The gold fish babies are now 1 month old
They look a lot more like fish, but they still have no goldfish colour aside from the greenish brown coloration and pale belly.
Sadly, only 4 babies remain. There are two big, fat ones and two skinny, small ones. I refer to them as clones since the pairs look eerily similar to each other. Perhaps the Matrix felt sorry for me when all the babies started to die and they create two copies of the last two fish for me to stare at every day.
It seems that the toxicity of the water was building up rapidly as the drops of raw egg yolk began to decompose in the water. I suddenly noticed at least 8 baby fish dead one day and I immediately changed the water.
I thought maybe I could save a couple goldfish babies from the toxic water by moving them to the guppy tank, but it was a bad idea.
I discovered that the baby goldfish don't swim very well since the baby tank has no real current. So they kind of half swim, half float in the guppy tank. Also, they are very pale coloured compared to the guppy babies so they stand out. Within minutes, a fat momma guppy spotted the goldfish baby and chased it. The baby's swimming skills were sadly lacking and she swallowed him down in three gulps. It was horrifying.
By that time, only five babies were still remaining. My brother tested the chemical balance of the water and found that the ammonia level was still too high, so he has since changed an even larger proportion of the water. Now four babies remain.
Meanwhile, the parent goldfish tank also benefited from double water changes. I also planted new artificial plants since they had demolished the original live plants.
This prompted some mating behaviour and we were shocked to discover a new batch of eggs on Sunday morning.
I knew they could lay eggs twice a year, but I didn't expect it so soon.
This prompted some mating behaviour and we were shocked to discover a new batch of eggs on Sunday morning.
I knew they could lay eggs twice a year, but I didn't expect it so soon.
There were eggs everywhere! Not as many probably as the first time, but still a plentiful amount.
I moved any plants with eggs into the goldfish baby tank, and my brother vacuumed any visible eggs up and transferred them as well.
You can see that the baby goldfish is wondering what all the small round balls are.
I pushed the contrast of the image so that you can see the eyeballs of the babies and their curved bodies. The white egg is an unfertilized egg.
There are quite a few unfertilized eggs noticeable as they start to turn whiter.
Even so, there are so many eggs that there will definitely be lots of babies.
This egg is stuck to a plant, but the floor of the baby tank is actually covered with lots of loose eggs that we vacuumed off the plastic plants, gravel, and filter from the parent tank.
I pushed the contrast of the image so that you can see the eyeballs of the babies and their curved bodies. The white egg is an unfertilized egg.
There are quite a few unfertilized eggs noticeable as they start to turn whiter.
Even so, there are so many eggs that there will definitely be lots of babies.
This egg is stuck to a plant, but the floor of the baby tank is actually covered with lots of loose eggs that we vacuumed off the plastic plants, gravel, and filter from the parent tank.
Meanwhile, Frog the Goldfish doesn't care. These are not his kids. He is just taking a nap by the new plants while he waits for his next meal.
Have a great day!
Aww, hopefully more of the second batch survive! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Em! I hope so too. In the meanwhile, it's super exciting to have a second chance to try again!
ReplyDelete