We have success! Within a week of putting the eggs in the nursery tank seven tiny fish have appeared! They are so small that they could easily be missed. They are only a couple millimeters long and mostly gray. Normally the fish develop inside the egg for a couple days then hatch and settle on the bottom where they absorb their yolk sac. A few days later they develop their air bladder and float to the top where they begin to search for food. All seven are swimming around and seem very healthy. I’m such a proud mama!
Currently they all look the same so there is no telling who the parents were. At the rate they are growing I think it will only take a couple months for them to show their phenotype. A phenotype is a term used for any characteristic or trait of the organism that can be observed. Furthermore, the phenotype is the result of the organism’s inherited genes. We have several different kinds of goldfish in our tank with different phenotypes. We have black fish with big eyes, little speckled ones with butterfly tails, and a few with big heads in all kinds of colors. In a few months we should be able to see these different characteristics in the baby fish and then we will be able to figure out which parent fish passed on their genes.
Laramie
Life Science Assistant
“Resident Fish Expert”
