Auchenipterichthys coracoideus Eggs.

[Shaun]

These lay eggs quite often, but I've only raised fry a few times. The females lay eggs all day and then just sit exhausted out in the open with the lights on.
No batteries for my camera, so these are from a phone





They're the only fish in the tank, 2 females and a male. It never occurred to me to take photos of the fry I raised, but I will next time.
Shaun

[Shaun]

I can't make them bigger, should've uploaded them to my profile here.
Shaun

[nvcichlids]

Mine's eggs are larger than those, what else is in the tank>?

[Marc van Arc]

They're the only fish in the tank, 2 females and a male.

[nvcichlids]

Thanks that I missed that. Could it have to do with the age of the fish? ( I know mine are at the large end of the spectrum, so they may be older?)

[Jools]

Very interesting, you know you should write more up on these. I have a group of these and more information would be great if I am to attempt reproducing this feat.

Cheers,

Jools

[Shaun]

Haha yeah I knew I should've provided a few more details
nvcichlids: The pics are really bad, but there are actually two sizes of eggs there. Whenever these spawn they seem to lay a whole lot of small, clear unferterlised eggs, as well as larger ferterlised ones. The ferterlised ones are more of a white/yellowish colour. This fades after a few days and you see the embryo start to develop. Not sure if this is normal as I can't find any spawning accounts, don't know if it's both females or if means somethings wrong or anything. Maybe food for the fry?

Details:
Tank is a Jebo R375 that holds about 140 Ltrs (30 UK Gal). The standard filtration with these is a top-trickle filter similar to the Aqua One brand (Jebo came first!), but I've modified it to take a canister. The outlet of the canister runs the trickle filter. The canister has ceramic media and a couple of coarse sponges, the top filter has bio-balls covered with a fine sponge. Canister is 700 l/hr. There is also a large airstone.
Heater is set on 24 degrees. Water is local tapwater dechlorinated and aged for 24 hrs. Water out of the tap here is generally soft, with a neutral pH. I don't have any more specific data, but I will test next time they breed. The tank gets a weekly water change of 30%, water goes in at room temperature, which is sometimes colder then the tank at about 18 degrees, depends what time of year. For a couple of months in summer temperature can easily get over 30 degrees for days at a time, this doesn't seem to bother the fish, but I usually do a waterchange with cooler water in the evening.
I don't do anything in particular to get the fish to spawn. They are, however, more likely to spawn after a larger then usual waterchange with cold water, or cyclic waterchanges over a few days.
Fish are approx 4 yrs old, females measure 11-12cm, male about 10cm. The tank is furnished with a tangle of driftwood, containing many spaces they can squeeze into during the day. There is some some large Anubias, Java Fern and too much Java Moss. Fish are fed a variety of different dried and frozen foods, some more popular then others. The really like live blackworm, as I bulk buy it sometimes and they get little else for a couple weeks. This really gets the females plump.

Will type up some more tomorrow night
Shaun

[nvcichlids]

Yeah, I have had the same egg thing as you, but the more I look at my fish, the more I realize the male is NEVER near the female, so I have not had sucess with fry yet with them.