Paradise fry and Oto cats.

     I spotted Paradise fish fry in the to container yesterday. Right now they look more like a strand of hair with two eyes. It interesting to note that, in my presence at least, the females show no interest in eating the fry. several swam by the blue female and she ignored them, even though she has the most veracious appetite. the male in back on a nest after i cleared the duck weed from his circle and Dunkin donuts cup. This is about the time last year that the original paradise went into the pond so I'm hoping the fry will be much larger at tear down.
     The Least livebearer (heterandria formosa) are also reproducing, though the Crystal black shrimp have yet to do so. They have however put on weight with at least one definatly being a female. The container they are in seems to have an endless supply of copepods so perhaps that interferes with their breeding.
     The Black spot barbs/filament barbs (puntius filamentosus) seem to be doing well despite two days with night temps slightly below 60°. Their feeding seems less intense which is normal after a spawning event, of course it might also look less intense viewed from the top. They don't seems unhealthy just not quite hungry.
     The ancistrus plecos seem to be doing fine, though i only get to see up to three at a time. Little buggers hide out like all good plecos. I often see the little stunted one so if that one seems okay the rest should be good.
     I was at Petsmart the other day, which i sometimes do to pick up magazines or other hard tack that Aqualife lacks, and they had Oto's on sale for a buck a piece. I've had good luck with other sale fish from this place before so i snatched up ten. For better or worse i released 5 into the shrimp pond and 5 into the paradise pond. Both of which were getting coated in biofilm and algae. Normally i would have quarantined  them but they looked fat and ich free so i took the risk. Ich also spends part of it's life cycle settled in a substrate and the only substrate in this setup is in the paradise container and with the cories constantly stirring the muck up i feel safe. My larger concern is where to put them this winter. I'm low on tank space but the thought of breeding these guys in an environment full of food was too much to resist.
     I guess my next step is to put in a fresh order of Repashy foods to feed all those baby otos i might possible have in the nearby future.