Ha, well still no babies regrettably, but Alex is still getting bigger! The first batch will most likely pure Endler, so I'll be giving those lot away.
Anyway, it turns out, one of the juvi females I got from the mass rescue, is actually a juvi male!
A very bland and young male, so it hasn't quite reached maturity just yet. I've renamed him Captain Jack as he only has 1 eye bless him.
He'll either go in my larger tank, or go to a loving home else where.
That's all for today, updates soon when Alex gives her first drop!
Friday, 15 January 2010
Monday, 11 January 2010
Unexpected Boon
Well nothing to report as of yet, no babies have appeared, the blog will really take off when they do. Still got another 14 days or so though, Alex is deffinately getting bigger.
However, do a recent unexpected saviour mission, I have managed to get the squad back up to the original 3.
17 Endler/Guppy Hybrids came my way, with the threat that if I don't take them, they'll be destroyed!
Kept one male for myself upstairs, 2 females in the breeding tank and 3 males for the downstairs tank.
The one I kept for myself is actually rather nice and unlike my regular guppies, he doesn't seem to want to dart around, he likes to enjoy his surroundings, I do rather like him.
I have seriously over sharpened these pictures to try and bring out his colours. He may like to take his time, but he still swims like a normal guppy. I shall call him...Harry, to go with the other Endlers I have in the tank, Tom & Dick.
That's all regarding the fish for this entry, don't forget to check out the entries on my other blog as that contains alot about my fish keeping, more so than most people would like!
- C Manning
However, do a recent unexpected saviour mission, I have managed to get the squad back up to the original 3.
17 Endler/Guppy Hybrids came my way, with the threat that if I don't take them, they'll be destroyed!
Kept one male for myself upstairs, 2 females in the breeding tank and 3 males for the downstairs tank.
The one I kept for myself is actually rather nice and unlike my regular guppies, he doesn't seem to want to dart around, he likes to enjoy his surroundings, I do rather like him.
I have seriously over sharpened these pictures to try and bring out his colours. He may like to take his time, but he still swims like a normal guppy. I shall call him...Harry, to go with the other Endlers I have in the tank, Tom & Dick.
That's all regarding the fish for this entry, don't forget to check out the entries on my other blog as that contains alot about my fish keeping, more so than most people would like!
- C Manning
Friday, 8 January 2010
Day Something.
Haven't been updating lately for personal reasons, see other blog for why. Anyway, let's get started shall we!
I took apart the filter and added some of my own creations. The first being a bag of zeolite to remove any waste in the tank. Zeolite removes ammonia which will effectively keep the water perfectly safe for all fish. I also added live bacteria called "Bactinettes", I've heard they work wonders. I've also added a bag of "Clear water" which supposedly removes nitrites..we'll see on this one.
Normally when creating a fry tank, I would normally say go with a sponge filter, but the sponge in this filter was already fine enough so I didn't bother. It has has an adjustable flow rate which really helps.
Next the tank was filled with water, filter and heater added and left to run for a few hours. It should be noted I have chosen to perform a "Fish-in" cycle. Reasons being is that I know what I'm doing and I can afford to spend all my time making sure the water is tip-top at all times. I also wanted to test the ability of Bactinettes and possibly Seachem stability if anything went wrong.
I then went and collected my fish. I originally only wanted one female but ended up walking away with 3 females and 2 males. The females would go in this tank and the males in my 64L. I also added some moss on driftwood for the babies to hide in.
I purchased a small tank of about 13L in order to hold my one female endler and her babies. 13L is ideal for this as it's not too big in terms of space and is just small enough to be a permenant home for the wee lass.
I took apart the filter and added some of my own creations. The first being a bag of zeolite to remove any waste in the tank. Zeolite removes ammonia which will effectively keep the water perfectly safe for all fish. I also added live bacteria called "Bactinettes", I've heard they work wonders. I've also added a bag of "Clear water" which supposedly removes nitrites..we'll see on this one.
Next the tank was filled with water, filter and heater added and left to run for a few hours. It should be noted I have chosen to perform a "Fish-in" cycle. Reasons being is that I know what I'm doing and I can afford to spend all my time making sure the water is tip-top at all times. I also wanted to test the ability of Bactinettes and possibly Seachem stability if anything went wrong.
I then went and collected my fish. I originally only wanted one female but ended up walking away with 3 females and 2 males. The females would go in this tank and the males in my 64L. I also added some moss on driftwood for the babies to hide in.
In the bag.
Still in the bag.
Still in the bag and getting rather pissed off about it.
Freeedommm!!
I should also note, at time of writing this, 2 of the 3 females have died. The first didn't make it through the first night due to stress and the second died shortly afterwards. The last one left is kicking, fighting and looks rather pregnant.
I shall keep you updated, water params are a bit squiffy right now, obviously the "Clear Water" is about as much use as a dead...never mind..
- C Manning.
Sunday, 3 January 2010
A New Guide To Breeding Gendlers, Or Any Other Fry For That Matter
Welcome one and all to my second blog; Manning's Gendlers.
This blog will basically be a step by step walkthrough on how to set up your own breeding tank, or minature tank, from scratch. For the purpose of this project, the fish I will be using are Fancy Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) and Endler's Livebearers (Poecilia wingei) to produce Gendlers (Poecilia sp.)
At time of writing, I currently own 7 Fancy Guppies in my small semi-planted 64L tank. They are all beautiful and it has taken me many months to find such a wide range of colour diversity. I just have 2 problems with them:
I should say at this point that I'm not the first person in the world to try this, and I wont be the last, however, Gendlers are points of major controversy. Guppy and Endler purists want to keep the strains clean without any interbreeding, I can see their points but at the end of the day, the Guppy is being so overbred and inbred these days, hybridisation may be the only way to prolong the life of the species.
This blog will basically be a step by step walkthrough on how to set up your own breeding tank, or minature tank, from scratch. For the purpose of this project, the fish I will be using are Fancy Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) and Endler's Livebearers (Poecilia wingei) to produce Gendlers (Poecilia sp.)
At time of writing, I currently own 7 Fancy Guppies in my small semi-planted 64L tank. They are all beautiful and it has taken me many months to find such a wide range of colour diversity. I just have 2 problems with them:
- - No matter how much I love them, they are very common fish, when you say to someone you keep Guppies, they just glance you over like you're a newbie.
- - It's taken me 8 months to find these 7 and they only live for a year, I'm not spending another 8 months finding another lot!
Example of a Gendler 1
Gendler Example 2
Gendler Example 3
I should say at this point that I'm not the first person in the world to try this, and I wont be the last, however, Gendlers are points of major controversy. Guppy and Endler purists want to keep the strains clean without any interbreeding, I can see their points but at the end of the day, the Guppy is being so overbred and inbred these days, hybridisation may be the only way to prolong the life of the species.
Right now, I still have all the parts sitting in the box and shall start taking pictures tommorow when I set it all up. I'm aiming for a total cost of £20 and then sell any youngens for about £1 each with instructions to avoid breeding at any cost as it would then be inbreeding and we'd be back to square one.
Any questions? Give me a shout.
- C Manning
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