Lots of New Goldfish Fry Babies

Last night the goldfish babies started to hatch out of their eggs.  Today, the walls and floors of the new baby tank are covered with SUPER tiny baby fish.

They can be found in clusters in the corners of the tank.

 Can you see them?  Look for the reflective metallic eyeballs.

 They are so small that it makes my eyes go crossed trying to see them.

 They dart about once in a while. 

Some of them dart to the surface to get air.

 So many tiny fish eyeballs!

I have started a clear class jar with water from a well-planted tank.  I labeled it "Infusoria" and put some spirulina algae tablets in along with a few leaves from the well-planted tank.  I'm supposed to use a lettuce leaf, but I think the leaves from the tank probably have more tasty bacteria and other aquatic micro-organisms already eating away at them.

 

I put the glass jar in a brightly lit, but not sunny location.  The organisms should flourish in the jar and hopefully be ready to feed to the babies in 2-3 days when they start to look for food.

There are lots of leaves and roots and gravel from the original tank so there should be lots of food available for the babies for the first while.  In the first 2-3 days they won't be eating anyways.

 

The baby goldfish are so small that I can't even imagine them as goldfish yet.  They look nothing like fish.  They look more like insects.

 

 I can't wait until they become more fish-like. 

 Eggs that were not fertilized are turning white and fuzzy.  I should remove them so that the white fuzzy fungus doesn't flourish.

 I will keep you updated on the progress of these little guys and gals.  I am glad I started a baby tank.  I put eggs in the well-planted guppy tank, but I have a feeling the guppies ate them since I don't see a single one anywhere.  I can't see any babies in the original goldfish tank either.  The goldfish probably had some tasty snacks or the fry got sucked up by the filter.

Have a happy day!

The Goldfish Eggs Are Starting to Hatch

I just checked on the new tank I started and I noticed that the water looked frothy at the top.  I am not sure why.  However, it looks like some baby goldfish are starting to hatch!

Here is one newly hatched baby goldfish.

 There are little straight goldfish fry that are still attached to the egg.  They wave in the current.

 Can you see them?  They have fat little egg yolk sacs around their body. Over the next day or two, these babies will not eat and they will not move around much.  They will just absorb the yolk sac.  Around the third day, they will start to swim around and they will need food. 

  Apparently I should use some water from a well planted tank, add a piece of lettuce and some algae wafers and place it in a brightly lit (not sunny) spot.  This will encourage the infusoria (algae, amoebas, euglena, paramecium, rotifers, stentor, and vorticella) to grow.  I am supposed to feed some of this water to the babies about 3 times per day.  I can also give them newly hatched brine shrimp, cooked egg yolk, and finely powdered fish food in small quantities.

 Some babies have detached from the egg and are on leaves or on the floor.

I am excited to see how many more will have hatched by tomorrow. I wonder why the eggs in the new tank are hatching first?

Have a happy day!

Fuzzy Crochet Baby Bear Hat With Ear Flaps

I've been eyeing PDF tutorials on Etsy for a while now.  In particular, I really liked this one of a brown bear hat with ear flaps.  However, being the cheapskate that I am, I opted to look for a free tutorial instead.  

I wasn't able to find an exact tutorial for it, but I did find a tutorial for a very cute newborn baby hat with earflaps.  Other sizes are also available on that website.

I had some Baby Boucle yarn kicking around so I used that to get the fuzzy effect.  It makes the "magic loop" at the start harder, but it still works.

Instead of the crabstitch edging that they have in the tutorial, I did a single crochet as the edging because I wanted a braided look.  It looks really good, but I'm not sure if it added too much length to the height of the hat.  I'll guess I'll find out when I put it onto the baby.

 For the ears, I did the magic loop with 10 dc, but instead of joining the circle, I ch 3, turn, and 2 dc in each dc. Then I ch 1, turn, and sc decrease intermittently so that the ears curl inwards.  Then turn and continue to sc decrease until the gap is filled.

With the Baby Boucle yarn it doesn't have to be exact because you can't see all the separate stitches well.  Do the same for the other ear.  Finish off and tie the two loose ends together, then stuff into the ear.

Then pin onto the hat approximately centered with the ear flaps near the top of the hat.  Attach with a hidden stitch (needle and thread).

I have a limited number of dolls capable of modeling this hat for you to see... so, um, you get the white gorilla.  Hopefully your child will look better than this  :P

Happy Crocheting!