Re: NANFA-- Flagfin-Bluehead hybrid fry

Mysteryman (bestfish_at_alaweb.com)
Sat, 21 Feb 2004 12:35:19 -0800

>You sound confident. How do you think I could tell so soon if these fish
> are hybrids?
>

Okay, it'll be a little tougher than that after all. While the lateral
stripe should be plain enough on the month-old fry of Flagfins,
Blueheads, or any hybrid fry, the width of that stripe will be the first
indicator. A skinny stripe will probably spell pure Bluehead, while a
wider one will mean hybrid. Of course, you'd have to know how wide a
Flagfin fry's stripe is to be able to tell if your frys' stripes are
thinner. Consider that a monthold baby Flagfin looks pretty much like a
colorless adult save for the stripe, and you can just compare the two
pictures in Peterson's Field Guide or something for a good indicator.
Of course, this is all assuming that any hybrids would not for some
reason use the purely skinny stripe of the Bluehead, but something tells
me that they wouldn't. My guess is that you'll see a skinny stripe
ending with a black spot on the caudal peduncle, indicating pure
Bluehead, but if they are hybrids you'll likely just see a wide stripe
with no spot, although a spot may be present. Again, just a wild guess,
but if you've ever seen Bluehead fry and Flagfin fry, it shouldn't take
too long to notice if something is amiss.

They grow fast, by the way. Give them greenwater for a week and a half,
and then wean them onto flakefood ground into powder. I've found that
turning off the pumps while they eat their green water and putting the
flour on the surface works very well. When you restart the pumps, the
flour will sink and be eaten.
As for the greenwater: Get a few jars of greenwater. Rub your plants
along the inside lips of the jars to scrape off yummy aufwuchs ( tiny
microscopic critters clinging to the plants ). Let the jars settle for
awhile, and you'll see a layer of concentrated food form at the bottom.
Pour off the clear water on the top into another jar for further
settling. Repeat until you have a jarful of seriously green water and
then feed that to your fry with the pumps off. Let the fry swim through
their buffet for about a half hour before restarting the filters.
You probably already knew all of that, but I mention it because I found
it very effective for starting fry off with a bang, and maybe others may
find it useful. I had well over 95% of my fry survive using this method.
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