Basics |
Overview | The first spawn was on Wednesday 21st of January 2015. The breeding group consisted of 0 males and 0 females. Additionally, there were 13 unknown individuals present. The smallest male was at least 31mm SL and the smallest female was at least 42mm SL. The individuals were obtained from Wesley Wong - Rare Fish. |
Feeding | 1. | Live BBS (live) daily | | 2. | Live Black Worms (live) few times a week | | 3. | Sera viformo (dry / prepared) few times a week | | 4. | Cobalt (dry / prepared) few times a week | |
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Water Parameters (at time of spawning) |
pH | 6.50 to 7.20 |
Conductivity | 100µs to 200µs |
Temperature | 24.0°C to 25.0°C |
Current | Air (vertical) |
Aquarium |
Dimensions | The aquarium dimensions were 516mm x 267mm x 325mm (20.3" x 10.5" x 12.8") all Length x Width x Height. |
Furniture | Ten gallon breeding set up. Small layer of silica sand substrate, Matten filter with low to medium current, standard large sponge filter, small clump of java moss, 1 catappa leaf, and 1 potted Anubias nana. |
Filtration | Ten gallon HMF from Swiss Tropicals, one large "40 gallon" sponge filter. |
Lighting | Twin T5 40 watt florescent (rack lighting). This fixture lights four 10 gallon tanks positioned "end-out" in one of my racks. |
Heating | 50 watt Hagen heater. |
Breeding |
Behaviour | Caught a younger pair of the fish spawning shortly before lights out- late at night. Typical T-position, female carried 1 or 2 eggs and positioned them on the glass near the top of the tank or in the java moss. They stopped once they realized I was watching but continued to spawn after lights out through the night. In the morning the upper tank sides were full of eggs, but by noon they had eaten almost all of the eggs. |
Eggs | There were 6 light beige eggs laid which were 2.0mm in diameter. |
Time to hatch | 96 days Number: 5 Free swimming: 36 days |
Segregation | I removed the eggs by hand and placed them in a small specimen container with an airstone and 1 alder cone. The Alder cone was removed after 24 hours and several small water changes using the spawning tank water were done prior to hatching |
Fry sizes | 7 days: 8mm 14 days: 9mm 21 days: 11mm |
7 days | |
14 days | |
21 days | |
Juvenile sizes | 1 month: 0mm 3 months: 0mm 6 months: 0mm |
Fry and juvenile feeding | For the first 3 days after hatching the fry were not fed. They were then fed microworms from days 4 though 6, and Live bbs was added to the microworms from day 7 onward. |