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8-16-05: The fry are basically adults now. And the big news: since I removed the Chalinochromis from this tank, the next generation are surviving. My long-term plan for this tank is coming to fruition; the Cyps, similis, and fry from both species are living in harmony (sounds terribly new-agey, but the point is: big colony of each, no money spent past the initial buy). 5-15-05: The fry are getting stripes! It's amazing the difference in growth speed between these fry and the stappersi; the stappersi, rumored to be very slow growers, shot up. I attribute that entirely to multiple daily feedings. 12-13-04: The similis have all been moved to the 125 (which they seem to adore - when I woke up, Flour was on the far left of the tank. Before I left for errands I spotted her on the far right, six feet from the original spot. Now she's somewhere in the middle), and this tank is empty for the time being - I intend to put Multis in it in January. 11-3-04: The babies are showing rather amazing differentiation. Some have quite dark eyes, some have unmistakable yellow dorsals or blue ventrals, some are bolder and others shy. They're still tiny, translucent, and lacking stripes, but now they're definitely little eensy fish. 10-28-04: As of today, the babies are exploring the rest of the tank! 10-24-04: New photo mix on the fish page - including pictures of the new fry! 9-17-04: Bad news. The stupid, cheap heater, which was the only kind they had and which I had planned to replace as soon as possible with a safer one, decided to break during the night. Poor Brighty couldn't take the heat, although the water is only about 90 - but with the minimal water movement from the stupid filter, I can see how the tank ran out of oxygen. I'm so sorry, Brighty. 9-16-04: Since the barrier is no longer needed, as there's only a pair in there now (see below), the tank is now a typical flat shellie set-up. It definitely needs more shells, so I'll be bringing those from home and seeing how deep I can get the shellbed. New pictures forthcoming. 9-15-04: Well, the truce ended. I found the smaller male, Brighty, hiding next to the filter, cut off from shells and food. I gave them a little while to work it out but there was no peace to be had, so I walked 20 minutes to Petco, overpaid for a Minibow 2.5 and an awful heater, walked 20 minutes back carrying the thing, and now have two aquariums on my desk instead of one. Still, seeing Brighty come out of hiding and start acting like the dominant fish he always has been made the whole thing worth it. I guess now I have a pair and a pet! And it means that my fry will be from unrelated parents (always good) but when I set up a larger, colony tank for my similis, I'll be able to put Brighty in and get his (loooovely) genes in as well. At the moment the tank has no substrate - I may bring some Fluorite from home, install a 13 watt retrofit kit (or just a desk lamp over the top), and really plant it up. His digging would be minimized, but he was never much for that anyway. Still haven't named the WC male - oops! 9-3-04: The WC male has, it's now clear, not just been digging for fun - he's building a wall of sand between his territory and the other male's! It's amazing, really. He's also taken to picking up baby MTS (they never seem to hit maturity in this tank, I'm not sure why) and moving them around. The pile of sand at the righthand side, against the tank wall, is slowly disappearing as he moves it all onto his barricade - I wonder what he'll do when he runs out of sand entirely? Steal it from the other side? If he looks bored or confused, I guess I'll push the barricade back onto his side and make him start again. If he seems accomplished, it'll stay. If I'm anthropomorphisizing, tough. I suppose now it's obvious why I don't want to give him up, even if he did turn out to be a male! Such a pretty fish. All I need is a bigger tank and a bunch of females and I can keep him .... 8-28-04: Some new pictures (also, a warning - this page is going to get very frequent updates while I'm at school, since they're the only fish I can focus my attention on) of the WC male and Flour, the female. I'll save her for last since I quite like her shot. 8-27-04: They've definitely settled down now. They make amusing half-inch lunges at each other over the top of the conch but seem very willing to use it as a barrier between the territories. The female, Flour, can't seem to pick a side - half the time she lives in a light-colored shell at the far end of the WC male's territory, and half the time she joins Brighty in faux-attacking the other. Either way, they're back to "no touching" and the WC male is hard at work recreating his lovely sand bed which I so callously ruined in the course of moving the fish and tank. I love his digging method - belly to the sand, he swims vigourously forward, and the sand flies up and around, creating a channel. At the same time he's sifting it through his mouth and right out his gills, pushing it in front of him. And to think people bother to keep personality-free fish at all! 8-26-04: Unfortunetly, my suspicions were correct. The larger "female," Brighty, has matured into a male. She and the WC male (I shall have to name him) were getting along well enough but after the move into the dorm, when the territory was rearranged, they started duking it out. As the WC male was being closed into a corner, I bucketed Brighty (I know the WC male is willing to let Brighty be, but I have no reason to believe the opposite is true, so I want the WC male to "win"). It seems to be working - the WC male has taken over and they've gone back to semi-tolerance and traditional argument manuevers like jaw-wrestling instead of just attacking each other. Wish I'd brought my Melafix, though! 8-9-04: I think it's down to one fry, which is fine - for a first spawn, that's not bad. It's very cute, I'll try and get an updated photo. Also, I'm beginning to suspect the larger female might not be. She has a sort of half-developed nuchal hump and she guards like a male. However, the smaller female (mother of the fry) has been going over to the big male and spawning, so who knows. It's all very soap-opera-ish. 7-28-04: We have fry! While I was in France, this low-maintenance tank apparently did well - very well. I came home to four fry starting to peek out of the shell. Now it's at two, double that size, with all their little fins and those big blue eyes. Here's a shot of a fry on the night I first saw them:
7-27-04: The new male has taken over the right side of the tank and heavily redecorated. We also have fry now - pictures on the fish page! Also, finally got a real background on, so should be getting a new tank photo soon. 6-14-04: The new male, F0 from Karilani Island (although since I don't know the females' location, the fry will just be N. similis plain and simple - slightly unfortunate but c'est la vie) arrived. I had to bucket the big female for a while to keep her beating him up, but now they're living in relative harmony. Pictures soon. 6-13-04: Here's the newly revamped tank, now living in the kitchen:
I miss my multis (background on them, Past page), but the similis are lovely. I love those neck stripes, and of course the blue eyes. I seem to keep a lot of blue-eyed fish - years of Boesmanis, my Clown Killies, the multis. Hmm. Anyway, the two girls are sweeties. We'll see how it all turns out! |
Profile for this species~Photos of this species~The tank I keep this species in
