Re: small fish

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

After reading all of the responses to this thread, one thing I didn't see mentioned
is the importance of maternal care in fry growth. I & others have found that fry
removed from their mother tend to hide motionless on the bottom for longer periods of
time than those kept with their mothers. The mother's job is to not only to guide her
fry to food, but warn them of possible dangers and, when possible, even protect them
by attacking potential predators. Females have developed an elaborate set of color
patterns that emphasize certain signals - when to hide, when it's OK to move about
and feed, etc. With a protective female ready to defend them, the fry are out and
looking for food more often. This certainly leads to faster growing fry.

Mike Wise

Randy or Deb Carey wrote:

> I certainly have this problem from time to time.  (I never sell these unless at a
> big discount and I inform the buyer.)
>
> I have wondered about the causes:  small tank, too infrequent water changes,
> under-estimating the amount of food to feed, hormones from adult fish.
>
> As for feeding, I realized that if I need one squirt of bbs when they are at a
> certain size, they may need 8 times that once they double in size (double in
> length, width, and height... or two cubed).  So I've wondered if some of our
> problems stem from underestimating how much food to feed a clutch of 40 to 80
> fry.  Or, as Kathy's comments points out, the young fish are too shy or
> non-aggressive to eat to their fill.
>
> As for hormones, this is just a wild guess.  I think fry tend to grow faster if I
> leave them with their mom.  Does she provide some hormone of other benefit to her
> fry?  Conversely, I've seen young kept in the tank with Dad and not grow as much
> as they should.  Could he be giving off a hormone that stunts the growth of
> future competitors?  If so, it would only be potent enough if the number of adult
> fish saturated the given amount of stagnant water.  This is just a guess.
>
> In short, I, too, have had broods that never seem to grow out to their parent's
> size.  Someday, someone should experiment.  He/She could split up a brood, place
> them in three or four different tanks, and subject each tank to different
> forces:  higher fish density, higher food availability, one group kept with Mom,
> etc.  Then measure the growth in each tank after 3 or 4 months. Think of what we
> all might learn from such an experiment!
>
> --Randy
>
> > On Fri, 18 Sep 1998, Mike Jacobs wrote:
> >
> > > Eric Olsen said:
> > >
> > > >We've spawned borellii, but
> > > >the fry are still tiny even after almost a year.
> > >
> > > ..........I experienced the same thing that Eric
> > > did with the borellii.....SMALL babies after a year.  Folks these aren't
> > > in a 10 gallon.  They are in a 125 gallon and get feed 2-3 times a day
> > > with live bbs and live black wor[m]s.  Two of the batches grew just fine
> > > and were quite the studs.....<snip>
> > >
> > > Mike
>
> > kathy@thekrib.com wrote:
> >
> > Mike,
> >
> > Ours were in a 60 with other apisto fry I was raising.  They tend to be
> > shyer and more fragile than the others.  I was wondering if to effectively
> > raise these guys I would have to dedicate a tank only to them, they don't
> > seem like a very competative apisto.
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > Kathy
> >
>
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