A Look At The Babies

  I mentioned last night that the eggs had hatched.The thing is that was only a tiny portion of em.This morning I saw a whole mass of wriggling tails hanging from under the bubble nest.I estimate that there must be around 50 plus babies.Hard to tell as I don't want to get too close and make the dad frisky.I'd smack myself if he ate em on account of my big nosy self.

Barely a day old fry below bubble nest

  If you look really close just under the bubble nest, you can see tiny nearly transparent tails hanging under it.And maybe small black eyes that look like dots.They're really tiny,even smaller than guppy fry.About the thickness of a strand of hair.And you can see their white yolk sacs that will be there for a few days till it's been fully consumed.They keep falling out of the nest only to wriggle back up.These lil guys are feisty I must say.Not much work for Fred to deal with coz they seem pretty independent but he still watches out for them

You can see the fry falling down and swimming back up again in this short video here.Really cute

New Fishes and New Eggs!

  It's been a really great month!Thank God :) I recently acquired two new Bettas, a multicolored crowntail named Fred and a really teensy juvenile whitish plakat called Nemo.I brough them back with me so they could have a lil holiday too and mix with my other fishies.So these are some of my fishes.

 

6 Bettas and a few dozen Wild Guppies

 Large tank for mating, Fred at the top in portable tank, Midget(bottom left) and Old Man Paul(bottom right)

Nemo(newest addition to the family or misfits!)

  I had bought Fred because I felt a connection to him.Kinda drawn to the lil guy.Yeah I know it's weird.Wana know something else thats weird?I talk to my fish quite a bit.They don't seem to mid heh.I also thought that he'd make a good companion for Midget(my brown plakat betta) when I was out for classes.Being in the dorm room all by himself must be awfully boring.
  I recently came home for my week long hols and I though it would be a good idea to try and get Junior (pure white halfmoon) and Fatty (whitish female) to cozy up to each other. The other time around Junior harassed the poor gal up quite abit so I guess this time she had her revenge. She shredded up his fins into white noodles and had him cowering at a corner, a confident poise to her movements.
  Hence, I decided to pair up Fred and Fatty instead. The surprising thing is they hit off real fine. The both were confident but non-aggressive in their courtship. Fred didn't try to harm her at all, merely showing off his beautiful blues,whites and purples. Even though his tail and fins were easy targets, she did not even try to tear off one tip of it. One day later, there was a nest.

Fred under his nest

  The best thing was, yesterday when I woke up for church at around 9:30a.m, there were already eggs and I saw their courtship routine. It was beautiful. I've seen the mating process before but never the dropping of eggs. The male very gently curled around the female while she was still and the eggs fell slowly. Then Fred gently scooped em up in his mouth and deposited em in his bubble nest. They repeated this process a few time. Needless to say, she ate some eggs but I removed her as as soon as all the eggs were deposited. I checked a few minutes ago and thank God, they had hatched. I could see the extremely small tails hanging from under the nest. I'd take a pic but I didn't wana stress Fred out.
  Ah I'm so happy.I know that the hatching is merely one teensy hurdle that has been overcome but I'm still glad. Fred is a good daddy. He lumped up the eggs in the center of the nest and keeps virgil over it and so far I haven't caught him eating any.What a surprise.And I just bought the lil bugger too.Wonder what his kids will look like?I know people frown upon mixing the different species but it's the health and happiness,not the color and fin type. So long as they have a good life with me, I'm already satisfied :D