We have had two spawns by our SMB. I only have a single pair of large adults and of course one of each sex. Last year the spawn was interrupted by poor weather and we have not seen any survivors from that one. This year, the spawn was much better and we had a huge pod of black babies! They are 3/4" long already and seem to have scattered and are doing better. I have a couple of them in an aquarium to observe them. Very cool! I'm struggling with the feed though. I don't want them to die.

A couple of nights back, we noticed tons of something under our bug light (BoJo copy). It turns out they are Daphnia I think. We scooped up a few and brought them inside to examine. Little tiny brownish red dots that scoot all about. I left them in a glass overnight, and I believe by morning they were reproducing in the glass!!! I dumped them in the aquarium and the SMB fry went nuts and devoured all they could! They especially went for the smaller Daphnia newly born.

This is such an amazing hobby, this pond!

Congratulations F-H by the way on your spawn of SMB!