Its a good day in June for zebra offspring
Posted: 23 Jun 2017, 16:35
I just took the towel off the front of the zebra breeding tanks and poked my flashlight into caves. I have been suspicious that One male has been spawning and was acting like it might me on a spawn. As usual. he would not let me see. However, I decided to to a quick flashlight scan before giving up. I just spotted a very healthy looking offspring I estimate as over an inch TL. This confirms to me that I have been getting spawns for a while. I did spot two fairly small fry, maybe of months old about 5 weeks ago.
This tank (36x18x13 inches) is my original wc breeder tank. Over the last 11+ years I have had a few losses and have added back replacement fish, bought as wc as far as I knew. The first addition was a confirmed pair and the second edition was 4 fish which I did my best to sex as fm when I selected them. I did not vent them so I could not confirm the sexes for sure. The tank has always been set up to provide an incredible number of hiding places. At one point I had 13 adults and 53 assorted offspring in it and visitors would regularly ask why I kept an empty tank. So even when I know I have had spawns, I never know for sure how they fared until I pull the tank apart and look. I always fear they have all died unless I see one now and then.
Today's spotting really made my day because this fish means there should be a bunch more. It has to be 5-6 months old. Now all I need is to find time to do a fry hunt.
One note in all this, at least one of the males spawning (I think there are two) is one of my original breeding group. That would make him at least 14-15 years old.
This tank (36x18x13 inches) is my original wc breeder tank. Over the last 11+ years I have had a few losses and have added back replacement fish, bought as wc as far as I knew. The first addition was a confirmed pair and the second edition was 4 fish which I did my best to sex as fm when I selected them. I did not vent them so I could not confirm the sexes for sure. The tank has always been set up to provide an incredible number of hiding places. At one point I had 13 adults and 53 assorted offspring in it and visitors would regularly ask why I kept an empty tank. So even when I know I have had spawns, I never know for sure how they fared until I pull the tank apart and look. I always fear they have all died unless I see one now and then.
Today's spotting really made my day because this fish means there should be a bunch more. It has to be 5-6 months old. Now all I need is to find time to do a fry hunt.
One note in all this, at least one of the males spawning (I think there are two) is one of my original breeding group. That would make him at least 14-15 years old.