UPDATE:
The time has come and I'm preparing fish. The temps will stay in the 80s during the day and 60s at night, the pools hold in the low 70s. So tonight I prepared the first groups of fish that will go out tomorrow. Group #1 Orchard Endlers-8 huge females and 4 exceptional males, including one Blond, Same with Black Bar Endlers. Both groups have been hanging out in their own 5gal container with 2gal of water and 1TBS of solar salt. In the morning each group will get a 1/2 dose of Quick Cure and by 5:00 p.m. will be acclimated and placed in their pools. They will be joined by 6-8 female / 4 male Least Killies. If all goes well, in the next4-6 days each group's female population will be doubled and 2 more of each male will be added. With those numbers, each group should produce between 160-300 fry in the first 30-40 days. Keep in mind by late July those female Endler fry will start to drop their own young. Later this week I'll start the same process with the Blond Orchard Endlers with the release planned for Thursday. Thursday will also be the day I release the two groups of Cory Cats 12 Paleatus in one pool, 12 Aneus in another. I know they will grow enough to breed and my hope is that the leaf littler will allow some fry to survive. The pool with the Blond Endlers will be joined by 2 marble crayfish and approximately 12 RCS. The pools all have snails the first two ramshorn and the pool for the Blond Endlers and Crayfish pond snails. The crayfsh eat snails, so three weeks ago I loaded that pool with 125-150 pond snails. Considering the crayfish pool is 9' x 6' wide x 24" deep the pond snails should be able to sustain their population without a problem. The crayfish and snails will be able to feed on tons of leaf litter and algae as well.
Providing the water quality holds, I'll start introducing brooder swordtails and platys into the breeding traps this weekend. I'll start with 8 females at a time and add more every 4-6 days depending on weather. Only female swords and platys will be placed outside as they are all pre-hit and ready to produce fry. I hope to get at least 800-1,100 fry from the swords and 400-600 from the platys. Male swords and platys will be maintained indoors and in July I plan to rotate the females indoors for a week for additional mating. All the pools contain tree frog tadpoles and I've been thinning down their numbers to feed the Belonasox fry.
I have two Vats 125gal-175gal and another 6'x6'x12" deep pool to use as grow out tanks. Next week I'll also add a hard plastic pool and place 25-30 cull female Endlers and continue to put culled female fish in it as they become available. I'll also add a bunch of culled males as they only get 1/3 the size of female Endlers and will be on the menu at some point. In late July, early August, I'll take a batch of Belonasox fry and put them in the cull pool. The Belonasox say 30-35 of them should consumer 125 or more small Endlers daily along with mosquito larva and other bugs. My hope is to raise enough of theseto get them circulated to real fish folks and keep the line going.
The time has come and I'm preparing fish. The temps will stay in the 80s during the day and 60s at night, the pools hold in the low 70s. So tonight I prepared the first groups of fish that will go out tomorrow. Group #1 Orchard Endlers-8 huge females and 4 exceptional males, including one Blond, Same with Black Bar Endlers. Both groups have been hanging out in their own 5gal container with 2gal of water and 1TBS of solar salt. In the morning each group will get a 1/2 dose of Quick Cure and by 5:00 p.m. will be acclimated and placed in their pools. They will be joined by 6-8 female / 4 male Least Killies. If all goes well, in the next4-6 days each group's female population will be doubled and 2 more of each male will be added. With those numbers, each group should produce between 160-300 fry in the first 30-40 days. Keep in mind by late July those female Endler fry will start to drop their own young. Later this week I'll start the same process with the Blond Orchard Endlers with the release planned for Thursday. Thursday will also be the day I release the two groups of Cory Cats 12 Paleatus in one pool, 12 Aneus in another. I know they will grow enough to breed and my hope is that the leaf littler will allow some fry to survive. The pool with the Blond Endlers will be joined by 2 marble crayfish and approximately 12 RCS. The pools all have snails the first two ramshorn and the pool for the Blond Endlers and Crayfish pond snails. The crayfsh eat snails, so three weeks ago I loaded that pool with 125-150 pond snails. Considering the crayfish pool is 9' x 6' wide x 24" deep the pond snails should be able to sustain their population without a problem. The crayfish and snails will be able to feed on tons of leaf litter and algae as well.
Providing the water quality holds, I'll start introducing brooder swordtails and platys into the breeding traps this weekend. I'll start with 8 females at a time and add more every 4-6 days depending on weather. Only female swords and platys will be placed outside as they are all pre-hit and ready to produce fry. I hope to get at least 800-1,100 fry from the swords and 400-600 from the platys. Male swords and platys will be maintained indoors and in July I plan to rotate the females indoors for a week for additional mating. All the pools contain tree frog tadpoles and I've been thinning down their numbers to feed the Belonasox fry.
I have two Vats 125gal-175gal and another 6'x6'x12" deep pool to use as grow out tanks. Next week I'll also add a hard plastic pool and place 25-30 cull female Endlers and continue to put culled female fish in it as they become available. I'll also add a bunch of culled males as they only get 1/3 the size of female Endlers and will be on the menu at some point. In late July, early August, I'll take a batch of Belonasox fry and put them in the cull pool. The Belonasox say 30-35 of them should consumer 125 or more small Endlers daily along with mosquito larva and other bugs. My hope is to raise enough of theseto get them circulated to real fish folks and keep the line going.
