Long time reader first time poster... Just to give a bit of a background on me:
I have keep fish since I was a very young boy always been fascinated by all fish species. I currently running 6x fresh water tanks with varied species from Murry Cod to Ocars, Petenia Splendida, Ghost knives, Bala Sharks to name a few.
My question and I do hope there is someone out there that can help me here as I have been trying to breed a pair (well i think they are a pair) of large Black Ater (Neosilurus ater) pictured below in very poor quality, Sorry I will take a better picture if I get some interest in this post. These two are now over 8 years old and are about 16" to 18" madly in love so it seems to me as they never leave each other sides.
I have breed many other species of fish over the years but these two give all the signs they what to and I think I and missing a vital key that I hope someone out there has.
They are currently in a 6x2x2 Tank, PH: is smack on 7, Water temp solid at 24, They have a cave with a Slade rock bottom, good water flow plenty of air, feeding at three times a day currently on Blood Worm and Brine Shrimp. Do regular cold water changes, varying from one to two weeks apart. I have tried less and more feed over the pass few years even tried putting a Petenia in there once to fire them up but no joy. Changed light cycles, PH, Temp, raised and lowered the KH different filters currently they have two large canister filter running to cope with the large diet??? (I do know I will need to remove the canister if I can get them to lay)
There is very little on the net about them and even less in books that I have.
If any one has any ideas I would love to here them.
It may simply be I am doing nothing wrong and I have two same sex fish?