Eggs Galore!

[grokefish]

Right this is potentially very exciting.
I have a tank, within this tank are Liosomadoras Morrowi, and Agamyxis pectinifrons.

In this tank with them are some corydoras aeneus and unfortunately that wee assassin of fish fry asouth american bumblebee catfish.

Fortunately there are eggs, all over the java moss. Big eggs. Now these belong to either:

The lisomadors
The agamyxis
The cory's.

Seeing as the cory's usually lay their eggs on the glass, and the eggs are way too big they must be from one of the others.

I'm not sure what to do with them, leave them or try and gather them up and suspend them in a net.
The tank is chocca with wood plants and leaves so I'm tending towards leaving them. There is no way of catching the little assassin without taking the tank to bits but I don't want to do that.

What do you guys think?

[MatsP]

A photo would help, I think - even if it's not that clear, it would probably give us an idea of what kind of fish it may be.

--
Mats

[grokefish]

I meant about what I should do Mats.

Seeing as, as far as I know ( the English language is weird), there are no reports of either species breeding, and I am almost 100% they are not cory eggs, I am not sure how much use a photo is going to be for identification but as you wisely suggest Mats here is a photo of one I have scooped up.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[MatsP]

Not sure, but looking at the picture [if what I think is an egg, is really an egg], it doesn't look "big soft mucus coated" like the Auchenipteridae eggs I've seen -> probably not the Liosomadoras. But that's just a guess. There will be fry soon, and they probably don't need to be that many weeks old to be able to tell.

--
Mats

[racoll]

Looks like there is something good in water in South Wales at the moment.

I would definitely take a proportion of them and rear them in a net.

Looking forward to seeing what they turn out to be.

[andywoolloo]

wow..cool!

[grokefish]

I'm tending towards agamyxis myself.

[Richard B]

3 things -

the liosomadoras oncinus eggs i've had (not fertile) had no mucus coating.

i'd be tempted to remove some eggs & leave others to give multiple success options for fry.

Would it be possible to trap the microglanis in some sort of "ingenius grokefish trap" left overnight? A baited, sealed U/G uplift or pot of some sort...

[grokefish]

3 things -

"ingenius grokefish trap"

[wrasse]

Great news!
What should you do you ask?
Do you have a noticeably slimmer female?
Note everything you have done to reach this stage.
Can you divide the tank?
Or maybe suspend a big net, put some gravel in it so it holds its shape and put eggs in it with moss/ plants.

If you should lose the eggs this time, maybe re-arrange the tank a bit so you can use a tank divider next time? When fish are this happy it won't take them long to settle again.

[bronzefry]

You are having a great spring!
Amanda

[apistomaster]

Net breeder traps have always worked well for me as I can keep the eggs in the spawning tank and keep them in that more stable environment.

It will be interesting to see what the fry look like since their origins presently remain a mystery but some Corydoras may lay many eggs in Moss, hair algae preferentially depending on the species. C. aeneus are more archetypal in their preference for smooth surfaces like glass.
I hope they prove to be the spiny talking catfish but if they are from your wood cats it will be a fish breeding coup either way.
Do you have a microscope you can use to look at some under low magnification? I would check their development out if this happened in my tanks. You could probably get a good idea before they hatch. The egg looks like it could be from a Corydoras but I don't know what talking catfish eggs look like. Do you have 2 or more Microglanis in that tank? If so they might also be a possibility. Definitely don't think it is a wood cat egg.

[grokefish]

Fail.

The eggs have gone white and are starting to fungus.


I shall set something better up I think.

[Jools]

While it doesn't look like a Bronze Cory egg, I think it's too early to call on the thorny Vs woodcat. Bear in mind that

Liosomadoras

is something of a halfway house genus between the two families and despite its current placement we know nothing of its reproduction habits and it's quite possible its eggs are really quite different from those

Auchenipteridae

that have been recorded top date.

Jools

[apistomaster]

Hi Matt,

You may need to be keeping the breeding tank water very soft and acidic in order to get the eggs to hatch assuming they were produced from a normal spawn and not just some lone female releasing eggs to relieve herself.

[grokefish]

This for me is no problem, water out of the tap is pretty good round here, hence the success with SA spawnings.

Jools, I was going to mention that but decided not to as I wasn't really sure how to put it.

[bronzefry]

Patience, mate. They'll breed again!
Amanda