but to my surprise...itwas a baby catfish! I couldn't believe it; I've never actually hadcatfish breed before. So I checked more closely and soon found thatthere is not one, but two of them, happily feeding away at the bottomof the tank. At first I was going to try and net them to put in thebaby saver, but noticed that the adult fish don't seem to bother withthem at all, so I left them to go about their business. And right afterdiscovering them, I found another baby platy hidden in one of theplastic plants...apparently he managed to survive all this time amongstthe adult platys (and my voracious gourami). Now, he did seem to stillbe at risk of being eaten, so I managed to capture him and place him inthe safety of the baby saver with his brothers.
I don't have any pics of the babies...they're too small to photographwell...but here's a couple of pics of some of the fishies in mytank...I have an albino pleco, two common ones (Monty, the big guy withthe smile on his face in the bottom pic, is around 11 incheslong now), a gold gourami, two cory cats, and three platys....and now,babies too! (oops...forgot to mention that I have some tetras too)
Well, not only are they now thriving, but they are breeding! About 3weeks ago one of my sunburst (or is it sunset?) platys gave birth to abrood. Unfortunately most of the little ones fell prey to the adults,but I did manage to save four of them, set up a floating baby saver,and they have been doing quite well in that. And now my other femaleplaty is due to give birth soon, so I've been checking daily for anysigns of new ones in the tank. I only have one baby saver, so the planis to capture any new babies and put them in with the other fourexisting young. (Ideally I need another baby saver to put the adultpregnant female in, but haven't been able to get to the pet store tobuy one...for some reason none of the smaller pet stores in the areacarry them.)
So this morning I was checking the aquarium...but the female hasn't hadthe babies yet. But as I was looking, I thought I saw something tinydart across the bottom of the tank. At first I thought it was a bit ofdebris that was being pulled toward the filter, but to my surprise...itwas a baby catfish! I couldn't believe it; I've never actually hadcatfish breed before. So I checked more closely and soon found thatthere is not one, but two of them, happily feeding away at the bottomof the tank. At first I was going to try and net them to put in thebaby saver, but noticed that the adult fish don't seem to bother withthem at all, so I left them to go about their business. And right afterdiscovering them, I found another baby platy hidden in one of theplastic plants...apparently he managed to survive all this time amongstthe adult platys (and my voracious gourami). Now, he did seem to stillbe at risk of being eaten, so I managed to capture him and place him inthe safety of the baby saver with his brothers.
I don't have any pics of the babies...they're too small to photographwell...but here's a couple of pics of some of the fishies in mytank...I have an albino pleco, two common ones (Monty, the big guy withthe smile on his face in the bottom pic, is around 11 incheslong now), a gold gourami, two cory cats, and three platys....and now,babies too! (oops...forgot to mention that I have some tetras too)