Quick Update

I haven't updated this blog for quite a while, but this is mainly because we have been nursing a few sick animals lately,  Things just seem to have hit us all at once.  Our little cat, Tamla was diagnosed with a malignant form of cancer a few weeks ago (this is just a couple of months after getting the all clear with one of our other cats who suffered with Pyothorax).  She's doing great at the moment, but we obviously have to keep a close eye on her.  Just as we got the news about her, our Old English Sheepdog started getting ill with Dermodectic Mange again.  This is something he has suffered with since he was a small pup and the vets have been struggling to determine what the underlying cause is.  It looks like he's going to be referred to a specialist now which is great as we might finally be able to get to the bottom of it all and put an end to his bouts of suffering.

Anyway, in spite of all this, we have had some good news.  Our male erectus delivered a brood of fry last Saturday so they are now just over a week old and doing great!  We have 15 or 16 in total - its crazy, you would think that many wouldn't be too hard to count but they move around and hide so easily its impossible to say!  I had hoped to try them on frozen food in their first week but after adding some frozen Cyclopeeze, I can see that its quite a bit too big for them at the moment so I'll probably attempt again towards the end of next week.

If you have followed this thread you will probably know that we had a fry tank especially built, but unfortunately its still cycling at the moment so we haven't been able to use it yet.  Therefore, the fry are in a 10 gallon plastic tank with a filter, heater, oxydator and a couple of hitches. The filter has a spray bar attached to it which keeps a steady flow going.

The first two pictures were taken yesterday on their 1 week Birthday and the last one was taken at 5 days old :)

We also had one of our dwarf males give birth to 3 babies this morning which is super exciting as this is the first time I have ever seen dwarf fry, and they really are quite tiny but perfectly formed!  One of them camouflages itself in perfectly with an orange plant that we have in the tank, so you can barely see it!  I've been told by a friend that its quite possible the three are warning babies and there are more to come.  Funnily enough, whilst typing this I looked over into the dwarf tank, which is right next to me and he's sitting there twitching so I guess it is possible that there are more to come!