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I staked out the tank for 4 hours tonight and this is the best I could do for
now. I need to get a nice nacro lens for the D30 so I have a better chance
shooting fry. Pl*co fry are amazingly fast and paranoid. They don't sit still
for very long so it's tough to set up for a shot.
We don't know how or why they spawned, but it no doubt has to do with
raising and lowering the ph coupled with water changes. We're not sure, but
they may have recently spawned again, we'll see in a few weeks.
I have some video of these guys which I may put up soon.
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This is Dad.
He's been acting sort of wierd tonight, sitting in one place and fanning the gravel with both his pectoral and adipose fins, could they have spawned again? It's a lousy quality shot, but amazing for a hand-held 1/15 sec exposure at 300mm! Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 300mm, 1/15 sec f5.6, ISO 1600 12/4/2002 16:21:48 - 400x238 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1889KB) File="img_3970.jpg" Size=16298 |
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Here's one of the little guys who sat still enough for the slow exposure.
The pebbles are normal coarse gravel, he's a little bigger than 1 CM. Another hand-held shot with the zoom racked out, very frustrating... Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 300mm, 1/15 sec f5.6, ISO 1600 12/4/2002 18:32:28 - 350x376 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1797KB) File="img_3979.jpg" Size=20373 |
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Here's the fast little bugger working on a piece of slate. I had to process the hell out of this one to get enough contrast for him to show up.
They work the tank just like miniature versions of their parents. Another lousy quality slow zoomed hand-held shot. Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 300mm, 1/15 sec f5.6, ISO 1600 12/4/2002 18:33:22 - 400x396 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1846KB) File="img_3980.jpg" Size=25153 |
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I started using flash so I could up the shutter speed to 1/50th as the three banks of strip lighting just wasn't doing it even at 1/15th exposures.
Here one of the youngsters pauises briefly on a pebble. I hate the way the flash totally zombifies their eyes in photos. Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 300mm, 1/50 sec f5.6, ISO 1600 12/4/2002 19:40:38 - 500x475 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1791KB) File="img_3988.jpg" Size=54844 |
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Is this Mom? We're not sure...
There are three adults in this tank and one appears to be a female and another _migh_ be a female. It can be hard to tell sometimes with these armored cats. Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 217mm, 1/50 sec f5.6, ISO 1600 12/4/2002 19:49:55 - 250x343 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1819KB) File="img_3989.jpg" Size=11780 |
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Bumped the ISO to 800 to try to get rid of some of the grain and get better detail.
This little guy shows the juvenile body shape well, note the abruptly tapering body and slender tail section. Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 300mm, 1/50 sec f5.6, ISO 800 12/4/2002 21:00:09 - 350x312 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1551KB) File="img_4000.jpg" Size=21730 |
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Eight seconds later and it's turned 90 degrees, you don't get much setup time with these little spaz-cases.
Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 300mm, 1/50 sec f5.6, ISO 800 12/4/2002 21:00:17 - 300x261 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1511KB) File="img_4001.jpg" Size=12981 |
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Peeking out from one if its hiding places for a few seconds. You don't get a lot of study time with these fry in a community tank, blink and they're gone.
Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 300mm, 1/50 sec f5.6, ISO 800 12/4/2002 21:00:46 - 564x480 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1514KB) File="img_4002.jpg" Size=26244 |
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Is this a male or a female? This is the third adult in the 90.
Tam and I think it's another male, but we could be wrong. Canon EOS D30 28-300mm at 217mm, 1/50 sec f5.6, ISO 800 12/4/2002 22:34:21 - 400x191 JPEG (Original 2160x1440 1652KB) File="img_4009.jpg" Size=14941 |