Breeding Project: Cherry Barb

So I figure I should update this more often so that the dates would be proper, but I get lazy and nobody's perfect. =P
In any case, some of the eggs had fungused over (partly because some of the saved eggs from the 1 gal parent container had bits of food with them, which most likely was the catalyst to the fungus), leaving the remaining eggs (a much smaller percentage of it) to slowly develop. The lack of a heater in the tank is quite bothersome, so I will definitely be bringing back one when I return home next. With this cool temperature (I like my room to be crispy cold), the eggs have taken a much slower developmentational route - as expected.

The larvae were seen 2 days after the eggs have been laid on October 17. In the early mornings of the 18th, movement was noticed, but since it was so early I simply passed it off as seeing things instead. Now that it is the 19th, furious wiggling was witnessed after discovering that the larvae had moved positions from the night prior to them hatching out as larvae. The eggs are clear, almost fooling one into believing that they are just blanks and not fertilized. The larvae are no different, being clear and very round themselves - however, they look like eggs with a tiny bulb on the top and a stringy end behind the bulb. This signifies the head and the developing spinal column and body, demonstrating that Cherry Barb egg yolks are not famously colored in tones of yellow or red like many other species of fish.

The larvae generally remain motionless and attached to whatever surface they hatched on. The occassional mad wiggling only occurs uncommonly as the eyes don't even seem to have developed yet. At this point in time, I've only seen about 10 of them - 4 larvae for sure. Their clear bodies make them hard to spot, on top of the fact that some tend to enjoy lying motionless amongst plants. In a couple days, they should be expected to have moved onto the next stage of life: the fry stage. This point in time is where everything kicks into gear as I want to wait a couple days after they become free swimming so that they can be prolific enough to withstand or hide from the current of the filter.

An important note I forgot to add to the last blog entry was the tidbit about my amazing roomate. He was a major driving force behind this project and even kickstarted a flame within me again that made me focus on this as a part of my life. He even went as far as to buying some bloodworms for me as to condition the fish (as I didn't bring any up with me at the time). So it is he whom I owe this spawn's success and perhaps the next couple spawns as well!

As a side note, one of the females died within the time frame of this blog and the last blog. She was the lone female from before (not the jumbo breeding pair). The diagnosis behind her death was unknown, although I had noticed a decrease in feeding and activity behaviour, often swimming somewhat abnormally for a Cherry Barb. Within the last day before her death, internal bleeding was thought to have occurred. This hypothesis came to be after observations of a red patch developed near her heart and stomach region. This worsened in the final hours of her life and after death as well as a few parts of her body - especially by the organs such as the swim bladder and upper stomach - became dark in coloration, almost reminiscent of that deep blood maroon-red. I buried her in the garden outside under the prettiest flowers still in bloom. May she now have eternal peace.