Elassoma Gilberti

Sneaker males are very common in other nest-guarding fishes, such as Lepomis. Their presence in Elassoma is not at all unlikely.

I'm still unsure if he's a sneaker male or if there just aren't any more territory domains left in the tank. I guess I will know as soon as the next batch of males shows their gender. If they are able to find enough space to claim their own territory and that one male continues to try sneaking onto the other males' space, then I guess that's just really his game strategy.

Elassoma fry don't eat for the first few days while they're in the dart-stick-lie still stage. As the yolk is absorbed, the eyes and fins develop so they can maneuver well enough to strike at zooplankton, and then they start eating. The pectoral fins vibrate constantly when they reach the ready-to-feed stage.

>> Erica wrote: "In the 10 gallon tank I noticed that the fry mentioned in the previous post stayed where they had hatched for the first few days. They're so tiny and can't move very well. I imagine they wait there as unmoving as possible and eat whatever floats too close to them. Their lack of movement means they're safe around the male. I watched him swim right over and around his fry earlier today, without noticing they were there at all and without them even twitching. They stay perfectly still."

Edited by gerald, 05 February 2011 - 01:32 PM.

Elassoma fry don't eat for the first few days while they're in the dart-stick-lie still stage. As the yolk is absorbed, the eyes and fins develop so they can maneuver well enough to strike at zooplankton, and then they start eating. The pectoral fins vibrate constantly when they reach the ready-to-feed stage.

>> Erica wrote: "In the 10 gallon tank I noticed that the fry mentioned in the previous post stayed where they had hatched for the first few days. They're so tiny and can't move very well. I imagine they wait there as unmoving as possible and eat whatever floats too close to them. Their lack of movement means they're safe around the male. I watched him swim right over and around his fry earlier today, without noticing they were there at all and without them even twitching. They stay perfectly still."

*nods* That's what it looks like.

Update:
Yesterday I transferred over six or so nearly half inch elassoma gilberti juveniles from the 10 gallon tank to the 55. They'd been left in there as barely visible fry back when all of the adults and juveniles got transferred over to the main tank. There are still about five or so in there that were smaller. I took out the rest of the swordtails and left the small gilberti in the ten gallon. When I looked at them today they all had bulging bellies. I guess they had been too intimidated by the larger fish to graze all day like they needed to to grow larger. I bet they'll grow faster now that they're the only fish in the tank.

The gilberti in the 55 are all doing well. The adults are spawning all the time, the fry have hatched and are hiding in the plants, the plants are growing healthily, and everything's basically hunky dory. There's no real news to report, except that I think I'm going to discontinue feeding the tank microworms. My cultures both crashed at the same time, the main culture and the backup, and the rotifers are doing well, so I have no incentive to start up the microworms again. You can't beat a tank that never needs to be fed, never needs to be cleaned, and has basically zero maintenance except to take plants out and sell them every now and then. I like it. I feel like I have the freedom to go on vacation and come back and everything would still be going well

Edited by EricaWieser, 06 February 2011 - 09:35 PM.

This morning I woke him up by taking a picture of him. Poor fishy.
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Edit: Oh, yes, I don't think I've mentioned this in a while, but you have full permission to use my photos as long as you credit me as the photographer and the species as Elassoma gilberti. ^_^

Edited by EricaWieser, 08 February 2011 - 10:24 AM.

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I see NOTHING poor about that fish, or the picture!

This morning I woke him up by taking a picture of him. Poor fishy.

I see NOTHING poor about that fish, or the picture!

Thanks

Update: The babies that hatched recently now have visible eyeballs and look less like bugs. They're still too small for my camera to see, though, so no pictures yet. Also, the E. gilberti in the 10 gallon have big fat bellies. I guess they really had been overcrowded and too shy to get food. And the last bit of news: It's official, I'm moving to North Carolina in July. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to move all of these fish and tanks three states away yet, but I'm thinking maybe Kordon breathing bags for the adults and juveniles, and the <1 month old fry would all unfortunately die when the tank gets drained. Very sad. But once I'm in North Carolina, I'm planning on building them a 400 gallon tank all for themselves, so that's happy. I'm still sad those fry will die, though. But they're too small to really see and I don't think I'll be able to find all of them when I'm scooping fish out of the tank. They're super tiny and don't move much.

Edited by EricaWieser, 10 February 2011 - 08:45 PM.

Current photo of the tank:
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The reddish tint to the plants upsets me. I liked them better green. http://gallery.nanfa...resize.jpg.html
The pink section in the front middle is California blackworms.

Edited by EricaWieser, 10 February 2011 - 08:44 PM.

Female has blue-ish lateral line:
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Scaring blackworms:


Elassoma gilberti size is close to that of Physa snail:
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Edited by EricaWieser, 11 February 2011 - 09:05 PM.

Snail is Lymnaea; Physa has the aperture on the other side (left-handed). Leave an inch of water in the tank and the fry will probably survive the move. Where in NC will you be moving to?

Snail is Lymnaea; Physa has the aperture on the other side (left-handed). Leave an inch of water in the tank and the fry will probably survive the move. Where in NC will you be moving to?

Thank you for the snail I.D. I notice now that it's a different color and size and shell shape than the Physa snails in the tank. D'oh.

I'm moving to the Winston-Salem area. Wake Forest University accepted me into their graduate program in regenerative medicine, and I'm really excited. I plan to move to North Carolina in mid-July. It'll probably be warm enough to put the 55 gallon in the back of a pick up, leave the substrate and an inch of water in the bottom, and drive it down there, but I'm worried about the weight. I'll be moving it out of summer housing on the third floor with no elevator. So I think I'll completely empty it, throw the substrate out, buy $30 of california blackworms and some bags of kitty litter, take them with me, and set the tank up fresh in N.C.

Tank update:
The big fry hunt and eat the small fry. I watched one stalking a smaller one.
Also, I added brine shrimp to the tank as a treat and the fish are all fatter now. The pygmy sunfish don't hunt the brine shrimp aggressively, but if one swims right into an adult's face, there's a chance it'll snap at it.

Thank you for the snail I.D. I notice now that it's a different color and size and shell shape than the Physa snails in the tank. D'oh.

I'm moving to the Winston-Salem area. Wake Forest University accepted me into their graduate program in regenerative medicine, and I'm really excited. I plan to move to North Carolina in mid-July. It'll probably be warm enough to put the 55 gallon in the back of a pick up, leave the substrate and an inch of water in the bottom, and drive it down there, but I'm worried about the weight. I'll be moving it out of summer housing on the third floor with no elevator. So I think I'll completely empty it, throw the substrate out, buy $30 of california blackworms and some bags of kitty litter, take them with me, and set the tank up fresh in N.C.

Tank update:
The big fry hunt and eat the small fry. I watched one stalking a smaller one.
Also, I added brine shrimp to the tank as a treat and the fish are all fatter now. The pygmy sunfish don't hunt the brine shrimp aggressively, but if one swims right into an adult's face, there's a chance it'll snap at it.

In the event Erica's medical career takes her away from native fishes, the suggestion is being made to make certain extra effort is used to preserve this thread. It has been very informative and should be an ideal model for studies / reports on other species.

Good call, Centrarchid.

In the video of scaring blackworms just above, there is a puff of something that looks like smoke coming up from the substrate just about in the middle of the video. What is that?

In the video of scaring blackworms just above, there is a puff of something that looks like smoke coming up from the substrate just about in the middle of the video. What is that?

That's one of my clams. I don't know what species they are.
Here is a link to the auction I bought them from: http://www.aquabid.c...verts1289944175
Clam pictures:
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The music to this one is kinda weird but I had to play something if I wanted Windows Movie Maker to not play the screechy cheap-camera audio originally recorded during the movie, so, well, here it is.

Edited by EricaWieser, 13 February 2011 - 07:11 PM.

The camera keeps focusing in the middle of the fry's body. This is the first time I've been able to get anything even resembling a photo of one:
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Look at how well they blend in with the kitty litter substrate in the zoom out of this photo:
Zoom out: http://gallery.nanfa...06_002.JPG.html

Edited by EricaWieser, 13 February 2011 - 07:22 PM.

Your clams are one of the Corbicula species, a widespread exotic originally from east Asia.

Your clams are one of the Corbicula species, a widespread exotic originally from east Asia.

I looked them up and found out that the young do not require a host and are free swimming. I was worried because some clams' young latch onto the gills of fish and irritate the fish. But it seems that these clams are not parasitic. yay
Source: http://el.erdc.usace...siatic_clam.htm
Edit: And of course I would never release anything I have in my aquarium into the local waterways. I understand what invasive species are and would never do that.

Edited by EricaWieser, 13 February 2011 - 09:27 PM.

The camera keeps focusing in the middle of the fry's body. This is the first time I've been able to get anything even resembling a photo of one...

I got a better photo of one. This fry is yellow for some reason (I don't know why?), so unlike the other fry, it can be picked up by the camera. I like how full all of their little bellies are
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