Anyone recognize these fry?

[afremont]

Today, I caught these guys in the bayou behind my house. Can anyone identify them? I put them in a 10 gallon tank at a comfy 65 degrees matching the bayou temp. I'm letting it warm up to room temp naturally. What fish would spawn this late in the year? These guys are little but they all seem to be able to eat finely ground flakes. I'll get some "real" food for them if necessary. I got a wild hair and netted 'em. They all look to be the same species. They seem to be doing ok so far. I put them in fresh water after checking the pH of the bayou water. It matched my tap water so I went for it.

They have longish pectoral (or is it ventral) fins and the tail is rounded off instead of V shaped.

[cichlid1409]

mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis)

[HERM]

+1 on M.F

[afremont]

Thanks, I read up on them in the wikipedia. Doesn't look like they'll grow up to be all that thrilling or pretty. I certainly seem to have a huge supply available, there were many hundreds swimming around and I netted about a dozen in one scoop. Maybe I should buy them a small cichlid friend to play with. ;-)

[eklikewhoa]

Make sure quarantine them and make sure they clean up before using them for feeders.

[dblondfemme]

and perhaps dose them for parasites...don't share nets between them and your other fish either.

[afremont]

Thanks for the replies. I have them in their own tank I just set up yesterday. I didn't put any salt in the tank because I didn't know what they were or if they would be harmed. Now that I know what they are, I don't think the typical 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons will hurt them so I'll start adding it in as I do water changes. I'm just going to watch them for now and see how they progress before giving them any meds. They look healthier than allot of the fish at the LFS's around town. ;-) They all still look healthy this morning and the water temp is up to 70 now. I hope the 10 degree temperature change in a day isn't too rough on them. In the wild they primarily live on mosquito larvae and zooplankton, any recommendations on live or frozen food I should feed them that I can also give to my other fish for a treat (danios, cherry barbs, red serpae tetras and a dwarf gourami)?

[eklikewhoa]

That's pretty fancy for some gambusia... I would just gut load with flakes or whatever staple you feed your other fish. But to answer the question they'll eat about anything.

[afremont]

Ok, yesterday evening I started noticing a couple of them flashing or flicking against the rocks. I don't see any specks or spots on the fish, so I don't know if it is ick or what it could be. Outside of that, they seem to be doing fine and eat well.

This morning, I went ahead and treated the tank with quickcure ich medicine after pulling the carbon modules from the UGF. I'm thinking of raising the temperature to about 85 degrees since these fish should easily handle the heat. Any other ideas at this point? Like I said, there is no visible issue other than some of them repeatedly flashing against the rocks.

Update: The ammonia levels are slightly elevated to about 1ppm, no nitrites. They seem to be concentrating on rubbing their gills against the surface, not their whole body. Maybe the ammonia is bothering them? I have 1 tablespoon of salt per five gallons in the tank now as well.

[Numero111]

Looks like its some sort of ick related infection and your medicine should solve the problem.

[moganman]

I used to catch about 100 or so at a time and feed them to my peacock bass. Some of them were pretty.

[afremont]

I cranked the heat up on them to almost 90F and they seem to like it. I came across some material indicating the Ick out and out dies at 89.5F. It can't attach itself to fish at approx 86F according to the same source. No more flashing now, just acting like happy fish. I did a 1/3 water change this morning and I might do another tomorrow morning before giving them their third and final dose of Quickcure. I kept the lights off on them today as they apparently neutralize the medicine faster. I'll keep the heat above 85F for the next week or so to be sure it's gone. They sure are a hungry bunch, that's for sure. Still haven't lost a single one that I know of. This is there current home, well half of it anyway: