Some of you may remember my bait bucket rescue of a pair of central mudminnow. I found them by responding to a blurry photo in a "what kind of fish is this?" post in a local icefishing forum. They were trapped through the ice by a pike fisherman who knew just enough to recognize they were something unusual. Turned out they were new records for the state region and drainage and only the second population in the state.

My first impression of them was of how hardy they were. They had spent a week or more in a crowded bait bucket left outside and allowed to partially freeze. When I met the fisherman out on the ice to check out the mystery fish, he tossed 'em into my bucket with about an inch of melt water scooped off the dirty surface of the ice.
Frankly I was doubtful they would survive as they looked pretty beat.
I filled the bucket halfway with chilled water when I got home and left it on the cellar floor to slowly warm to room temp. I set up a 15 gallon tank and dumped in a bunch of algae and pond plants to make a swampy new home for them. After a couple days I dumped 'em in. They prompty disappeared and I didn't see them for about a week.
Once hunger overcame their fear I started seeing them but they were shy. Chopped up nightcrawlers lured them out and soon they were tame. Immediately the larger one started taking on girth while the smaller developed bright blue fins and an aggressive attitude.
The male was tough on the female. He would display for a minute or so and when she didn't resond, he'd attack her and drive her off. Only the thick cover kept her safe but she did get tattered.
Eventually she started to notice her partner with some interest.

She started allowing him to approach but continued to tease for a few days.

Finally she'd respond for a few seconds before he got impatient and ended up driving her off again.

Not long afterward I came home from work and noticed the female wasn't hiding anymore. I also noticed the male was ignoring her. Closer examination revealed she was totally depleted. She also attacked a stick I was using to move the plants to search for eggs.
I removed the male at that point but left the female based on accounts I read that claimed the female would care for the young. I never found the eggs in the thick mat of vegetation and the only care I witnessed was halfhearted defense when I poked around in the tank. She soon gave that up as well and I had no reason to believe the spawn was successful.
Nevertheless I spent a few minutes each night searching for larvae. After about 10 days @ 50-55 F, I saw my first larvae still sporting large egg yolks. I removed the female and also took out half a dozen larvae to observe seperately.
Once the larvae in the observation tank swam up, I carefully removed all the plants and algae in the brood tank so I could catch the fry. I got about 30 and found no fungased eggs. They were large robust fry and actively stalked and captured day old BBS immediately.


The fry are now in a five gallon tank with a sand substrate a few sparse plants to hide in. The fry are totally tame and relaxed and hunt for BBS, cyclops and baby daphnia all day long. They are very cool to watch and behave like miniture adults hovering motionless for long periods before going on the hunt. When they sight prey, they stalk it exactly like the adults right down to the cute little S curve in the body just before they pounce.

That is great mike,really good pics of this little guys. Keep us updated on there growth.

Yeah, that's an informative account. You should write that up for American Currents.

Wow. Now I can't wait to get my easterns to spawn! How big are the parents, and how big/old are the babies now?

Nice - thanks for sharing.

Mike, that is great! I suspect at least one pair of mine have spawned. The males(I have two, it seems!) have great color, and the various fish have paired up for brief times and exhibited similar behavior to what you described. About the only difference I can see is that the females have not gotten beat up, due to the large amount of room they have to escape to when one of the males gets "frisky" One large on in particular has commandeered a location and doe not let ANYTHING near it, and is noticeably thinner then a week ago....so I suspect she at least has laid some eggs in there. I have no place to bring up young, so I've not tried to find any..who knows, although it's very doubtful..maybe she will protect them long enough for them to get to a "safe" size, IF they are even there.

Edited by Nightwing, 23 March 2008 - 12:08 AM.

Thanks guys.
The babies are about 2 weeks old and closing on 0.5 inch size. They grow very fast and as you see in the pics pretty much keep full tummies all day due to live cyclops and baby daphnia that remain available for them to catch when needed. I supplement with live BBS twice a day.
I am keeping some haphazard notes and plan on making entries to the BAP for all the species I've got going. I have definately considered something for AC.

Nightwing sounds like you have definately gotten a spawn in your tank. Keep an eye out for larvae. They're pretty small and hard to see but they did like to cling to the glass.
I doubt your fry will get to "safe" size unless you have LOTS of live critters in there. Although mine are very good feeders and grow fast, they definately want live prey. They ignore dead baby brine that sink to the bottom but will travel the whole length of the tank to stalk one that's moving.

Thanks guys.
The babies are about 2 weeks old and closing on 0.5 inch size. They grow very fast and as you see in the pics pretty much keep full tummies all day due to live cyclops and baby daphnia that remain available for them to catch when needed. I supplement with live BBS twice a day.
I am keeping some haphazard notes and plan on making entries to the BAP for all the species I've got going. I have definately considered something for AC.

Nightwing sounds like you have definately gotten a spawn in your tank. Keep an eye out for larvae. They're pretty small and hard to see but they did like to cling to the glass.
I doubt your fry will get to "safe" size unless you have LOTS of live critters in there. Although mine are very good feeders and grow fast, they definately want live prey. They ignore dead baby brine that sink to the bottom but will travel the whole length of the tank to stalk one that's moving.

MIKE,
its chad the guy that trapped the fish .that has to be the coolest story that i have heard and to know that they survived the mud room thats ironic and the water we had to put in you bucket.its good to see that they are doing good , i would love to tell you the story so if you still have my number give me a call or e-mail me.those little ones are cool too. good job.

Mudminnow fry are about four weeks old and growing really well.
These guys really are great canidates for captive breeding. The fry are a snap to raise.
Shot a few pics today at feeding time. You can see they love their baby brine shrimp.
Something cool that I never knew is the filiment on their tail. It'll be interesting to note when they lose those.

Beautiful photos and a great account mike.
KUDOS!

You should submit your info here. http://nanfa.org/bap.shtml

As somebody was asking about this thread, I thought I'd update it.
Unfortunately, I screwed up. The fry were doing well but growth was slowing. I decided to move them to a 55 grow out tank with some SRBD and rainwater killi fry. They had a very bad reaction to being moved from the little 5 gallon to the huge 55. Very stressed. Within 48 hours, they were all gone. By gone I mean literally missing. Apparently they all leaped out.
Now to make it worse, I haven't seen the female adult for awhile.
I had really hoped to breed second generation next spring. If my female is gone, I probably won't replace her.
Truthfully I got greedy this year and tried to breed too many at once. I'm gettin too old and electricity is too expensive and there's not one square foot left for another tank.

As somebody was asking about this thread, I thought I'd update it.
Unfortunately, I screwed up. The fry were doing well but growth was slowing. I decided to move them to a 55 grow out tank with some SRBD and rainwater killi fry. They had a very bad reaction to being moved from the little 5 gallon to the huge 55. Very stressed. Within 48 hours, they were all gone. By gone I mean literally missing. Apparently they all leaped out.
Now to make it worse, I haven't seen the female adult for awhile.
I had really hoped to breed second generation next spring. If my female is gone, I probably won't replace her.
Truthfully I got greedy this year and tried to breed too many at once. I'm gettin too old and electricity is too expensive and there's not one square foot left for another tank.

Too bad about the fry, but nicely done nonetheless. I agree with the other posters that this reads more like an AC article than a forum post. Thanks!