I got a bunch of eggs way back in October, for Nematolebias whitei albino. They were in the mail for over a month. Eight fish hatched over two re-wetting/drying cycles. They all died, with no trace and no indication of why they died (they were in seperate quart-sized containers with daily or every-other-day water changes, fed live bbs, each had some java moss to hang out in, and the temperature in the room was, for once, stable, and the gardneri fry kept right beside them, flourished.). My last re-wetting, I just left the water and set the containers aside for a few weeks... I checked them regularly at first, then less as time went on with no hatches. In mid-december, I was moving out of my dorm, and when I went to empty these containers, I was shocked to find probably thirty newly hatched fry! I had a brand new 5g tank that I plan to keep adult whitei in, if I ever get some, or else have an extra gardneri tank... so when I got home I set them up in that. They all also disappeared over the course of the month (and while I was on vacation, my female F. gardneri Biassa jumped out of the tank, so the male is now unfortunately alone... If none of the fry I have from his mate is a female, I don't plan to buy a new girl anytime soon... should I buy him a couple of cories or otos or something?)... probably poor water quality. The fry tank tended to get less water changes than the other tanks, because my parents weren't fond of my spending too much time with my fish, and my adult fish were my priority. ("What are you doing?" cleaning my fishtanks. "Does it really have to be done NOW?" yes, actually, because I can't do it for X time, and fish DIE from bad water. "Well, come do this first.")
I left an inch of water over the peat as I brought the tank back to my dorm, trying to decide what to do. Incubation time supposedly is up to 3 months (and the guy I got the eggs from suggested that shipping for some reason often speeds up incubation), and it's now been 4 and a half... most of the eggs should be hatched or dead, right? WRONG!!! I had to buy a replacement filter for my
goldfish tank (and as soon as I had it set up, the old one started working again... *kicks old filter*) and when I got home, there were another five fry in the tank. I fished them out with a turkey baster. This morning... another five. And of course I don't have any live food ready, and at this age I haven't seen any indication of them taking flake dust (my bigger Biassa fry loved the
betta flakes I crumbled for them).
To fry: "Seriously now, WHERE DO YOU ALL KEEP COMING FROM?"
. I'm thinking I'm going to take my albino female out of the tank with the male for a while, too, as he's been getting kind of aggressive with her. At the moment I don't have a tank free and ready for her, though... wish I could put the boys together but they'd fight. Maybe I'll just temporarily divide the tank...