 Basics | ||||||||||
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| Overview | The first spawn was on Thursday 9th of January 2020. The breeding group consisted of 2 males and 2 females. Additionally, there were 7 unknown individuals present. The smallest male was at least 83mm SL and the smallest female was at least 80mm SL. The youngest adult was approximately 30 months old. The individuals were obtained from Derek's Fish (Facebook/Europleco). | |||||||||
| Further spawns | Wednesday 22nd of January 2020, Thursday 23rd of January 2020, Monday 3rd of February 2020, Sunday 23rd of February 2020, Wednesday 4th of March 2020, Sunday 8th of March 2020, Thursday 19th of March 2020, Thursday 9th of April 2020, Monday 20th of April 2020, Thursday 30th of April 2020, Monday 11th of May 2020, Saturday 30th of May 2020, Saturday 13th of June 2020. 13 in total. | |||||||||
| Feeding |
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| Water Parameters (at time of spawning) | ||||||||||
| pH | 4.40 to 6.00 | |||||||||
| Conductivity | 200µs to 500µs | |||||||||
| Temperature | 21.0°C to 25.0°C | |||||||||
| Current | Strong(air) | |||||||||
| Other Water Params | 40 gal breeder 2/3 filled with water. Water circulated by an 850 gal/hour pond pump. Dechlorinated with Aquavitro Alpha. Water source a 50%‐50% blend of tapwater and RO water. 50-70% water changes every 1-2 weeks. | |||||||||
| Aquarium | ||||||||||
| Dimensions | The aquarium dimensions were 921mm x 464mm x 430mm (36.2" x 18.3" x 16.9") all Length x Width x Height. | |||||||||
| Furniture | Sand substrate, cobblestones, manzanita wood and Malaysian driftwood. Plants (cryptocoryne, Pothos, bamboo) are potted in clay pots but the plants are out of water. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz8-5zD7oyk | |||||||||
| Filtration | Box filter filled with bioballs and a pond pump moving 850gal/hour. | |||||||||
| Lighting | Fluval LED on 12L:12D cycle | |||||||||
| Heating | Room temperature, cooled by evaporation. | |||||||||
| Breeding | ||||||||||
| Behaviour | Trapping in cave as usually. Trapping occurred in middle of day and lasted at least 6 hours. Spawning occurred between 5pm and 5:30pm. Twelve days after this first spawn (https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48765#p322054) , I found the male trapping a female again. But not really. It was more like the female would push the male in and she stayed behind him most of the time. This went on for two days, with both adults entering for hours at a time, then leaving the cave repeatedly. Overnight after the second day of trapping, they spawned again. I am convinced it is the same male, as this guy guards his favorite cave, but I don't know if it was the same female. There should be 10-11 L052 in the tank, so considering the quick repetition (12 days), I wonder if the same female could yolk up more eggs so quickly. An hour or two after the second spawn was discovered, a third spawn was found between some cobblestones, with a male nearby. This egg mass was not affixed to anything, and began to drift on the water current. I rescued that egg mass and moved it to a basket to hatch. I counted at least 64 eggs in the third mass. The second spawn is still with dad, so I haven't counted it. Three days after the second and third spawn, I was able to obtain another fry basket, so i pulled the egg mass of spawn #2 from dad's cave and put it, along with the egg mass from spawn #3, in the new basket (now separated from fry of spawn #1). I counted at least 79 eggs in the egg mass from spawn #2. The eggs in both spawns started hatching after only 8 days. Tank temp had risen to 84F. About 20 eggs hatched that day and the next, but nearly all the fry died. On day 12 of incubation, most of the eggs still hadn't hatched but still look good. There were 5-10 live fry in the basket. Also on this day, the parents in the cave spawned again (spawn #4). | |||||||||
| Eggs |  There were 66 pale yellow eggs laid which were 3.0mm in diameter. | |||||||||
| Time to hatch | 11 days Number: 40 Free swimming: 2 days | |||||||||
| Segregation | 5 hours after spawning, dad removed from cave. Eggs were sliced off the cave wall and placed in a fry basket to incubate. | |||||||||
| Fry sizes | 7 days: 10mm 14 days: 11mm 21 days: 13mm | |||||||||
| 7 days |  | |||||||||
| 21 days |  | |||||||||
| Juvenile sizes | 1 month: 15mm 3 months: 30mm 6 months: 0mm | |||||||||
| 3 months |  | |||||||||
| Fry and juvenile feeding | Eggs started hatching on day 12 of incubation. The next morning, at least 20 eggs had hatched, but at least 5 wigglers had died overnight. Did a 15% water change. Fry don't appear to have much yolk, so I added some dried oak leaves to their basket and immediately started feeding them SeaChem Chlorella flakes and freeze-dried tubifex worms. | |||||||||
