 Basics | ||||||||||
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| Overview | The first spawn was on Friday 10th of February 2023. The breeding group consisted of 2 males and 3 females. Additionally, there were 1 unknown individual present. The smallest male was at least 100mm SL and the smallest female was at least 100mm SL. The individuals were obtained from Wild caught in creek of Rio Itaya. | |||||||||
| Further spawns | Saturday 25th of February 2023, Thursday 23rd of March 2023, Saturday 25th of March 2023, Tuesday 2nd of January 2024. 4 in total. | |||||||||
| Feeding |
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| Water Parameters (at time of spawning) | ||||||||||
| pH | 6.00 to 6.50 | |||||||||
| Conductivity | 100µs to 200µs | |||||||||
| Temperature | 24.5°C to 27.0°C | |||||||||
| Current | Medium | |||||||||
| Other Water Params | 50-50 blend of tapwater and RO water. Dechlorinated with Aquavitro alpha. | |||||||||
| Aquarium | ||||||||||
| Dimensions | The aquarium dimensions were 762mm x 470mm x 381mm (30" x 18.5" x 15") all Length x Width x Height. | |||||||||
| Furniture | Sand, cobblestones, wood, bamboo pipes, clay caves | |||||||||
| Filtration | Matten filter. Also Aquaclear 70 powerhead with venturi and a 500 gallon per hour water pump at bottom of tank. | |||||||||
| Lighting | 2 fluorescent lights, 8 hr photoperiod. | |||||||||
| Heating | Fluval E series 200W heater set to 78F | |||||||||
| Breeding | ||||||||||
| Behaviour | Spawning not observed. Male discovered the next morning guarding eggs in a 1" diameter, 5" long bamboo pipe. Details of this spawn can be found in the forum, here: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51457. | |||||||||
| Eggs |  There were 100 translucent yellow eggs laid which were 2.5mm in diameter. | |||||||||
| Time to hatch | 12 days Number: 100 Free swimming: 3 days | |||||||||
| Segregation | Eggs left with dad. After about 5 days, dad and his eggs (inside the bamboo pipe) were lifted out of the aquarium and moved to a 6" long Fluval Hang-on-side breeder box augmented with 3 oak leaves. The box was covered with a black towel so that dad would not get frightened by people moving past the aquarium, as this aquarium is in a high foot-traffic area of the room. Dad was not provided any food during the days that he was in the breeder box. | |||||||||
| Fry sizes | 7 days: 10mm 14 days: 13mm 21 days: 15mm | |||||||||
| 7 days |  | |||||||||
| 14 days |  | |||||||||
| 21 days |  | |||||||||
| Juvenile sizes | 1 month: 17mm 3 months: 53mm 6 months: 71mm | |||||||||
| 1 month |  | |||||||||
| 3 months |  | |||||||||
| 6 months |  | |||||||||
| Fry and juvenile feeding | Twelve eggs hatched after 11.5 days and the remainder of the eggs hatched overnight day 12. I found no unhatched or unfertilized eggs. Unfortunately, I found only 27 fry in the breeder box even though there were at least 80 eggs. I don't know how many fry survived (none found dead), but I saw that lots of fry had escaped the box into the aquarium. I managed to suck up 45 more fry using a turkey baster and return the fry to the box. I continued to search for more fry. Already, the oldest fry (only 1.5 days old) had very little yolk left, so I started providing live microworms as food. Plus, there are oak leaves covered with fine mulm in the box for the babies to eat biofilm if they wanted. On the morning after the remaining eggs had hatched, I found more fry, bringing the total recovered into the breeder box up to 115. The BLOG field for egg count has a maximum limit of 100, but obviously there were at least 115 eggs (I presume more fry are still in the tank, so the real number is even higher). | |||||||||
