My Boesemani Fry, Snails, and Pics

This is the best pic I got. The fry are too small to see clearly.
newfry1.jpg


http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c49/chefkeith/newfry3.jpg

Here's an enlargement-
newfry4.jpg
 
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Leopardess said:
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.
Click to expand...
I've never seen my Boes eat algae. Either I have the laziest fish on the planet or I overfeed them so much they just don't bother.

I've seen them eat zucchini. At first I thought they were biting and attacking my clown loaches, but then I realized that they were grabbing the pieces of zucchini that flew out of the clown's mouths. Pretty neat to watch two totally different types of fish get along like that :)

Roan
 
That's neat, roan. Last night I watched as my new big ramshorn snail was eating a whole shrimp pellet (which was meant for the frogs) and the frogs came over and were eating it right out of the poor snail's foot! Hehe.

As for the boesmani's, I only rarely actually see them eating it; I can usually just tell because I see it on its way out. Maybe it's an acquired taste:)
 
Could it be a seasonal diet in the dry season. I read one of Jack Wattley's accounts of a discus collection trip during the dry season. It said in the wild their primary food is a type of freshwater pod or shrimp ( don't remember which ). During the dry season, however, when discus wound up in land locked pools due to evaporation and were cut off from the main streams and rivers they ate almost exclusively algae when all the pods were gone. Their stomachs were full of it.

Mark
 
Perhaps the algae growth and algae eating are stimulating the Boesemani to breed. I never got any Boesemani offspring before this wave of algae growth.
 
Hrm, dunno about that. My Boe tank is crammed with algae :rolleyes: still and they've been as usual. How about giving us a run down on your water parameters? Epsecially pH, GH and KH. That might offer a clue.

Roan
 
CO2 pH controlled- 6.9 to 7.1
kh- 5
gh-9
temp- 78-80F

Really, I need do some back tracking. I keep forgeting about other factors. I'll try to make a timeline later on.
 
chefkeith said:
CO2 pH controlled- 6.9 to 7.1
kh- 5
gh-9
temp- 78-80F

Really, I need do some back tracking. I keep forgeting about other factors. I'll try to make a timeline later on.
Click to expand...
That would be great!

Oh, cool, your parameters aren't far from mine. With a little tweaking I can match easy:

CO2 6.8-7.4 (not controlled, have controller have not installed yet)
KH 4
GH 7
Temp 77*

Hey, I just thought of something -- what did you stop dosing for the plants? Where you dosing Mg? Cause that will bring up the GH big time and that may have been a factor in this. When I dosed Mg my GH was up to 17-21. I cut it out for a while to get a handle on the nitrate/phosphates problem.

Roan
 
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I hope this makes some sense-

Pre-December observations from pictures- Good plant growth. Some BGA on glass and driftwood.

Routine-
Weekly 20% water changes. Monthly canister filter cleanings. Monthly Plant Trimmings.
Bi Weekly Dosing- 1 Tbls Mg (Epsom Salt), 1 Tbls of KNO3, 15 ml’s of Tropica Mastergrow. I get lazy with this plan sometimes.

Normally I don’t record my water parameters. (I should start though)

Main tanks –
Water Temp- 80-84F
pH - 6.8- 7.0.
Kh - 5.
Gh - I usually don’t check.
Nitrate -10 ppm
PO4- I usually don’t check.

Tap Water-
pH- 7.4
Kh- 4-5 degrees
Gh- 9-10 degrees
Nitrate- 5ppm
PO4- Atleast 2.0 ppm.

I never check the water parameters in my snail tanks. For the snail tanks I do weekly 50% water changes and clean the filter sponges.


Timeline -

On Dec. 4th. Trimmed plants. 20%, 75g, water change. Added Ferts. Put trimmings in snail tanks.
Later that day, I purchased 13 juvi Bristlenose Pleco’s from a local breeder and put 12 of them in my 6g snail tank. 1 Bristlenose died on the way home.
The breeder also gave me an adult male Boesemani. I put the Boesemani and the entire fish bags contents into my 10g snail tank.

On Dec. 5th, 3 more of the juvi Bristlenoses died. I then moved the juvi Bristlenoses to my main planted tanks because I thought they'd do better.

On Dec. 11th, 20% water change. Added Ferts. Cleaned canister filters.
I found 4 fry in the 10g snail tank with the adult male Boesemani. To help save the fry, I moved the adult male Boesemani to my main tanks. Fry are mystery to me. I don’t know what they are or where they came from. I thought the fry probably came from the fish bag from the local breeder.

Water parameters for main tanks that were recorded that day-
pH controller set to- 6.8 – 7.0
kh- 5
gh- 9-10


On Dec 13th. I started to add salt (16 cups total over a 3 day period) to the main tanks because my clown loaches were flashing. I didn’t want to take any chances on an ich outbreak.

During the week, the salt started to melt down some of my plants, mostly just the Crypts.

Dec 18th, Removed plant debris. 10% water change. Added 1 cup of salt.
I stopped dosing ferts. Clowns are still flashing, but not as much as before.

Dec. 20th. Nitrates hit 0. Hair Algae is forming on many of the plants.
Decreased lighting / CO2

Dec 25th. Removed plant debris. 10% water change. Added 1 cup of salt.

Jan 1. Removed plant debris. 10% water change. Added 1 cup of salt.
Clown loach flashing has ceased.

Jan. 8th 40%, 150g, water change. Ended salt treatment.

Jan 15. 20% water change. Cleaned canister filters.

Jan 22. 40% water change.

Jan 29. City done work on water main. Tap water was cloudy, so I skipped weekly water change. Trimmed plants. Put trimmings in snail tanks.

Feb 4th. Cleaned Filters on snail tanks. Found 3 fry in 15g snail tank, and then found 3 more fry in 85g planted tank.

Current water parameters in main tanks are-
Temp 78-80F
pH- 6.9 – 7.1
kh 4-5
gh 9

What does this all mean? I don’t know yet.
 
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