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I see that Haplo posted a thread about macro photography. These are photos I took with a Nikkor 105mm macro lens.

The F0 P. managuense from Honduras breed regularly. Aver the the past year I have been able to grab some interesting photos of their breeding behavior...including this one of free swimming fry:



The above photo was taken approximately a week after the fish were born. They are still very tiny in the photo...but free swimming. All of the fry appear to point and swim in the same direction at this point...like an extremely tiny flock of birds. As the fish get a few days older they seem to wander a bit in different directions...but never too far from the parents and always ready to "get back in step". I have described their size at this point as being about the same as a gnat. Prior to their free swimming stage the fry are moved into a small pile in a corner of the tank and closely guarded by both parents.



Both parents spend a lot of time looking at the gravel making sure that the brood remains in one place and to protect from any unwanted attention to their family.



I noticed that during this period of time the female spends a great deal of time picking on the male. It's almost as if she has to continually remind him to keep his head on the game at hand.



At this size they remind me of a small pile of colored silt...very small indeed. They basically lay inert in the pile with their tiny tails vibrating back and forth. The parents place small pebbles in the pile to keep the mass in place.



As you can see from the photos, I scrape back the gravel to enable me to place a flash unit below the tank to take photos. It served a dual purpose here in that I was able to get beneath the tank and shoot up into the tank. The flash unit is directly overhead pointing down. I try to always keep the glass clean for photos...but in this case you will have to excuse the mess. Here's a shot of the female staring down at me. You can see here batch of fry looking like nothing more than a bunch of little black dots. You can also see the gravel placed in the pile to keep the fry in place.



Here's a closer shot of what the fry look like on day two of their life. To put their size in perspective...they are surrounding one tiny piece of gravel.



And moving in a little closer you can see some more of the detail. In the fish on the very top you can see a very tiny skeletal system forming. The yolk sacs are very prominent as is the contents. The eyes look like tiny black chips...all uniform in size.



And pushing the camera to it's limits, here's the closest shot.



It never ceases to amaze me that something this tiny can easily become a 14" fish...and so many of them! As a hobbyist it easy some time to forget about the big picture. In the wild natural selection would take a great deal of the fry. Which fish survives and how it makes the cut is what enables the species to survive and thrive in the wild. In our tanks at home a great deal more will survive...and along with them the weaker of the batch...that will move on to propagate more fish in other aquariums. So as hobbyists are we hurting or helping the future generations of aquarium fish? No really answers...just a lot of interesting conversation and things to ponder.

This session was a real challenge. I have my tanks on a double stacking system wood frame. The opening between top and bottom tank is about 24"...just enough to access the tank. This tank was on the top. In order to get these shots I used the 105mm macro lens. The camera has a "live view" feature that enables you to frame the shot in the viewfinder. Most of the underneath photos wee taken by simply holding the camera underneath, pointing up and hoping for the best.

This is a picture of the cover of Tropical Fish Magazine. They used one of the photos from the session above. It's the first time that a picture of fry made the cover.

Cuando vi las fotos sabía que la había visto antes, pero no lograba recordar donde, ahora lo sé. En ese número había muchos artículos de cíclidos, me ha venido bien para releer el artículo sobre la frontera entre Costa Rica y Panamá donde aparece el coeruleopunctatus.
¿De dónde consigues los peces Aquamojo?

Madgico escribió:Cuando vi las fotos sabía que la había visto antes, pero no lograba recordar donde, ahora lo sé. En ese número había muchos artículos de cíclidos, me ha venido bien para releer el artículo sobre la frontera entre Costa Rica y Panamá donde aparece el coeruleopunctatus.
¿De dónde consigues los peces Aquamojo?

I travel to Central America and collect them...or I get them from my friends in the American Cichlid Association.

I´d like to go this year to Washington to meet you, but it´s very expensive, maybe if I win loto.

Madgico escribió:I´d like to go this year to Washington to meet you, but it´s very expensive, maybe if I win loto.

Eso suena muy bien. Si gano la lotería, yo os visitaré. Me encantaría visitar España.

Pues nada, aquí estaremos esperandote con los brazos abiertos.
¡Ojalá nos toque la lotería a todos!, jeje.
Mientras tanto seguiremos disfrutando de tus fotos y de la conversación.

Estaría bien una visita a España Mo. El que gane primero la lotería que visite al otro.

OMG!!!!!! Aquamojo registered in our forum!!!!!!!!!!! Is a pleasure to have you here, greetings and sorry for my poor english

The pleasure is mine. And your English is better than my Spanish. Everyone here is so gracious. Gracias.

Mo , cada dia que veo tus fotos mas ganas me da de comprarme el Nikkor 105mm, lo peor es que casi todas las semanas lo cogo en la tienda donde trabajo, estoy deseando terminar mi biotopo tanganika para seguir tus pasos y hacer con esa optica!!!

Impresionantes resultados logras, pero claro con los magnificos peces que mantienes es imposible que no tengas ganas de hacerles fotos.

Como siempre , muchas gracias por enriquecer esta humilde seccion!

Haplo440 escribió:Mo , cada dia que veo tus fotos mas ganas me da de comprarme el Nikkor 105mm, lo peor es que casi todas las semanas lo cogo en la tienda donde trabajo, estoy deseando terminar mi biotopo tanganika para seguir tus pasos y hacer con esa optica!!!

Impresionantes resultados logras, pero claro con los magnificos peces que mantienes es imposible que no tengas ganas de hacerles fotos.

Como siempre , muchas gracias por enriquecer esta humilde seccion!

Gracias. Me gusta compartir mis fotos.