A couple of weeks ago me and a friend went over to Jo's place to scan all the female rays because we suspected some were pregnant for the first time. We had invited a specialist to do the job, while we drunk some Jupilers (belgian beer). It was a very interesting day and the results were great, everything was pregnant.
We made a lot of pictures and I will show a couple of the scanning of a Leopoldi female.
Here she lies, a eight or nine year old 65cm female that has never had pups before.
Gently she is guided into the plastic container.
Our mad scientist scans the rear end of the ray checking for pups, while the hero (me) holds the tail to avoid bloodshed. The technique is the same that is used for scanning human babys, an echoscan.
Bingo, we found the first pup, it is the egg-shaped tornado you see on the middle of the screen.
Using the tools integrated in the programm we are able to measure the pup. The length of the line is 28mm, this means the pup is probably only one month old.
After we're done scanning samples are taken of the skin and the gills to check for parasites.
The samples are checked under the microscope. All clear, no parasites at all.
We followed this procedure a number of times that day with great results and are looking forward to see lots of little pups soon.
We made a lot of pictures and I will show a couple of the scanning of a Leopoldi female.
Here she lies, a eight or nine year old 65cm female that has never had pups before.
Gently she is guided into the plastic container.
Our mad scientist scans the rear end of the ray checking for pups, while the hero (me) holds the tail to avoid bloodshed. The technique is the same that is used for scanning human babys, an echoscan.
Bingo, we found the first pup, it is the egg-shaped tornado you see on the middle of the screen.
Using the tools integrated in the programm we are able to measure the pup. The length of the line is 28mm, this means the pup is probably only one month old.
After we're done scanning samples are taken of the skin and the gills to check for parasites.
The samples are checked under the microscope. All clear, no parasites at all.
We followed this procedure a number of times that day with great results and are looking forward to see lots of little pups soon.
