What is this Magic Baby?

[railer20]

Soooo what do I have here? I have White Clouds, Harlequin Rasboras, Sterbai Cory, Pearl Guorami, and Bristlenose. Just randomly saw this little guy swimming around this morning. One of the White Clouds is a little more plump? But he sticks to the bottom so maybe Sterbai? Don’t know how or where he came from.

 

[railer20]

Also I have a video but don’t know how to upload it.

 

[the loach]

Looks more like a guppy or mosquito fish to me.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Wow! That's interesting given the stock you have. It does look like a baby livebearer to me, but I'm not sure how that could be the case unless it's hitched a ride in with live plants or some other live goods.

 

[railer20]

Wow! That's interesting given the stock you have. It does look like a baby livebearer to me, but I'm not sure how that could be the case unless it's hitched a ride in with live plants or some other live goods.

you should know me good enough by now to know I don’t have live plants LOL. I did just buy a couple bristlenose Pleco‘s about a week ago. Sure didn’t see him in the bag of water he would’ve had to be stuck to one of the plecos.

 

[FreshyFresh]

LOL! Yes my bad on the plant thing!

I would also assume the little guy hitched a ride in the BN's bag water.

Pretty cool.

 

[Sprinkle]

It a baby guppie Must came with plant or fish. Mine baby guppie came with corys. Sweet little bby :3

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Baby fish (as well as eggs) in a community are normally menu items for a lot of the inhabitants. Baby fish insitintively develop a hiding instinct after they are born. They know to hide. Often this may be near the bottom. But it can be in cave like places, in plants, under wood etc.

Also, many fish, when first born, do not have the shape they will acquire as they grow, angels are a good example. Usually bottom feeders look like bottom feeders from birth. However, baby fish often look drab at this stage of life and they need time to color up as they grow.

An in tank spawn will end up with more than just one baby making it, especially if there are lots of places to hide. Hitchhikers from stores tend, more often, to be singles.

 

[Sprinkle]

Singles? As in?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Only one fish. In stores fry and eggs may not make it because of the lack of cover and number of fish in the tanks. Also, in a busy stores one tiny fry in a bag may nor even bee seen. So while fish may produce multiple eggs or live fry, most wont last very long in a store tank.

Home based breeders tend to use species tanks. So any accidental fry coming in the bag will usually be the same species. Some breeders will have small shrimp or dithers in breeding tanks and eggs/fry from these may make it into a bag. But when this is on plants there will usually be several eggs or fry hiding and thus there will be more than a single mystery hitchhiker in the bag.

I had just reading a thread on PC where the poster, a very well known fish expert, found live tetra fry in the tanks where he converts rainweater into black water which he then uses for water changes. There should have been no fish in his tank, but he found a few tetra fry there.

Eggs and fry can also hitchhike in nets used in multiple tanks as well as on plants and decor moved between tanks. New fry can be awfully tiny. How many angel fry do you think are in this 2.5 gal. tank?