Are these blue smokey?

[Wendy]

I found these two lovely fish last week and put them in my community tank....no quarantine....I know I'm bad but the QT tank already has some other fish in it...so I took a risk. I think they might be blue smokey, can anyone confirm this please? Also they are laying eggs today....they are only about 5cm from nose to base of tail. One is definitely female coz she has layed eggs, the other one is acting like a male but doesnt seem to have any "equipment" on display. Considering their smallness I'm really surprised they have got this far and I doubt anything will come of the eggs considering the competition in the tank. The Male? is doing a good job of guarding, but I think thats all he(if he is a he) has figured out yet. Its great to watch them, the tank is in front of my desk and I am getting absolutely no work done!!!lol!!!

[Mattzilla]

yep

and they have some zebra in them... as you can see by the bar through the eye and the almost solid bar through the body

hard to tell from the pic of the male but i'd say it's probably a male. when it's breeding tube drops it will be thin and pointy.

good luck with them

[ILLUSN]

not to sure Matt, they look a little green ubder the pectral fins, might be regular smokeys?

what type of light do you have them under Wendy?

[Wendy]

The light is a Heto T5 HO 48Q I'm afraid I don't have much of a clue with lighting but this is what the LFS suggested. So far the plants are happy so that makes me happy...

Glad to hear about the zebra too Matt.... perhaps if they successfully breed I might get some blue zebras too...wouldn't that be great!! I think zebra is my favourite pattern.

They ate the eggs by the way, but hopefully they will grow a bit before they try it again.

[Mattzilla]

You'd probably get silver zebras with a blue sheen to them

[Wendy]

Excellent!!

[Wendy]

Well it seems I have definitely got a male and a female! They have been spawning every week or so in the community tank since I last posted and the eggs dissapear in there very quickly. 2 weeks ago I watched them trying desperately to save them and they had no chance against the much bigger other occupants of the tank....so I took pity on them and moved them to a smaller tank in the shed. They were a little timid by themselves and I was on the verge of bringing them back in to the big tank, but with xmas didn't get round to it. The day after xmas, I went to do the morning feed and the female was looking to lay eggs so I left them be and before long a pile of eggs was soon deposited. They have been dutifully tending them and today according to what I have read I can expect wrigglers. This morning there was still a healthy pile of eggs. I have just checked the tank and the eggs have dissapeared.....I thought "damn they must have eaten them......but they were hanging around a piece of rock in their tank and acting most concerned. So I looked carefully and I can see a teeny weeny tail wiggling along the edge....I think they have moved them to a new spot. I can't see properly as they are on the side of the rock that faces towards the back of the tank, but I am hoping that if I can see one tail there might be more!!

[Merrilyn]

Congratulations Wendy, that's great!

There's bound to be more than one baby. The parents are pretty good at hiding their young.

[Wendy]

Mum has moved some of the babies to the top of the rock now so I took a couple of pics, it seems there are quite a few! The white bits are just sand she has picked up with them.

I had to take Dad out this morning, mum was attacking him a lot and had even managed to damage one of his gill plates, poor guy, he's takin a breather now with some youngsters.

[Wendy]

Babies started swimming today....think I had a few dissapear and I think mum was eating them as they started to swim. So I moved her to another tank. I have been feeding microworms and have seen them snatch a few so I hope they will do OK. Also I have a brine shrimp hatchery started, but I'm a total noob with these...i'm just following instructions on this site....with fingers x'd.