The Xinguary

#TheGreenery - Easter edition. Having returned to breeding Xingus again does not mean that there are no other news at The Xinguary . In the Christmas story about the Japura greens l told you about the three pairs that l had. The reason for past tense is that those pairs have all split up and new pairs formed. It happened in such a fortunate way that the big bronco male and the most spotted female (ex- female2) decided to start dating each other and ended up producing a lovely batch of fry which have now been free-swimming for 10 days. Strangely, the father fish, whose previous attempts at parenting have all failed, is now a good dad and the fry had no problem finding him since day one.

So... The Japura greens: romance vs. reality. There are three pairs in the 1000L community tank: -The spotted pair with the most amazing shape and long trailers in the dorsal fins -The not-so spotted pair who have just a few spots, but as far as l am concerned, their shape is even better than that of the "amazing ones" - The not at all spotted pair who are very nice fish In the past l have posted pictures and videos of all three pairs laying eggs, guarding eggs, guarding wigglers, etc., but not a lot in terms of fry on their backs. Well, here's what's going on: The amazing looking pair are crap parents. They lay 250-300 eggs, guard them, fan them, pick most of the bad ones out, they sometimes even move the newly hatched fry to another spot, but this is pretty much where it ends. Once the fry go free-swimming, they seem to lose interest and they most certainly don't produce the slime to feed their fry. There is no real attachment as such, some of the fry do find the parents, but after not more than maybe 12 hours there will be none left on them. The babies rooam aimlessly around the tank and perish away. Or maybe not. But let's not run so far ahead... Pair three. The lovely, yet not superbly spectacular fish. Now, these are a different kind of idiots. They lay, guard, move fry beautifully. But you onow what? They are afraid of their own fry. The babies want to attach to them just like it is written in the big book of attachment, but the parents just keep on trying to stick them back onto the surface (drifwood in our case). When they realise that they can't keep up with the well over a hundred fry, they freak out and try to shake them off as if the fry were some kind of little vampires. (Side note: there are four other fish in the same tank space where this pair reside in the 1000 and those four freak out just the same, so l assume that given a quiet environment and proper private space, pair three could be just as good parents as... ...pair two. These are probably

Wild Rio Negro Heckel pairs.

Looks like l will soon be getting back an ancient Xingu bloodline of mine which l thought l should celebrate by not changing the name of #TheXinguary to #TheHeckelary, but as you can see in the video below, l would have one or two reasons to do so. And the rain hasn't even arrived yet...

Wild Rio Negro Heckel pair with fry

They don't do it often, but when they do...

Rio Negro Heckel F1

Three months and a bit. There are a few really great ones in there, but most importantly there aren't any bad ones. Fluke-free fish are easy and a lot of fun to raise. Thry are healthy, strong and their immune system is under no pressure which could set growth back quite a bit and cause other direct or indirect issues. There are still a few of them available.

Heckel F1 at three months

Rio Negro Heckel F1 at three months of age. The future stock l have selected, the rest of them can go elsewhere.

Xingu F2 x Wild Heckel Rio Negro

Isn't it just great to have friends? Friends like those who keep bugging you for years to do something that you never really intended to do - because you are an old-school purist, a comformist and a bit of a snob. Well, if tagging was possible in a post on this sodding page, l would then have to tag my long-time friend and partner in crime, Marco DuToit who did all that bugging. Isn't it just great to have a few spare fish? Fish like an F2A male Xingu and a wild Heckel female who happened to both be horny at the same time but in different aquariums - why would l mix Xingus with Heckels in a tank??? Well, l did just that. Four days after l moved the male in with Her Majesty they spawned for the first time, but the eggs disappeared from the back of the breeding cone just before they were due to hatch. The second attempt came about a week later and those with a decent eyesight can see the result. I am looking forward to finding out whether the bugging had been worth the effort... :)

Rio Negro Heckel Discus F1

Update 19th day free swimming. As the fry are getting braver by the day and swim around the entire tank without parental supervision, the adults are becoming ever more relaxed and l can now do pretty much anything in terms of feeding and cleaning without them attacking me or freaking out and hiding behind the wood. The fry are beginning to take frozen artemia (rinsed in freshwater), dry formula for fry and any bite-sized particles from the parents' meals. Another few days and they will be ready to be transferred to a tank of their own where they will be given lots and lots of fresh and clean water twice a day. Fishing them out will be a bit of a challenge, l'm afraid. #heckel #discus #rionegro #wildheckelf1 #wilddiscus

Rio Negro Heckel F1

Update 12th day free-swimming, 6th day on baby brine shrimp. Growing well, no losses, although l can already see a few that will certainly not qualify for the main event. I feed them every 2.5-3 hours on newly hatched brine shrimp and l also mix very fine dry fry food in with the bbs. They don't seem to be taking the dry stuff yet, but we're in no hurry. They will get the hang of it eventually. #rionegro #heckeldiscus #heckelf1

Xingu Discus - where lines "A" and "B" unite

And so that you don't get under the impression that Xingus are of no interest anymore... here is the proof that we stay true to the name and keep our focus on the ancient game. #rioxingu #xingudiscus #crossinglines #discusbreeding

Wild Heckel F1, day 7.

Update The Heckel fry are growing nicely. Still together in a pack, but spending ever more time off the parents picking on anything that's carried by the water and beginning to graze on the surfaces covered in "life of all sorts". They also had their first feeding of baby brine shrimp and they shown a fair bit of interest. #heckeldiscus #rionegro #breedingheckels #realheckelf1 #discusbreeding

Breeding Rio Negro Discus

And now... something completely different. It's... The Xinguary's breeding Heckels. (View full screen, the video isn't great.)

Rio Xingu discus raised to perfection

The owner of these is looking for one or more new aquariums for 16 out of 30, superbly raised Xingus. Pm or whatsapp for details.