New fishtank

[Stefan-V]

I got a tank with some fish from my uncle last week, since "You like that kind of stuff". today I see one of them putting eggs in one of the seashells.
Is there any other fishkeeper in the house? I have really no Idea about this kind of stuff, i don't even know what kind of fishes I have. Should I just leave them there? If anyone has just the slightest Idea, pleaz tell me.

thanks,

stefan

 

[tarsier]

pics would be helpful.

are they fresh or salt water fish?

but as a rule, it is safer to leave the eggs in the care of the parents.

 

[Stylopidae]

Fish tend to have low survival rates for offspring, at least they did when I was in marine bio.

Give me a pic and I might be able to get you an ID

 

[OldHag]

I raised Severums for a while....Id leave the eggs with mom and dad for exactly 2 and a half days...then theyd eat them so I had to take them out at 2 days and put them into a nursery tank. Where they would hatch...In the mean time I would be hatching out brine shrimp to feed them when they hatched and had absorbed their yolk.
The fry would lay on the bottom of the tank (so no rocks just bare bottom) til they absorbed the yolk then they would start swimming close to the bottom. At that time I would syphon out some brine shrimp into a mesh net...rinse....and put them in with the babies. The babies would gobble them up..after a week or so theyre big enough to eat crushed flakes.

If that is too much trouble...leave them with the parents. They will eather eat them or...eat them.

Good luck

Michelle

 

[Stefan-V]

no chance with pics, sorry but my cam sux. They are not saltwater fishes. I called my uncle and he gave me the old receit. It says "Swordtail Neon" or something. I'll just let them eat the eggs. I relly don't wanna go through a lot of trouble with them. I just don't want them to get bad and atract bakteria or something.
Thanks a lot,

stefan

 

[Buffalo_Ripley]

Stefan-V,

What an odd name for a fish. I say that only because "Swordtail" and "Neon" are generic names for two totally different kinds of fish. (The bane of my existence is pet stores that only display the generic names of animals. HULK SMASH!!!) Swordtails are livebearers so that's out and Neons are egg depositors which means the female sprinkles her eggs about while the male fertilizes them. Then the eggs are ignored, the babies hatch and are left to their own devices, which mean possible consumption by their own parents. What a funny world we live in. Anyhoo, what your fish did sounds more like a certain type of African cichlid which deposits the eggs in a seashell and takes care of the eggs and the fry. It's really awesome to watch. (which makes me wonder about OldHag's Severums. Not African but cichlids none the less. They do put their babies in their mouths to "clean" them and move them to a new nest (which the parents dig). Their parental skills are amazing. I digress.) If you could tell more about the body shape and colouration that will help in figuring out your mystery fish. And how many do you have, have any paired off and been doing any funny fish dances, etc.? Hope some of my info has helped. I jes luv fish mysteries.

 

[dtknow]

I think your fish are probably neon swordtails(green body, yellow finned strain of swordtail) which would make them livebearers. If that is so, then what you are seeing aren't eggs.

 

[Darwinsdad]

Ona side note, if they are chiclids do not put a pleco in the tank. These fish feed thier young by allowing them to eat a high nutritive layer of mucus off of thier bodies. The pleco will latch on to the parent fish and suck this mucus off and doing great harm the fish at the same time.

 

[Stefan-V]

K then, if I find little babie fishes in the near future, I heard, I could just put a net in the tank and put the little fishes in there, so wouldn't have to get a new tank.
oh and YES. it has a long tail like a sword, it's yellow and red. i guess thats the male, and the female looks exactly like him, just without the long tail.
I know they are not rare, so I wont worry about it too much. But it's good to know, I think this is a sign that they are happy and healthy and that I'm not doing a too bad job at keeping them.

 

[OldHag]

Stefan-V,

(which makes me wonder about OldHag's Severums. Not African but cichlids none the less. They do put their babies in their mouths to "clean" them and move them to a new nest (which the parents dig). Their parental skills are amazing. I digress.) QUOTE]

My severums would actually EAT the eggs prior to hatching. It was always the male that did this. I let them eat 3-4 batches then started taking the eggs after 2 days and then I had TONS of babies. Pain in the rear to raise them that first week or two though...I hate brineshrimp

 

[Buffalo_Ripley]

Oh!!! OldHag I didn't mean to question if your Severums were Severums(if that's what you might have thought), I just thought that was odd they weren't regular cichlid parents. I probably should have used a better choice of words. My bad. I was just trying to point out different parental habits. And I agree with the brine shrimp. Smelly stuff. Luckily my Jack Dempseys and Kribensis had it goin' on so they fed the babies most of the time once they became free-swimming. Otherwise it was fresh baby brine. Oh, goody. Alas, to sum up, the beauty of nature is its unpredictability.

 

[Sonofaglitch]

Stefan-V,

(which makes me wonder about OldHag's Severums. Not African but cichlids none the less. They do put their babies in their mouths to "clean" them and move them to a new nest (which the parents dig). Their parental skills are amazing. I digress.) QUOTE]

My severums would actually EAT the eggs prior to hatching. It was always the male that did this. I let them eat 3-4 batches then started taking the eggs after 2 days and then I had TONS of babies. Pain in the rear to raise them that first week or two though...I hate brineshrimp

I know with Betta fry you can use microworms as their first food...maybe you could look into this? *much* easier to raise than Brine Shrimp.

 

[Ron_K]

Ona side note, if they are chiclids do not put a pleco in the tank. These fish feed thier young by allowing them to eat a high nutritive layer of mucus off of thier bodies. The pleco will latch on to the parent fish and suck this mucus off and doing great harm the fish at the same time.

Actually the only Cichlid that does this is the Discus, which is a South American Cichlid.

Ron_K