My Boesemani Fry, Snails, and Pics

[chefkeith]

Over the last few months I've stop dosing ferts, turned down the CO2, and decreased the lighting cycles. I’ve let algae take hold of my tanks. I let this happen because I'm trying to grow out a rare sub-species of juvi Bristlenose Pleco’s that I acquired. Over this time, I've come to realize that Boesemani Rainbowfish are algae eaters too. They nibble at all sorts of algae, like BGA, Beard, and Hair algae.
About 7-8 weeks ago, to my great surprise, I found some Boesemani fry in one of my snail tanks. (I put plant trimmings from the main tanks into the snail tanks about every other week). The fry have grown out quite nicely since then. They are almost an inch long now.
Today, I was doing some maintenance in a different snail tank and I discovered more fry. Then I looked in one of my pro-algae main tanks and I find even more Boesemani fry. I can’t believe this. I’m surprised that the adult Boesemani’s haven’t eaten them. Should I move these fry to my snail tanks with the other fry?

I was actually thinking about busting my algae soon, but I’m really starting to like the natural look and softness the algae gives the tanks. My Boesemani and Bristlenoses sure do love all the extra algae.

Here’s a pic of the Boesemani fry-
A few days old-

A few days old- about 10x enlarged

8 weeks old

Another thing that I’ve discovered during this period of time is that there is now a huge colony of (unidentified) minuscule snails in my pro-algae tanks. The snails only come out when the lights are off. They burrow into small cracks in the driftwood and into the gravel. My clown loaches don’t seem to bother them. The largest are only about 1/8” big. They look just like trapdoor snails, but I think they are too small to that kind.
Here’s a pic of the unidentified snails-

Here's a pic of a trapdoor snail-

Anybody know what they are?

 

[Roan Art]

That's wonderful!

If there are places to hide, the Boes won't eat find them to eat them. I had platy babies survive my Boe tank, just barely.

As for the Boes eating algae -- we were just talking about that before the board went down, remember? You lost a school of dwarf neons and posted the link to Dave Wilson's article. I DID get in contact with Dave and OH! I have a follow up to his article for you to read . . . I'll get it and post it after this.

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/Wilson_Rainbowfish_Problems.html

Those look like MTS babies.

Lemme go find the email Dave sent.

Roan

 

[Roan Art]

Here's his reply:
------------------------
From: Dave Wilson <aqua.green@...>
Date: Fri Jan 20, 2006 3:34 pm
Subject: Re: [r_m_l] Rainbowfish Diets

Hello Eileen,

Don’t apologise.

I wrote that many years ago for the Canberra Aquarium Society journal when I lived down south and had to drive for days to get into some good native fish collecting, now I live in a place where there are black banded rainbowfish and spotted blue-eyes in the drains during the wet season. It was aimed at a few Cichlid keepers that were in the same aquarium club who bred their rainbows and fed them tons of beef heart to make them grow quickly. Their fish looked grotesque when compared with wild rainbows. They had lost their colour and that nice slim look that is common in a fish that has had to work hard for every meal in its natural environment.

I still collect rainbows here across the top of oz and notice that many poop out strings of processed algae when put in the bucket. I still conclude they have a good percentage of algae in their diet. If you get / scrape some fluffy algae off a hard surface you will also notice it is full of other little monsters crawling around when viewed under a good dissecting microscope. Their mouths are designed to scrape algae off hard surfaces. If you feed a rainbow all beef heart and other high protein meaty diets it will not look like a wild rainbow you collected but turn into a little football full of fat around its internal organs.

I have never collected rainbowfish in New Guinea but have noted from the drawings in Allen & Cross (1982) “Rainbowfishes of Australia and New Guinea” that the New Guinea species also have teeth that project outwards on the outer part of their mouths suggesting they scrape algae also. Perhaps someone who has collected in New Guinea can comment on wether the species from there also poop out processed algae when put in a bucket.

There are some good home made rainbowfish fish food recipes in Ray Leggett’s book Keeping Australian native fishes for aquariums. I think it is still available from the ANGFA bookshop. Adrian Tappin will have some good info on feeding rainbows correctly on his web site. Now I grow my rainbows in 5000 litre ponds and use fertilisation schedules to produce algae and plankton. They grow quickly and look like their wild brothers and sisters.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Dave in Howard Springs where the monsoon is upon us.
--------------------------

Roan

 

[abraham]

Chef,

Very cool discovery!!!

Great artical Roan, thanks for posting the link.

Abraham

 

[chefkeith]

Thanks Roan.

Just to be safe, I moved the fry from the big tank to the snail tank with the other small fry.

Until Today I wasn't positive that the 1st batch of Fry were Boesemani, but this 2nd batch of fry pretty much proves to me that they are Boesemani. I couldn't find any pictures of rainbowfish fry anywhere on the net or in any books.

 

[Roan Art]

Good idea, moving them.

Here:

http://mike-edwardes.members.beeb.net/Mboesemani.html

The last pic on that page looks exactly like the top one in your 8 week old pic

Roan

 

[Leopardess]

Not to be gross or anything, but it's relevant:

My boesmani regularly poop out largely unprocessed algae Large hunks of it at a time. In fact, I believe I have a photo somewhere. I'm off to look.

 

[Leopardess]

Aha. Lest anyone ever doubt they do munch on algae:

Taken 3-14-05 (so almost a year ago). Please forgive the quality, I never expected to share it.

 

[chefkeith]

Thanks for that link Roan. That pic is about spot on.

I just took some pics of the new fry. I'll post some if any turned out. I think some of the fry are less than a day old.

 

[chefkeith]

good pic leopardess. thanks for sharing. Getting a good shot is a tough task. I just took 50 pics of the new fry and not 1 of them is all that good; the fry are just too small and move too quickly. hmmm. Perhaps if I unplugged the filter...hmmm. I'll give it another go.