 Basics | ||||||||||
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| Overview | The first spawn was on Thursday 14th of November 2024. The breeding group consisted of 2 males and 2 females. Additionally, there were 4 unknown individuals present. The smallest male was at least 100mm SL and the smallest female was at least 110mm SL. The individuals were obtained from GreenFish, Iquitos & wild caught, Rio Nanay. | |||||||||
| Further spawns | Tuesday 7th of January 2025. 1 in total. | |||||||||
| Feeding |
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| Water Parameters (at time of spawning) | ||||||||||
| pH | 4.00 to 4.10 | |||||||||
| Conductivity | 100µs to 200µs | |||||||||
| Temperature | 21.0°C to 21.5°C | |||||||||
| Current | Medium | |||||||||
| Other Water Params | 75:25 mix of RO and tap water, dechlorinated with aquavitro alpha. 75% water change one week before spawn. | |||||||||
| Aquarium | ||||||||||
| Dimensions | The aquarium dimensions were 1219mm x 330mm x 305mm (48" x 13" x 12") all Length x Width x Height. | |||||||||
| Furniture | Sand substrate on 3/4 of floor, false floor covers 1/4 of floor beside matten filter. Manzanita branches, cobblestones, pleco caves, bamboo pipes, a broken brick. Lots of emergent plants. Waterfall at opposite end of tank, away from matten. Floating kinon made from twigs, live plant roots, and coconut husk/fibers. | |||||||||
| Filtration | Matten filter driven by an 800 gal/hour pond pump for return, and an Eheim Professionel3 canister filter | |||||||||
| Lighting | Direct sun through East-facing window, plus a 4-foot fluval white LED light on a 12:12 timer, plus a dim red LED light on a reverse 12:12 timer (on at night, of in day) | |||||||||
| Heating | One Fluval E100 heater set to 76F/24.5C. The heater was not maintaining temp, so tank was actually at 71F/21.5C On the day eggs were first found, I added a second Fluval E100 also set to 76F/24.5C. Now tank is 76F/24.5C. | |||||||||
| Breeding | ||||||||||
| Behaviour | Details of the spawn are written here: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=52743. Males had been observed trying to inseminate females for weeks prior to this spawn, but females appeared evasive back then. Egg laying not observed, but it occurred overnight. Eggs found laying on top of a false floor (adjacent to the Matten filter) because egg jelly coats were too large to pass through the grid of the false floor. Eggs may have been deposited there, or the eggs may have drifted to this location, since the tank water current is unidirectional from waterfall to the matten. No eggs were observed in other places of the tank, closer to the waterfall. Presumably some should have been found trapped under rocks if the current didn't push the eggs to the opposite end of the tank. | |||||||||
| Eggs |  There were 999 amber eggs laid which were 2.0mm in diameter. | |||||||||
| Time to hatch | 5 days Number: 12 Free swimming: 6 days | |||||||||
| Segregation | On morning eggs were found, eggs were transferred to a Lowell Dunnaway egg incubation tray. After almost two weeks, I was able to collect about 130 fry from the tank and from within the Matten filter, and transfer them to a fry box. When the second spawn occurred in mid January, I didn't find any eggs, but I discovered fry getting stuck in the Matten filter again. Over the next 7 days, I collected about 640 fry from the Matten and from two spawning mops I placed against the Matten (to distract fry from burrowing into the Matten). There were still many more live fry in the tank and many died in the Matten without being collected. I do not know if these almost 700 fry were from one female's egg mass, or if two females laid eggs on approximately the same night. | |||||||||
| Fry sizes | 7 days: 6mm 14 days: 7mm 21 days: 8mm | |||||||||
| 7 days |  | |||||||||
| 14 days |  | |||||||||
| 21 days |  | |||||||||
| Juvenile sizes | 1 month: 10mm 3 months: 25mm 6 months: 55mm | |||||||||
| 1 month |  | |||||||||
| 3 months |  | |||||||||
| 6 months |  | |||||||||
| Fry and juvenile feeding | After they were free-swimming, I started feeding them live microworms and crumbled freeze-dried tubifex worms and frozen cyclops and frozen baby brine shrimp. | |||||||||
