My first synodontis multipunctatus fry!

[FishBuddy]

There's a big surprise in my 72G african tank this evening!

The tank houses a group of breeding copadichromis borleyi (huge fish! 7+ inch), 7 compressiceps, 7 ventralis, a couple of albino peacocks and 8 synodontis multipunctatus.

When I was inspecting my tank a few minutes ago, I noticed something small wiggling beneath a big rock.  I was shocked as I don't have any small fish in this tank.  I stripped my c. borleyis all the time otherwise it would be a snack for the other occupants.  I used my flashlight to get a closer look and I just can't believe my eyes!

A synodontis multipunctatus fry that's a little less than 1cm in length !

I've seen in many occassions where the female synos releases her eggs and they was all eaten up by the larger guys; especially the compressiceps.  But somehow, this one fertilized-egg must have lodged somewhere in the rock work and managed to hatch and survived to this size.  I guesstimate the age of the fry is no more than 3 weeks old.

I frantically grab a couple of nets and managed to get him/her out of the tank before being consumed by hungry cichlids.  It's swimming happily now in a growout tank along with the c. borleyi fry.  I'll post a picture later on as lighting is not so good for pictures at the moment.

[daworldisblack]

Congrats! Always exciting to have babies!

[sas]

Congrats.

[exv152]

Good thing you caught it when you did, I think it stands a much better chance of surviving now. Good luck!

[FishBuddy]

Finally able to snap photo of the little guy....

[bitterman]

Nice!!!!

[sas]

Aweeeeeeeeee what a cutie and look at that nice big belly .
Good catch!

[FishBuddy]

In case you are wondering what happened to that cute little guy, he is a big boy now   He is around 3.5 inch long and have joined his big family a year ago.   This is what he looks like today...