Pseudomugil Tenellus

[Tomtom]

It's always a pleasure to read you!

[apisto57]

I fed mine with Nobilfluid, milkparamecias and sera micron but mostly lost all the fry after a few days. They are so tiny, as iriatherinas are. Perhaps green water would be better, what do you think about ?

[Tomtom]

Hello Apisto
Have began a new breed of iratherina's, fond a lot of eggs, maybe I'll fullfill growing the fry this time (with what you said to me)!
And it will be a good school for the tenellus, later!

[Adrian]

I fed mine with Nobilfluid, milkparamecias and sera micron but mostly lost all the fry after a few days. They are so tiny, as iriatherinas are. Perhaps green water would be better, what do you think about ?

What are "milkparamecias" Arsène??

I never had good results from using any liquid preparations. Usually it just sinks to the bottom. Why don't you try some OSI Microfood and just sprinkly it dry on the surface. Maybe the Sera Micron may still be a little large? I can't remember what I fed mine but most likely it was the OSI microfood.

Adrian

[apisto57]

Hello Adrian

milkparamacia is the english translation of what we call in french "paramécie du lait" (paramecia vorticella.)
We keep and breed it in a bottle containing water from the tank, and feed it with 1-2 drops of milk each 3-4 day. That's why the common name here is milk paramecia.

[Adrian]

Thanks Arsène,

Maybe when you feed the "paramécie du lait" to the fishes the quanity is not dense (large) enough? I found when feeding paramecium (or infusoria) I had to feed large amounts so that the fry could find enough to eat. What I found was that you had to feed the aquarium, not the fish, if you know what I mean? Green water would be the same - you would have to feed large quanities, almost make the water green!

I used to culture large quanities of infusoria (2x 20 litre containers). However, later I fed mainly OSI microfood to most of my rainbowfishes and blue-eyes with very good results. I didn't really bother culturing paramecium (Infusoria) anymore. I did have some permanent "greenwater" tanks that naturally became green due to their position in the fishroom. I would just transfer the fry directly into the green water tanks and they bascially look after themselves. I would add some newly-hatched brineshrimp and microworm as they grew.

Adrian

[apisto57]

of course it's better when the fry swimms into the food and just has to open the mouth to eat it, because it still doesn't has the instinct for chasing. But if you put too much food into the tank, it will be polluated.
I put the mops into 1l tanks so that the newly hatched fry easier find the food.

[Tomtom]

I did the same for my iriatherinas's. Two young fishes seems to stay alive for three days.

[Hans]

Is seems to me that P. tenellus don't produce that many eggs than P. gertrudae (Aru II). There might be two (or more?) reasons for that: maybe they eat their eggs or they have periods to produce eggs. For example: on Febr 8th I found 5 eggs, on the 9th I found 9 eggs, but after that I couldn't find 1 egg in the mop. I have 10 parentfish, 5 males and 5 females.

Here are some pictures of the parents and the fry.

[Tomtom]

Great photos! I'm waiting for the day (closer and closer) I will get them...
I see the same with my aruII : the 10/2, I found 2eggs; 11/2, 1egg; nothing till today, 1egg. I have 2females and 2males in a specific breeding tank.
Tom

[pilchard]

My 5 fish came to me as eggs on a plant i baught from a local fish shop (2M,3F).

I did not know what these mystery fry were till about the 3 month mark when i could positively identify them. The fish bread at 2 months of age and were only 18-20mm at the time. Their tank has java moss as a spawning media.

I found these fish easy to breed, as they were, i thaught, still fry at the time i was still feedin Inusoria, BBS, microworms and grindall worms.

When these guys started to spawn i was averaging 6 free swimin fry a day from the top of their tank over a one month period. By the time the adults reached 3 months the average was down to 3 fry a day and now i am expecting when they reach 4-5 months old i will only average 1 a day if any.

I am not actively collecting eggs as i have around 100 now from the 1st month of breeding and the first of my F1 fry are about to start breedin for me.

I put the varying fry recovery rates down to being:

The smaller 2 month old fish were not wantin to eat their own eggs and fry as they were fead several times a day and had inusoria always available to them, but more so i think their mouths were small and the eggs and newly hatched fry would have been more than a mouthfull.
As they grew so did their hunger and need to feed more often than i was giving them food(freeze dried Black Worms 2X day). They also became more adventurous and use more of the tank, so have a better chance of finding eggs.


Hope this helps.

[Tomtom]

Today : 1egg from gertrudae's
Pilchard, have you got some pictures of your fishes, I thought p.tenellus had little eggs and little fry, which had to be fed with oaramecias or micro-algaes...
Tom

[pilchard]

Rain man has seen these fish in the flesh and now has some of my F1's.
Like me he was suprised at the size of the eggs as they are quite large, you can clearly see eyes in the eggs before hatching. The fry are about 5mm in length @ hatch. I took several piccies this morning but none clear enough to post. I will keep trying.
The parents are near impossible to shoot as they are extremely shy unlike the fry which seem to stay out more when i aproach.

There are 2 new free swimers this morning and a couple of 1cm fish i have left with the parents as an experiment.

The tanks recieve a few hours of full sun each morning and there is always a bit of algae in suspention(more some weeks than others) maybe this has helped my survival rate.

[Rain Man]

Have you considered the water temperature as a factor in breeding rates, pilchard. High water temps also has a relationship to growth rates and ageing I have read. It's still quite warm now outside but the average temps a month ago were probably higher. Just a thought.

Thanks for the fry, all are going great.

P.Gertrudae and P.Tenellus must be very closely related. According to Dave's site the description on housing and breeding of both species is the same.

Great pictures too, Hans.

[pilchard]

Im trying an experiment at the moment.
i just dropped my tank temp to 22 DegC and will leave it there for a week and then raise it back up to 28. 28 being the averae temp of the water in December when i was getting alot of fry a day from the fish. Over thwe next 7 days i will be feedin loads of live food several times a day like Brine shrimp, wrigglers, Inusoria and Micro worms.