Lots of things have been happening in the fish room since my last post.

My biggest achievement to date so far is actually having my macrostomas spawn for the first time! One night, as I preparing dinner, I noticed the female mac was a lot thinner than usual so I went to search for the male and found him with a mouth full of eggs. FANASTIC. Unfortunately, I woke up the next monring to find the eggs gone and his fins torn up. That must of been some night for him. The tanks current pH is still a little high at 7.3 so I am surprised they spawned. As suggestested by my LFS, I have added some mopani drift wood in order to drop the pH into a more suitable range. I am not too torn up about the loss, in fact, I am glad to know that the two are indeed a breeding pair. It’s been a few days since and he has fully recovered. He had been looking quite sad about the whole spawn but is slowly coming around. Hang in there Big Mac!

Betta hendra

Over to my hendra tank, the fry have launched out and I have two batches of fry free-swimming together. The male has done a stella job at raising the fry but I can see that he is tired from the two previous spawns. To remedy this, I have moved the film can to discourage the next spawn as it looks like a 3rd spawn is about to take place but I’d like the pair to take a few to recover their strength.

The hendra fry are doing well and its now hard to find a spot in the tank that isn’t occupied by the fry.

My sp imbelis are doing well. Both fish are feeding well and actually are on the fatter side of things. I will be reducing their feeding to try to keep them in the right proportions. The male has come out of his hidding spot and can often be found at the front the the tank. I’m really happy about this as he was typically hidding in the mosses or behind the filter.

I wish I could say the same for my sp burdigala, they are extremely shy and yet to come out in the open. I can find them hidding under the Indian Almond leaves, or pressed next to rocks but never as free swimming as the hendra. On a good day, I’ll get a glimse of them smacking down some black worm and boy do they hit the worms hard.