July 16th, 2008
Running a fishroom can be time consuming, and sometimes there just isn't enough time. I had quite a lot of eggs of Nothobranchius furzeri from last autumn 2007 (more), and i'd been keeping them cool (fishroom floor, 20 degrees C) because I knew I wouldn't have time to raise them until July 2008.
I had 3 bags of Nothobranchius furzeri Gona-Re-Zhou and one of a red strain, Moz 99-4. I'd been checking them on and off; eggs had always been visible, in various states of devlopment. A couple weeks before I was to hatch them, I put them on a high shelf in my fishroom (28 degrees C).
Day 1: Approximately 220 fry hatched from 4 bags. Very few belly sliders, but a few deformities in the Moz 99-4s. Vast majority of fry are normal and healthy. Fry fed newly hatched artemia immediately.
Day 2: Some fry are moved from the hatching containers to their new tanks. Fry fed newly hatched artemia. Most eat ravenously, though a few, despite no influence of other fry don't eat. They examine the artemia nauplii, but then just don't eat, seemingly preferring to go hungry.
Day 3: Remaining fry moved to their tanks. More artemia.
Day 6: The fry are offered (and take) grindal worms for the first time.
Day 10: They are given cyclops and small mosquito larvae. The cyclops are agile and take some catching.
Day 12: Some fish ate cyclopeze when offered, though by no means all. They are still not particularly keen on it.
Day 13: I collected a lot of daphnia and mosquito larvae (including larger ones, see below).
So that was the first two weeks. They've got a little bigger now, and they are always hungry. Still no sign of any colouration to determine which are the males, but some of the larger individuals are clearly male. Keeping them well fed enough to prevent too much canibalism is tricky, and I will be separating them soon into small groups until they sex out.