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Lizards
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Misc Lizards 2
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Misc Lizards 6
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Misc Lizards 8
Misc Lizards 9


Snakes
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Kids at Pet Expo 5
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Miscellaneous
Bob's Acclimation

How to Start
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Which Fish Get Along?
10 Questions to Ask
What is Ich?
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Pet World Visit
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LA
 Male on top. Female below.  Not the breeders.  Just better posers.

Red Bay Snook Dimorphism.  Although not our actual breeders, the above pair shows their sexual dimorphism.   They are the same age.  Males grow faster and larger.  Males also sport more color.  Neither sex is particularly rowdy.  Even in too small tanks, they get along together. 

LA
Female smaller and lighter colored.

Our Female Star.  Here's our female breeder.  She's about six inches in length.  Not quite as colorful as the male and usually a little slower in the chow line.  However, lately she's been just as greedy at feeding time.  (And she's put on a little more weight.)

LA
Male larger and redder.

Our Male Star.  In addition to his larger size, his redder color is apparent.  The pair was recently moved to a 55 with eight adult Synodontis eupterus housed at 78 degrees.  They adjusted immediately to the slightly higher temperature.  They ate more and "took over" the left end of the tank.  We put "took over" in quotes because the catfish totally ignored their territorial claims to the left end.  The catfish also totally ignored the snooks and vice versa.

LA
The snooks dug under this ceramic cave.

Pre-Spawning Behavior.  In addition to staking out the left end, the snooks began excavating a pit under the large cave supposedly for the catfish.  The catfish and the snooks both ignored the actual cave.  The snooks continued to get along -- no lip-locking, no tail slapping, no ripped fins.  But there were other signs that predicted new snook papooses in the near future.

LA
Female breeding tube quite apparent.

Female Breeding Tube.  In addition to growing more rotund abdominally, she dropper her breeding tube -- just about as good a clue to her mood and condition as you'll find.  The male gave no sign other than growing a bit redder from time to time.  All these changes occurred within one week of adding the pair to the 55 at 78 degrees.  Obviously they liked the new ambience.

LA
Male breeding tube smaller and more pointed.

Male Breeding Tube.  A couple days later, the male dropped his breeding tube.  It became rather obvious that this pair wanted to spawn.  But it was also obvious that the eight Synodontis eupterus might not prevent the egg-laying, but would certainly devour the final product -- especially once the lights went out.

LA
New 20H breeding quarters.

Breeding Aquarium.  Up in the top row we have an empty tank or two.  It's in our African cichlid section, but snooks are schnooks re continent of origin.  Mainly the top row features minimum traffic.  Basic water temp at this level averages 75 F.

LA
In the gravel there's a bit of red slate in the open.  I expect them to dig it out.

Spawning Site.  If you look close, you can see a small area of exposed red slate.  They'll sooner or later clear the slate.  At least that's the plan.

LA
They're in the tank and getting along fine.

General Behavior.  When added to the 20H, the pair evinced no particular behavior.  They just acted like two fish in the same tank.. They hung together but acted like strangers.                      

LA
Good eaters of koi pellets.

Good Eaters.  Some cichlids can be picky eaters -- not red bay snooks.  They eat whatever we give them, basically whatever we're feeding the other fishes in the area.  They eagerly eat flakes, pellets, freeze-dried and frozen foods, and live foods -- especially any kind of worms.  At this point we added one-inch pieces of nightcrawlers .

LA
Other than a slight color change, all is well until ...

LA
... until the next day when he starts biting at her gill cover and pushing her around.

LA
His amorous approaches become stronger and stronger, so ...

LA
... We added an adult turquoise rainbowfish.  He's fast enough to keep out of their reach.

LA
The female pestered the dither fish.

Dither Fish.  As soon as the male started picking on the female, we added a dither fish -- a turquoise rainbowfish in this case.  The rainbowfish swims fast enough to evade the territorial rushes of the male.  And he's too small to threaten either breeder.  The dither fish takes the  pressure off the female.  So, once again he started ignoring her.  She chased the dither fish.

Temperature.  Since nothing much transpired, we decided to bump the temp.  We used one of those submersible "dial-a-temp" supposedly much more accurate than the little cheapie "hang-on-the-back" heaters.  We set it at 80 F.  The temp then went to 82, then 84.  Not exactly the plan.  She grew more colorful, more active, and hungrier.

  LA
Then the female developed these redder bars.  Breeding tube still there.

More about Our Female.  As soon as the tank warmed up, she developed an interesting barred pattern.  She chased the dither fish a great deal.  At feeding time, she ate two-for-one when compared to the male.  As you can see, she's not on the Jenny Craig Plan.  The male pretty much kept to himself.

LA
She began picking on the male also.

LA
A week or so later, they've dug a pit down to the U.G. filter.

LA
So we covered up the filter and made them start over.

LA
And they dug the spawning slate up again.  All systems are go.

LA
The male looks fairly serious now.

LA
He's pushing her.

LA
She wedges into the plastic plants we just added.

LA
Not necessarily the best place to hide.

LA
He's not going to let her stay hiding in the weeds.

LA
She's fairly hard to persuade.

LA
He keeps after her.

LA
Now he's got her going in the right direction.

LA
He's trying to show her where she's supposed to go.

LA
Now he's trying to push her where she's supposed to go.

LA
Food break.

LA
he acts like he's fertilizing eggs.  His tubes still down.   She's still just inspecting.

LA
Full of roe but still not totally convinced.

LA
One week later he's protecting a slate of snook eggs.

LA
He's got her cowering in the corner.  She can't get close to the eggs.

LA
When she tries to come out, he leaves the eggs and starts harassing her.

LA
He makes it very clear that she'd better not get in his way.

LA
He hits her hard enough to knock her out of the water, so we moved him to another tank.

LA
She took over the slate and looked to be laying more eggs.

LA
So we took her slate and gave her a blank slate to guard.

LA
Nice batch of eggs for a first spawn.  The white ones are just reflecting the light.

LA
The slate did not fit in our gallon jar so we used this ice cream bucket.

LA
Two days later, lotsa white eggs so we added methylene blue to retard fungal growth.

LA
Two more days later and it's close to panic.

LA
But amongst all those dead white eggs we (and FDR) spotted some wigglers.

LA
And bunches more at the bottom of the ice cream bucket.

Last Words.  Just raise them like typical cichlid fry.  Feed them microworms and newly hatched brine shrimp the first couple weeks.  LA
 

Q&As Jun I 0607
Q&As Jun II 0607
Q&As Jun III 0607
Q&As Jul I 0707

Q&As Jul II 0707
Q&As Aug I 0807
Q&As Aug II 0807
Q&As Aug III 0807

Jaguar Spawning II
Jewel Fish
Keo's Flowerhorns
Keo's Flowerhorns II
Kribensis
Odd Couple Spawn
Oscars 1
Oscars 2
Oscars 3
Oscars 4
Oscars 5
More Oscar
More Oscar II
More Oscars III
More Oscars 2007
More Oscars 2007.5
Oscar Spawn
Peacock Bass
Red Devils
More Red Devil
Red Parrots
Red Parrots Spawn
Red Parrot Spawn II
Pikes
Pink Tilapia
Rams
Red Bay Snooks
Red Bay Snook Spawn
Roger Stephen's Cichlids
Severums
More Severums
Severums III
Tanganyikans
Texas Cichlid
Texas Spawning
Texas Spawn II
Uarus
Misc Cichlids I
Misc Cichlids II
Misc Cichlids III
Misc Cichlids IV
Misc Cichlids V
Misc Cichlids VI
Misc Cichlids VII
Misc Cichlids VIII
Misc Cichlids IX

Livebearer  
Guppies
Half-Beak
Mollies
Moons/Platys
Swordtails

Minnows/Tetra 
Barbs
Barbs, Black
Barbs, Gold
Barbs, Rosy
Barbs, Tiger
Barbs, Tinfoil
Danios
Danio Egg Saver
Distochodus
Fathead Minnows
Headstanders
Killies, Econ.
Killies, Golden
Killies, Peat
Killies, Plant
Misc Mini-Fish
Pacús 
Piranha, Black
Piranha, Red
Rainbowfish

Rainbowfish, Dwarf Neon
Rainbowfish, Irian
Silver Dollar
Tetras, Larger
Tetras, Smaller
Tetras, Spawn
Tetra, Vampire
White Clouds

Pond Fish
Carp
Channel Cat
Gold. Comets
Gold. Fantails
More Fantails
Gold. Oriental  
Gold Oriental II 
Gold. Spawn
Kloubec Koi Farm
Koi
Koi II

Koi III
Oranda Spawn
Plecostomus
Shubunkins

Oddballs  
Af. Butterfly
Af. Lungfish
Af. Mudskippr
American Eel
Archer Fish
Arowana
Bichirs
Borneo Suckers
Brackish I
Brackish II
Brackish III
Brackish IV
Brackish V
Michael Troung's Pix
Butterfly/Wasp
Chameleon Fish
Chromides
Chin Alg Eater
Crazy Fish
Crocodile Fish
Datnioides
Dojo
Dwarf Puffers
Electric Cat
Electric Eels
Elephant Nose
Exodon paradoxus
Flounder
Gars  
Glassfish
Goby Bumble
Goby Butterfly
Goby Dragon
Goby Misc.
Half-Beak
Knife African
Knife Clown
Knife Ghost
Loach Botias
Loach Clown
Loach Kuhli
Loach Weather

Longear Sunfish
Moray Eel  
Peacock Gudgeons
Polypterids
Puffers
Ropefish
Scats
Siam Algae Eater 
Spiny Eels 
Snakehead
Stingray
Stonefish
Wasp Fish
Wolffish
Wrest Half-Beak
Misc Mini-Fishes
Misc Odd
Misc Odd II
Misc Odd III
Misc Odd  IV

Misc Odd V
Misc Odd VI

Sharks  
Bala
Black
Bull
Chinese Hi-Fin Banded
Iridescent
Red-Tail
Siam Algae Eater

Pond Info 
Blank Park Zoo
Bob Humphrey's Ponds
Cattails
Maffett Reservoir
DMACC's Pond
D.M. Botanical Center
D.M. Water Works
Dr. Ervanian's Garden
Duckweed
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Ewing Park "Pond"
Jan & Chris's Water Garden
John McDonald's Pond
Hall's Four Acres
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Landscaper Effects
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Pioneer Corn's Pond
Pond Fish Predators
Pond on 38th Street 
Pond Pics
Pond Plants
More Pond Plants
Pond Plants III
Reiman Ponds
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Riverview Island
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Selin's Japanese Garden
Tom's Used Cars Pond
Urbandale Duck Pond
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Wild Ponds