Holy Browser Buster Batman!

yep i had my fronts in with black sand when they were young ins and yes they do pop like that coolness..
 
Loving the black substrate....

In my best Steve Irwin voice. The fry are "little beauties"

Well done on the photo journal.:grinyes:
 
Loving the black substrate....

In my best Steve Irwin voice. The fry are "little beauties"

Well done on the photo journal.:grinyes:

Thanks Guys!

Yep, the fry with black sand, while they are young, really pop. The Zaires, especially Kapampa, will develop very dark black bars and the light bars will turn starke white showing some amazing contrast. I have noticed that my adult Kaps will still turn their whites strips blue (when the lights are out). Right now, looking at them, they are showing in contrast mode (which is my favorite).

Here's a couple pics of blue mode:
NightimeKaps002.jpg


MiscJunePics020.jpg



Here's contrast mode:
eeWeAreExpecting014.jpg


e-AdultKapampa003.jpg


e-AdultKapampa014.jpg


You can see why I love these guys :)
 
:omg:You have some gorgeous fish there...absolute stunners!! Thanks so much for posting their progress as they developed. It was a REAL learning experience for me and I enjoyed it immensely!!! :thumbsup:
 
Once again everyone, thank you very much for your responses to this thread. I thought this thread would be a neat idea and I see by your kind words that it hit the mark. It was a lot of fun to update.

Whelp, the time has come for me to ship these little beauts to an excited new owner. They have turned out to be a beautiful group of fry. The thought had crossed my mind of growing them out but I had a pre-commitment on them while they were still in the tumbler. Here are my last pictures of them :cry:

FinalPhotosShipment8-25-09003.jpg


FinalPhotosShipment8-25-09013.jpg
 
I shipped them out last week to NY. Here are some shipment photos with some captions of the process that has been working for me.

First, I faste/purge them for 48 HRS before shipment so that there will be no ammonia problems. I even put them in a bucket of tank water for 10 to 15 minutes just to scare the last bit of waste out of them ;)

Next step is to double bag them in Gulf Coast Plastics 10 x 8 x.003" poly bags (for larger orders I will use a Florida Shipper with extra large cornerless bags). The neat thing that I like about these bags is that if you double bag them the opposite way and turn them on their side, you can eliminate any places where a fish could get trapped and avoid DOAs.
FinalPhotosShipment8-25-09015.jpg


Now that ammonia will not be a problem, I use medical grade O2. I fill the bag with 1/3 water, compress out any atmosphere, and insert the O2 tube and fill with O2. I will only ship next day; however, this procedure gives them plenty of O2 and will allow them to survive for two to three days.
FinalPhotosShipment8-25-09021.jpg


The next step is to put them in a thick styrofoam container (these guys fit perfect).
FinalPhotosShipment8-25-09016.jpg


I like to give the new owners a two week supply of what I have been feeding them so that they can easily transition them to whatever they will be feeding them.
FinalPhotosShipment8-25-09023.jpg


Because these little guys will be traveling in a plane, in an unconditioned space, at 35,000 feet, I also use heat packs. In warmer weather, I tape the heat pack to the lid and put several sheets of newpaper between the heat pack and the fish bags.
FinalPhotosShipment8-25-09022.jpg


Then I box up the styrofoam container and label the sides of the box. I ran out of shipping tape so I had to use duct tape. My local FedEx will accept packages until 8:30PM before loading the plane so I try to hold off as long as possible packing up the fish so they are in transit the least amount of time. Fish should arrive at their new residence by 10:30AM the next day.
FinalPhotosShipment8-25-09027.jpg


The last step is to waive good by
FinalPhotosShipment8-25-09030.jpg


All done :)
 
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Awesome documentation & gorgeous fronts! I wish there was more. :)
 
:thumbsup::clap:
 
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