Third Generation

[Orion]

I noticed some more fry last night from my N. brichardi. These little guys are the first batch of the third generation. F-x being the original fish I bought, F-x1 there offspring, and F-x2 are the offspring of the F-x1's for those who like algebra. These are F-x2

I was actualy rather surprised when I saw them last night. The male is a whopping 1.5 in (body length), and female a whole 1 in. I had at least 20 brichardi in the 29 gallon of all ages. And many much bigger than these two, but they are doing quite a good job of keeping thier half of the tank clear from any intruders. Which is interesting to me, because the pair apparently let 2 of there younger siblings help with the fry, but no one else.

Eh, I have no idea how far along they will make it. I'm not really worried about it either. I was kinda glad to see the fry this morning. But I know the 29 gallon can not support 40 more brichardi, and I'm not going to seperate them to raise out unless there is a sudden drop in brichardi availability, or it looks like I have several of the half black fry that I had before.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Lol you have a strange....generation system. Well its different than the one i'm used to but basically the same idea. I just don't like the looks of X's....to much math (looks to much like math) (F1, F2, etc hehe)

Thats cool, and i wish that Half black would stay....that'd be a pretty cool strain (I'd buy them if i ever saw them like that). To bad it faded.

 

[Orion]

well, its based on the standard F-0, F-1 system. I don't know the actualy generation of my Parents, so they are F-x, and so on. Hey it makes sence to me!


I would love to try and raise some of the younger ones up to see if any have that same coloration. With so many in the tank, I honestly dont know if my original female is still alive or not. I don't think that she is anymore. I've got some space at the moment, but I was really wanting to save it for things that I actualy have a change of selling locally (kribs, mulites, brevis). It would be so neat to breed enought to get a common strain like that. I wonder what the inbreed offspring might look like? It did appear to be a recesive gene, and when two recesive genes come togeather, that gene then becomes dominate, right? Hmmm.....

 

[Orion]

A week after I first saw the fry, now more have appeared on the other side of the tank. I am guessing that the parents of the newest spawn are quite smaller, the male would be lucky to be 1.25 inches, and female smaller than that.

I don't know if its due to their small size, but the spawn size is the smallest I have ever seen in my brichari tank. I would guess that no more than 10-15 fry are swimming.

This event had got me thinking. The first 2nd generation fry had decreased in numbers around the same time the new spawn showed up. I don't know exactly how much difference there would be in the fry only being a week apart, but they look exactly the same. So could the 'new parents' actualy have robbed the first pair of some fry? Would that even be possible? I had noticed that the same two new parents had been hanging around togeather, and keeping an area cleaned and protected for a few weeks now, and that is a very good sign that fry was on the way. So I have nothing to substanciate the idea that they stole from the first pair, but I just found it to be interesting that the same time new parents got their fry, the other ones lost some of theres.

And also after a week of thinking, I re-read my explination of the generations, and Your right C-Man, they did not make any sence to me this time around. So, we'll stick with just second generation and leave it at that.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

LOL well its the same thing just remove the X

I'm sure its POSSIBLE that they stole fry, but not sure if it would happen. Quite possible. They see little wigglies and think they are theirs so....they move them back to their nest lol. I mean after all, Syndontis are raised by mouth brooding cichlids lol...so i guess tis possible.

 

[TaffyFish]

Stealing fry from another pair has been recorded, but it's usually a more dominant pair that does the stealing and adds to an existing brood, probably in increase the likelihood of survival for their own progeny. For the same reason it has also been recorded that a pair would steal the wrigglers or fry from another species.

I have witnessed females within a hecqui harem stealing fry from each other, also the male removing fry from one female's shell and spitting them into the shell of a non-breeding juvenile female - not that the mother was very pleased about it!