Basics |
Overview | The first spawn was on Friday 16th of February 2018. The breeding group consisted of 2 males and 2 females. Additionally, there were 1 unknown individual present. The smallest male was at least 55mm SL and the smallest female was at least 55mm SL. The youngest adult was approximately 24 months old. The individuals were obtained from Aquarium Glaser. |
Further spawns | Wednesday 21st of February 2018, Sunday 11th of March 2018, Saturday 5th of May 2018, Friday 18th of May 2018, Saturday 14th of July 2018, Sunday 26th of August 2018, Saturday 22nd of September 2018, Thursday 5th of March 2020, Thursday 23rd of July 2020, Friday 14th of August 2020, Friday 16th of June 2023, Monday 20th of November 2023, Thursday 4th of January 2024. 13 in total. |
Feeding | 1. | Black worms (live) weekly | | 2. | Fluval bug bites pleco (dry / prepared) occasionally | | 3. | NLS Thera A pellets, 1mm (dry / prepared) few times a week | | 4. | Repashy bottom scratcher (dry / prepared) occasionally | | 5. | Raw sweet potato (dry / prepared) occasionally | | 6. | Shrimp, whiteleg, cooked (frozen) occasionally | | 7. | Brussels sprouts boiled (dry / prepared) occasionally | | 8. | Omega One shrimp pellets (dry / prepared) occasionally | | 9. | Cobalt algae pellets (dry / prepared) few times a week | |
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Water Parameters (at time of spawning) |
pH | 7.00 to 7.60 |
Conductivity | 600µs to 800µs |
Temperature | 26.5°C to 27.5°C |
Current | Medium |
Other Water Params | Tap water dechlorinated with aquavitro alpha. Powerhead/wavemaker added for downward horizontal current across front of tank. |
Aquarium |
Dimensions | The aquarium dimensions were 762mm x 394mm x 533mm (30" x 15.5" x 21") all Length x Width x Height. |
Furniture | Sand substrate. Clay and bamboo caves, wood, java fern, sword plants. |
Filtration | Aqueon QuietFlow 75 HOB |
Lighting | Fluval LED light bar |
Heating | Heated to 80F with Fluval heater |
Breeding |
Behaviour | Not observed, but cave spawned. One day I looked in the tank and saw dad guarding a pile of wrigglers that are almost all out of yolk. Yay! At the same time, dad was trapping another female. They spawned 5 days later. Update: since the original spawn, there have been five or six more. One spawn had 16 eggs. Another spawn on 18-Aug-2018 had an egg mass of 18 eggs and one loose egg. The most recent was 22-Sept-2018, with 26 eggs. |
Eggs | There were 16 yellow eggs laid which were 5.0mm in diameter. |
Time to hatch | 7 days Number: 5 Free swimming: 7 days |
Segregation | Dad abandoned fry on the day the eggs hatched. Five hatchlings were found. Only 1 or two was alive. Fry moved from dad's cave to a fry net/basket in dad's tank. |
Fry sizes | 7 days: 10mm 14 days: 11mm 21 days: 12mm |
7 days | |
14 days | |
21 days | |
Juvenile sizes | 1 month: 14mm 3 months: 25mm 6 months: 38mm |
1 month | |
3 months | |
6 months | |
Fry and juvenile feeding | Since I didn't witness the first spawn, the babies stayed with the parents and must have scavenged off their parents' food. In the second and later spawns, wigglers were taken from dad's cave and added to a fry net/basket. They were fed a variety of foods: Freeze dried blood or tubifex worms, Cobalt spirulina flakes, shredded raw sweet potato, and live black worms. Juvies were kept in the fry basket for the first 3 months of life. |