The Joy of Growing Fish

I was just feeding the fish as part of my early morning routine, and I spotted the start of a sailfin on one of my young (2cm) Poecilia petenensis mollies. It's a fish whose father was dead before I got the gravid mother, so I have only ever seen a male in a tiny bag full of dirty water, once at an auction.
I realized one of the side enjoyments of fish breeding for me is growing the fry and watching them develop. That's obviously a bigger thing when you have bought eggs, or if the parents are truly spectacular fish. Watching a baby angel take its shape is very cool, and watching the way the colour patterns pop up on a pretty little killifish are things I can see again and again without getting bored. These sailfin mollies I have (petenensis and latipinna) promise to be an interesting show as they grow, if I can successfully raise them to size and to full finnage.

I don't know how many other forum members enjoy watching the growth of young fish they have bred, or how many just raise them for a month to cash in the Breeder's Award points in a local aquarium club. What are your favourite fish to grow out and to watch transforming into beauties or curiosities?

Great point Gary,

I am not into Breeder Points, so I will say where I stand on Club Awards. I certainly do not like to rush fish either, and patience is more key than gaining the trophy, however this is just my point of view.

Fish being judged should be fully mature, although this creates difficulty in actually establishing that the member has actually bred the fish. I think we can all share experiences that fry are easy to push from the egg, but raising to adult size is a different exercise. Perhaps the judges should ask for digital records (video or photo) of fry growth from egg through juvenile and then have the fully mature fish brought in.

Back to the main point of Gray's posit

I am recently into livebearers and the trick is not getting the fish to breed, but producing desired effect, ie colour, shape, pattern, fin type. So for me, seeing the development of the fry is an everyday wonder and joy. Being attentive to abherration is important, and only by close observation can this be achieved. Example is the appearance of recessive pheontypes which may be desired to focus breed. For an unknown species, or new experience, the thrill of each development in the life of the fry, is indeed wondrous and noteworthy. I share Gary's appreciation in the acclamation of life.

I love watching fish grow, it sometimes feel like watching grass grow, or paint dry, and yet sometimes, some very cool observations can be made. I join into the award programs with the club so that someone participates in them. If I can get others to join in by being part of a program and participating, Im doing something right.

As far as breeding goes, I tend to grand father favorite species. For those of you who may not know what this means, it basically means that I raise the fry to adults and spawn them again. An old saying amongst fish breeders around here is that you don't really know a fish until you have grand fathered it. there are many surprising variations that I have noticed within my fish while they are growing up that I would have missed had I just purchased adult fish and gotten rid of them once I had collected my points.

Great point about "grandfathering"
It is not until several generations that you truly see what is in the fish. I have been asked several times about identifying Endlers and the purity of the stock. This really cannot be judged by just looking at the fish itself, but rather the generations and throw offs. Great point Vince!

Gosh I want the Dicrossus I got from Gary to breed. I'm going to make a super concerted effort over the coming month to get everything "just right", and cross my fingers. It has been fantastic watching the male grow, begin to gain color, and see the length of the filaments already.

I never get tired of watching my fish grow and colour up.

That's half the fun, watching your eyeballs with tails growing to adulthood.

Well, with many of the livebearers, for me it's more a matter of spawning them and developing healthy stock that I will share and move on.... My favourite fish are probably Apistogrammas and I have many other dwarf cichlids as well..... It is quite interesting watch small little fish like that make a nest and guard it against fish 3 times their own size and raise the fry, take them out for walks around the tank to forage and stretch their fins.... and to see the first development of colour or patterns is when the fry starts becoming a fish for me.... now if some of my more stubborn pairs would start doing more of it I'd be happier....

I loved to grow some killies from eggs back In mexic. Not easy though as everything had to be imported, even almost the water as it was so hard!

I hope to have another chance this winter as I finally managed to get in contact with Sam again who is sending me some Australie gold eggs. His are the most beautiful ones I've ever seen and he won numerous prizes with them in Europe when he still lived there.

I have yet to actually breed and raise any fish. I don't have room for the multiple tanks you need to separate out eggs and fry. However, the fish I currently have were only half grown when I got them and watching them reach adult size and start to show adult coloring was fun. I think getting to watch it from egg to full grown fish would be even more fun. One day....