Denariusa australis are a really cool and under-rated Australian native fish that Dave breeds at Aquagreen in big ponds and pretty much nobody breeds in an aquarium. Actually not many people keep them because they seem to need live food (that said I have one in my big display tank inside thats been there for 2 years - I assume it survives on shrimp larvae!).
I had a couple in a 2ft tank in my shed and last year I had about 10 fry magically appear without me doing anything. I put the breeding success down to the fact that this tank is a holding tank for crypts and some dwarf swords (Echinodorus parviflorus) and the fish spawn on or under the broad leaves. Fast forward to this year and I have 7 fish in the tank (2 older and 5 young that have survived from last year). They get live brine shrimp nauplii all the time and the occasional net full of zooplankton (daphnia etc) if I have any.
Tonight by torchlight I'm checking for snails (this tank now snail free) and whammo something caught my eye on the glass. I then noticed 20-30 more. They are the smallest fry I have seen ~3 mm long. Just a little bit bigger than DAS larvae. I poured in a couple of litres of green water that was brewing outside with lots of zooplankton before I grabbed my camera. These are the best of about 50 shots, mostly out of focus blobs - but pretty good for a point and shoot! A friendly copepod provides some scale. Clearly the fry will not be eating zooplankton for a while!
Feeding time. The green water is cold from being outside so I'm dripping it in rather than just dumping in. This also helps prevent fry being washed out the overflow. I've counted 25-30 fry near the front glass - they are attracted to the light and congregate at the front.
I also added some paramecium and quickly realised they were about 10x too big to be eaten... so green water and crossed fingers it is.
Feeding time. The green water is cold from being outside so I'm dripping it in rather than just dumping in. This also helps prevent fry being washed out the overflow. I've counted 25-30 fry near the front glass - they are attracted to the light and congregate at the front.
I also added some paramecium and quickly realised they were about 10x too big to be eaten... so green water and crossed fingers it is.
I often keep DAS with my penny fish without any probs (though I note Mr Crabs found the Penny Fish ate the shrimp) My DAS are nearly as big or bigger than the fish and the fish show no interest in them. I bet they enjoy the continual supply of larvae though!
You can see the black strip on the dorsal fin already (and the orange belly from a feed of nauplii)
#9
Grubs commented
04-03-16, 02:06 PM
Last edited by Grubs; 09-03-16, 08:18 AM.
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