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Tau's first spawns (Cyphotilapia gibberosa Mikula)

29K views 89 replies 17 participants last post by  Razzo 
#1 ·
Tau had battled Nyatzi, back in April, and he dethroned Nyatzi as Alpha. Nyatzi had produced a lot of fry during his reign; so, I was hopeful that the Tau continue that tradition. Tau had recently spawned with two of the females and both girls held great (9 & 12 days respectively). I am very excited to report, that today, I stripped 40 wigglers from the larger female and 10 wigglers from the small young female (it was her first time so please that she held for 12 days).

Here is Tau, my wild caught Cyphotilapia gibberosa Mikula Alpha male


Here's the bigger girl that gave me 40 F1 wigglers today.


Here's the little girl that gave me 10 F1 Mikula wigglers today. From this angle, it is hard to tell that she is even carrying.


My auto focus is broke on my lens - I'll try to load some wiggler images in the tumbler as I fix my lens.

Thanks,
Russ
 
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#77 ·
One of my goals, with this thread, is to document the growth of this group of F1 Cyphotilapia gibberosa (Mikula) fry. My plan, from this batch of 51 fry, was to keep the last 15 fry to grow out for myself and take photographs and measurements (photo journal) along the way. Today is "Day 92" from the spawning day and, I guess, we can consider them three months old. I delivered the first 15 fry to their new owner (a fellow Hoosier). I randomly scooped up about 20 fry in two netting attempts. 15 were bagged for my fellow Hoosier and the remaining five or six extra were measured as they were put back in the tank. All were approximately 1.75-inches in length.

In the next couple weeks (Lord willing), another 21 will go to their new homes and I will be left with the last 15 to continue to document their development. At some point in the next year these 15 will joining Nyatzi in another big tank in my fish room.

Thanks for coming along for the journey. Here are a few images from the past couple days…


Any guesses why I liked this image? :roll:




Cheers,
Russ
 
#80 ·
I have not updated their growth in a while. I shipped some fish out last night and decided to measure a few and snap a couple pics. Here's the group that shipped out - a little stressed from getting netted out of the main tank and put in a bucket and then this little 2.5 gallon observation tank. I faste them for 48 hours prior to shipping but I still like to let them sit a little bit to encourage them to purge any waste before bagging them. The stress of being netted and being put in a bucket sufficiently stresses them to clean out their system :lol:



 
#83 ·
Thanks guys :)

Decided to take a few pics of the growout group in the 72 gallon bow front tank. I don't really have it aquascaped the way I would like yet. I'd like to purchase some more AFS but I need a significant snow melt to get at the bin and sift through it for just the right pieces.

The fry, tonight, were up high in the water column expecting to be fed. That really helped give me a dark black background and the fish to glow in the foreground. I did spot remove air bubbles and algae with the clone stamp on a couple images. They are getting bigger now and I am able to get in closer capture a lot more detail with their increased size. They should be easier to photograph from now on (I'll work on getting some more Arkansas Field Stone for this tank).

Here's a couple images I liked. They are 4.5 months old (from spawn date) and they range from 2" to 2.25"





Thanks,
Russ
 
#85 ·
This is a little redundant as I have posted these next images in another thread; however, I want to keep this thread updated with my favorite pics of the F1 grow out group. Please forgive my redundancy as I want to keep these images in one place. Thank you for all the kind words as this thread has matured along with these Mikula fry...













 
#89 ·
I took a few pictures of my grow-out group of Mikula fry (there are 20 of them). They are in a 72-gallon bow front tank. I have been wanting to aquascape this tank and throw in a few pieces of Arkansas Field Stone; however, our 8+ feet of snow this year in South Bend has not had many melt offs and my stash of AFS is buried under snow and I have no desire to unbury it (with my slip disc in my back and all). I also want to put in some black sand to see how these little dudes will look with a dark substrate. They look good with this white sand; however, I want to see the difference with a darker substrate. I am actually pretty excited to see how much darker they will get and how much more blue they will show off. One of my fry customers, in California, sent me some pics of a group of Mikula fry I shipped him a few months ago (from the same batch as my grow-out group) and his tank has a dark substrate and I am totally envious and want to "give it a go."

At some point in the next two months, I plan to reseal the 125-gallon tank and rehome these Mikula to the 125. Once they reach four inches, I will introduce my wild male Nyatzi to the grow-out group as their alpha.

So, here are a couple FTS and some tank mates that I have in the 72. As usual, thanks for coming along for the ride on this photo journal….

Full Tank Shot (72-gallon Bow Front. They are 5.5.months old in these images. I will try to take a measurement soon.




Altolamprologus compressiceps Muzi gold head (excited about this guy as his colour pattern is very similar to his F0 dad at this size - he dad was amazing). I saved about eight of these F1 gold heads as grow-outs for myself.


Altolamprologus calvus (Black Congo White Pearl). I saved three of these calvus for myself (wish I would have saved more). Had someone make me an offer on my grow-out group of 10+ that I could not refuse.




I'll shoot a couple pics of the 40-gallon fry tank with the next batch of fry (there are about 50 in that next batch).

Thanks,
Russ
 
#90 ·
Just an update: I re-aquascaped the 72 gallon bow front tank yesterday. When I setup the new 125, I ordered some extra sand for the 72 (I have been wanting to try some Tahitian Moon Sand). I also picked out some extra Arkansas Field Stone for the 72 also. The pics are from yesterday.

Also, on 3/20/14 I measured each of these 21 juvies and here is what I came up with:
1) Age fish: 6.73 months from the date they were spawned.
2) Average size: 2.70" / 6.8 cm
3) Largest fish: 3.25" / 8.25 cm
4) Smallest fish: 2.36" / 6.0 cm

FTS of the 72 gallon bow front tank














 
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