Middle Stage: Note the emerging markings on the backs
Late Stage: Just Like Mom & Dad, or "A twig off the old stick"
damaging any. I had to pick up the male several times and move him away from the eggs as he kept trying to cover them with his body. Shortly thereafter I began nibbing the eggs in the cage. Some hatched immediately, some after 10 minutes or so, and some not at all. I rubbed them several more times that day at 20 minute intervals. I also covered the bottom of the cage with well microwaved (15 min.) zucchini slices 1/8" thick in the hopes of getting the fry to eat. The rest of the cage was filled with algae to give the fry a choice of food. Thank God for Saturdays. Can you imagine the following happening...?
"Boss, I need to stay home tomorrow to hatch my Farlowella eggs." "Sure, John. Take a couple of days off! Do a good job! Bob's here, he'll take your place. Let me know how it turns out." ...Not in my lifetime! At around 2:30 P.M. the last 6 or 7 eggs hatched. These remaining few had to be rather thoroughly and roughly massaged to get them to hatch. Two or three had hatched on their own in the last half hour. The fry were about 10-12 mm long at birth and a nearly black greenish-brown with a thin gold line on each side. They looked like toad tadpoles. The article I had read claimed that the fry would not seek food for at least six weeks and had to be dropped on it just to get them to eat. Being a tad nervous, I kept trying to shake the fry off whatever they were hanging on in an attempt to get them to land on the zucchini and eat. I'm almost sure I remembered to look to see if they still had yolk sacs! Boy, was I exhausted!! During this whole process the male Farlowella hung on the spot where the eggs had been laid. At about 10 P.M., an hour after lights-out, I looked in on the fry to find they had all lost their color and looked like albinos. On Sunday morning, the first "fry-day" (Ha!), the fry had regained their color and looked pretty much as they did the day before. I noticed that most of the zucchini had fungus threads all over it. None of the fry seemed