Tatia Intermedia Hatch rates

[characinkid]

Hi all,
I have a group of 5 T. Intermedia which look to me like 2 males and 3 females. Over the last 12-18months I have had mixed success raising the fry. I had good success in the first 3-4 spawning, but in the last 6 months have raised almost none from 5-6 different spawns as they would either all be infertile, or they would not hatch for some other reason. Last week I got another large spawn and have a hatch rate of close to 75% and they all look good.
I have to say that I was getting frustrated by the really low hatch rate until last week and think that I have now seen some patterns. In the interest of sharing, I wanted to document what is working for me and what does not in-case it would help others.

• If the eggs are laid in a mass ball (like frogs spawn), excellent results in hatching.

• If the eggs are laid scattered all over the tank, very poor results.

• Eggs placed in a specimen container(with 90% water change 3x day and airstone with gentle flow) or in Ziss breeder box. Excellent results.

• Eggs places in standard breeder net with gentle airstone. OK, but not great results.

• Fry raised in Ziss breeder box for first 2-4 weeks and then moved to 10G. Very good results.

• Ill note that I move the fry from the specimen container to the Ziss box as soon as they hatch and are free swimming

As far as feeding them, I have found almost any finely powdered food on the surface and microworms work well as long as they are fed in the dark for the first few week or so. After that they seem to eat whenever food hits the water!

** These are only my observations, and "you mileage may vary!"

Hope that this is useful.

[bekateen]

Thanks for the information. I've got some Tatia which haven't spawned yet, but I hope they do. I've never had any woodcats that lay masses of eggs like frogs. I'll keep my eyes open.

Cheers, Eric

[aquaholic]

I haven't hatched T intermedia but when I have difficult to hatch species in numbers, I sterilise the hatching tank & equipment with light chlorine then dechlorinate. Elevating the water temperature with a heater greatly increases cell development rate and you can reduce fungal growth with an oversized UV filter. Similarly pick out all the dead eggs as soon as you notice. A micro pipette to suction hold individual eggs for example.

Usually kick start first live micro food culture as soon as you start incubation. Then stagger start the others accordingly.

A head band torch is useful but keep the hatching tank dim otherwise.