Ok...a bit if an update. So my JD fry are about 10 weeks old now...and it's amazing the difference in size (smallest/largest). Obviously there is plenty of competition for food...and the more aggressive/more intelligent fry will get more food & grow faster. I've primarily been feeding them brine shrimp. The largest fry/small fish are a little over 1"...and the smallest are probably only (believe it or not) 10% of the volume of the largest.
I would estimate that I started out with 400-500 fry...and now about 10 weeks later...I'm guessing I have about 100. The parents were left in the tank for about 8 weeks...and there were no signs of the parents eating the fry. But I was starting to get concerned that some of the fry were getting larger...and with the male being SUPER aggressive (I would't even think of sticking my hand in the tank)...I was concerned that he would start eating them.
Plus the male wanted to eat the brine shrimp I was feeding the "small guys"...so not only was the male eating all the food...I also didn't want him to start thinking that he was competing for the food with the little ones. So I finally removed the parents about 2 weeks ago.
Here are a couple recent photos. Photo one showing most of the "school" of 100 small fish. Photo number 2 is a close up of a couple of the larger JD babies just after feeding time (brine shrimp). UNBELIEVABLE how bloated they can get...and 6-8 hours later it's all gone...and they're hungry again!
You can also see in photo #2...the big difference in size of he fry. Look at the two that are side by side in the lower right of photo #2.
I would estimate that I started out with 400-500 fry...and now about 10 weeks later...I'm guessing I have about 100. The parents were left in the tank for about 8 weeks...and there were no signs of the parents eating the fry. But I was starting to get concerned that some of the fry were getting larger...and with the male being SUPER aggressive (I would't even think of sticking my hand in the tank)...I was concerned that he would start eating them.
Plus the male wanted to eat the brine shrimp I was feeding the "small guys"...so not only was the male eating all the food...I also didn't want him to start thinking that he was competing for the food with the little ones. So I finally removed the parents about 2 weeks ago.
Here are a couple recent photos. Photo one showing most of the "school" of 100 small fish. Photo number 2 is a close up of a couple of the larger JD babies just after feeding time (brine shrimp). UNBELIEVABLE how bloated they can get...and 6-8 hours later it's all gone...and they're hungry again!
You can also see in photo #2...the big difference in size of he fry. Look at the two that are side by side in the lower right of photo #2.
I was never able to find enough folks locally to sell/rehome them.