zzyzx
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In the scientific article that was published on CPD’s breeding, it mentioned that after spawning, rival males were seen going into the spawning area immediately after another couple had spawned, and they speculated that this -might- be in order to eat the eggs of a rival male.
This makes a kind of evolutionary sense, because if another male’s genes are the ones being passed on, it reduces the chances of your own genes surviving. But the observer wasn’t -sure- the eggs were being eaten because the spawning material blocked his view.
If the other males -do- eat eggs of another male, it might be interesting to try bringing out the other males and leaving only one in the tank. In my own tank, I have 5 females and only 1 male (just bad luck, as I bought them when they were young and neither the shop assistant or I knew how to sex them at the time). But they’re producing fry, and the other females don’t seem too interested in what’s happening when one of the other females is spawning.
-z
I originally had a filter like the one pictured here, and switched to the air-driven sponge filter (only 5 pounds!). The sponge filter is doing the job just fine, and the reduced current means I’m not quite as worried about the fry getting sucked into the filter.
The guy at the shop who sold the sponge filter to me said sometimes fry go up to the sponge filter and eat stuff lodged in the sponge, although my fry don’t seem to do that. (As a matter of fact, I can’t really work out WHAT my fry are eating, but they’re slowly getting bigger, so there must be -something- they’re munching – probably the “Liquifry” I’m adding, but it’s not something I can physically observe.)
I’ve got 2 fry at the moment that I can see. (I saw only one yesterday, and the second appeared this morning).
I’ve left the parents in as an experiment to see what happens to them. The parents almost never swim more than a cm or two above the surface, even when I put flake food in that floats on the surface (they wait until it sinks before they go for it). The fry never seem to go more than a few cm FROM the surface, so they kind of are well-separated already based on where they seem to prefer to swim. I also have a few floating plants that I put in to provide them with a place to hide but they actually don’t seem to care about having it, and don’t spend much time near it.
We’ll see if they survive and I’ll report back as they develop.
My parameters:
Temp 23-25
pH 7.6 – 7.7
Ammonia/Nitrites 0
Nitrates 25-50 (the local tap water is VERY high in Nitrates)
KH 6
GH >16Well I’m pleased to report the following:
This morning I saw actual spawning happening, AND I saw two free-swimming fry as well.
The spawning seemed to start a few minutes after I switched their light on this morning. This has always got the male going – he darts all around the aqaurium quite quickly for a few minutes after the light comes on, but this morning the females were darting too, and after only a few minutes I saw them actually doing the “clench” thing in the java moss and grass I have growing in the tank. Some VERY tiny orange things were on the grass aftewards, but I’m not sure if that was sand/dirt that was already there or eggs (and there were only 2).
Yesterday was the day I first saw the first fry swimming about, and yesterday I also added 3 chemicals, which may (or may not) have caused the fish to more actively breed (they’re really going at it like rabbits today): Liquifry, TetraAqua Nitrate minus (my tap water has 50ppm nitrate, and I’ve never gotten it lower, so I added some of this in hopes of getting rid of some thread algae I have, and also I added some hair algae remover. As I said, I’ve not empirically measured their courtship behaviour, so not sure if they’re REALLY spawning more actively this morning, but it sure seems that way, and also, it could have nothing to do with the chemicals, but I’ll put it out there to see what others notice.
Mine stay in a corner in the back of the tank unless:
– they are being fed
– I switch off the air-driven sponge filterI wonder if they prefer perfectly still water and the filter/bubbles/noise is also putting them off.
Has anyone tried keeping them in a tank without a pump running, or switching the pump off for periods of the day to encourage breeding?
Well, I suppose when you ask a vague question, you get a vague answer.
I was actually hoping you could remember exactly what the temperature was when your fish bred. “Room temperature” can be different for different people. (I’m imagining that in Perth, it’s slightly lower than it was here in London yesterday, for example.)
I liked your answer though.
Croydon, Surrey here, and if successful, would be happy to go out to Middx to trade with you to keep the genetic diversity up.
How did you get a filter with low current? I’ve tried at several pet shops, and all of the internal filters that ARE adjustable, are HUGE, and I am worried they would not adjust down.
I was planning on swapping to a sponge-based air driven filter the moment I saw any eggs, but is this a good idea? (Will I actually SEE the eggs? One friend who has bred these fish successfully says that he didnt’ actually notice them), and would the eggs get sucked into the filter, or would they stick to the plant leaves/substrate and be OK?
Mummymunky – can you define “room temperature” for us?
I think it’d be best if those of us who have successfully bred the fish all report in on the temperature they bred at, so we can get an idea of what the “ideal” range is.
So far I see the following reports:
Karel reports that they have bred at 22.Anyone else can report in at what temperature spawning has occurred at?
