Trachelyichthys exilis spawn :-)

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 22 Jul 2020, 17:35

Three weeks ago (here) I received 4 adult , 2 M and 2 F. This morning, I found a single egg loose in a bamboo pipe (open both ends) occupied by 3 of the 4 adults. I hope there are more eggs in the tank, but quick inspection of the front of the tank yielded none. However, the tank has a moderate to strong water current from back to front of the tank, so the eggs might have been swept back to the filter in the rear of the tank. Will check for more eggs later.

$\:d/$

Cheers, Eric

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 22 Jul 2020, 19:23

Hoorah! If you hatch just that one egg then you will have had better luck spawning them than me!

Jools

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 23 Jul 2020, 01:16

I've always said "One is better than none (but more would be great)!"

Later this morning I looked and the egg had been fanned out of the pipe. I found it lodged in a mass of Java moss. The egg with jelly coat was huge (5mm?) although the egg itself was much smaller (2.5mm). I pulled the egg and placed it in a fry basket, where it quickly started accumulating sediment from the tank water. I hope it makes it... And I hope the parents spawn again.

Cheers, Eric

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 23 Jul 2020, 23:08

I took some time to vacuum the sand in the tank today and found 3 more eggs- now 4 eggs total.

P.S. Later I did a more thorough vacuuming and found 1 more egg - now 5 total.

Baardman · Post by **Baardman** » 23 Jul 2020, 23:17

think their might be more?

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 24 Jul 2020, 00:29

Could be more, but It's difficult to vacuum the back of the tank. If they hatch in the tank, I'll try to catch them.

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 28 Jul 2020, 05:06

Two eggs appeared to hatch on Saturday and the embryos appeared dead. The other eggs still developing. Today I collected 17 fresh (I think) eggs: 8-10 in Java moss and the rest by vacuuming the debris (oak leaves and small Java moss strands) on tank floor.

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 01 Aug 2020, 06:21

None of the first eggs hatched successfully. As recounted above, on 25 July I found two dead hatchlings, just a few days after those first eggs were laid. Then on 27 July, I found 17 more eggs, and about few days later several more. Today I found my first live fry. At 10am, it seemed weak, maybe it had just hatched. But by 6pm it was much stronger. And tonight I collected about a dozen more eggs.

Direct link to YouTube page: Trachelyichthys exilis first fry

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 01 Aug 2020, 06:53

That's really cool, do I understand correctly that this means the adults are just spawning, maybe 20 or so eggs every few days?

Jools

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 01 Aug 2020, 07:20

Yes, 10 to 20 eggs about every 5 days or do.

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 02 Aug 2020, 07:53

Today, I counted 5 hatched yolky fry. Looking good!

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 06 Aug 2020, 23:28

Little woodcats are developing well. I think I have a dozen fry of various ages swimming around. Here is the oldest fry, now a week old and 8mm SL.

About 10 more eggs collected today in Java moss and a few in leaves, but I did not vacuum the tank for more.

Cheers, Eric

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 07 Aug 2020, 16:51

bekateen wrote: ↑06 Aug 2020, 23:28 Little woodcats are developing well. I think I have a dozen fry of various ages swimming around. Here is the oldest fry, now a week old and 8mm SL.

Awesome, get that picture in the cat-elog!

Such a long time we've been waiting to see fry of the species - great to see it all unfold.

Cheers,

Jools

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 07 Aug 2020, 18:06

Thanks! Will do.

Cheers, Eric

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 09 Aug 2020, 21:34

2020-08-09: Nineteen more eggs collected today, after a spawning which must have occurred overnight.

Fry from previous spawns still alive. I don't see them feeding, but they aren't dead yet, so they're eating something. I'm adding small amounts of live microworms and wetted-powdered Repashy 2x daily to their fry basket. Also started giving them some small frozen cyclops before lights out for night. I presume some of the food is persisting in the basket until after dark for the fry to feast upon.

Cheers, Eric

As I've done with other species, here is a review of the frequency of spawning (although I don't check for eggs daily, so I might have missed some spawns by a day or two). Also note that after the first two spawns, I've stopped doing thorough sand vacuuming. All I do now is remove and inspect the Java moss, loose oak leaves, and the sponge filters to see if eggs are stuck to these surfaces. I do not cull the sand and tiny bits of debris in the tank to find additional eggs, although I learned after the first two spawns that a significant number of eggs can be found in the vacuuming process:

2020-07-22: First egg found, over next two days, sloppy and then careful sand vacuuming recovered a total of 5 eggs.
2020-07-27: 17 new eggs found.
- (5 day interval)
2020-07-29 or 30: "few more" eggs found. (apparently I didn't count those or note date carefully)
- (2-3 day interval, or could these have been from prior spawn, meaning no interval here?)
2020-07-31: 12 new eggs found.
- (2 or 4 day interval, depending on whether the 7/29 eggs were a new spawn or they were from the 7/27 spawn)
2020-08-06: "about 10" new eggs found (I was out of town from 8/2 to 8/6, but eggs looked fresh, so I think they were laid between 8/4 and 8/6, rather than near 8/2.
- (4-6 day interval, depending on when spawn occurred)
2020-08-09: 19 new eggs found.
- (3-5 day interval, depending on when previous spawn occurred)

So the big egg collections seem to occur about every 4-5 days. Certainly not large spawns (I've heard that someone got as many as 200 eggs at once - but was that from one female?), but consistent repeat spawnings is more helpful to me because it gives me multiple opportunities to improve my fry care technique.

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 10 Aug 2020, 00:21

Here's one of the eggs just about to hatch:

Martin S · Post by **Martin S** » 10 Aug 2020, 12:34

Congratulations Eric! And a great photo of the developing embryo!

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 10 Aug 2020, 14:53

thanks!

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 10 Aug 2020, 18:37

Another 25 fresh eggs found this morning (my largest one-day collection yet $\:d/$ ), only one day after the previous spawn of 19 eggs.

If I had found only one or two or three eggs today, I would have attributed them to being leftovers from yesterday's spawn, uncollected yesterday since I didn't vacuum the tank floor. Eighteen of these 25 new eggs were laid securely in Java moss, and the remainder of them were either attached to oak leaves in the leaf litter or found on the sides of sponge filters (the latter which I assume not laid on them, but sucked up to the filter from the water current). I scoured the Java moss thoroughly yesterday, so all (or nearly all) of the 18 eggs must be new; some of the seven loose or oak-leaf eggs might be residuals from yesterday's spawn, but certainly not all. Either I've got my two females spawning on alternate days, or one female (or both) is holding back and not laying all her eggs in one day.

Either way, I'm happy. Keep 'em coming, ladies!

On an unrelated species, all this egg-laying in Java moss has me pondering my two pairs of . There are no plants or mosses in their tank - just driftwood and cobblestones. But there's too much current in their tank for me to toss a mass of Java moss and expect it not to get sucked into a power head, so this morning I added two spawning mops. Let's see if this triggers them to spawn.

Cheers, Eric

2020-07-22: First egg found, over next two days, sloppy and then careful sand vacuuming recovered a total of 5 eggs.
2020-07-27: 17 new eggs found.
- (5 day interval)
2020-07-29 or 30: "few more" eggs found. (apparently I didn't count those or note date carefully)
- (2-3 day interval, or could these have been from prior spawn, meaning no interval here?)
2020-07-31: 12 new eggs found.
- (2 or 4 day interval, depending on whether the 7/29 eggs were a new spawn or they were from the 7/27 spawn)
2020-08-06: "about 10" new eggs found (I was out of town from 8/2 to 8/6, but eggs looked fresh, so I think they were laid between 8/4 and 8/6, rather than near 8/2.
- (4-6 day interval, depending on when spawn occurred)
2020-08-09: 19 new eggs found.
- (3-5 day interval, depending on when previous spawn occurred)
2020-08-10: 25 new eggs found.
- (1 day interval)

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 11 Aug 2020, 23:21

Just 3 eggs today - these might be residuals from the spawns yesterday or the day before.

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 18 Aug 2020, 18:47

2020-08-14 or 15 (I can't recall): 10 eggs found
- (4-5 day interval since last big spawn)
2020-08-17: 3 eggs found (maybe from the 8/15 spawn?)
2020-08-18: 27 eggs found
- (3-4 day interval since last big spawn)

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 19 Aug 2020, 00:00

Update video on fry care:

Direct YouTube link: Novia feliz woodcat (Trachelyichthys exilis) fry 2-18 days old

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 29 Aug 2020, 01:31

Life is a mix of bad and good:
On the positive side, more spawns keep coming on a 4-5 day schedule.
On the negative side, this week I've been finding 3-4 dead fry, some of the largest fry, every day. Is it a food thing? Water quality? Don't know. But as long as the eggs keep coming, I can keep working on the rearing.

2020-07-22: First egg found, over next two days, sloppy and then careful sand vacuuming recovered a total of 5 eggs.
2020-07-27: 17 eggs found
- (5 day interval)
2020-07-29 or 30: "few more" eggs found. (apparently I didn't count those or note date carefully)
- (2-3 day interval, or could these have been from prior spawn, meaning no interval here?)
2020-07-31: 12 eggs found
- (2 or 4 day interval, depending on whether the 7/29 eggs were a new spawn or they were from the 7/27 spawn)
2020-08-06: "about 10" eggs found (I was out of town from 8/2 to 8/6, but eggs looked fresh, so I think they were laid between 8/4 and 8/6, rather than near 8/2.
- (4-6 day interval, depending on when spawn occurred)
2020-08-09: 19 eggs found
- (3-5 day interval, depending on when previous spawn occurred)
2020-08-10: 25 eggs found
- (1 day interval)
2020-08-11: 3 eggs found
- (1 day interval)
2020-08-14 or 15 (I can't recall): 10 eggs found
- (4-5 day interval since last big spawn)
2020-08-17: 3 eggs found (maybe from the 8/15 spawn?)
- (2-3 day interval)
2020-08-18: 27 eggs found
- (3-4 day interval since last big spawn)
2020-08-20: 10 eggs found
- (2 day interval)
2020-08-23: 36 eggs found
- (5 day interval from last big spawn)
2020-08-28: 16 eggs found
- (5 day interval)

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 31 Aug 2020, 05:54

2020-08-30: 25 eggs found.
- (2 day interval)

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 31 Aug 2020, 20:46

2020-08-31: 40 eggs found.
- (1 day interval)

This was my biggest egg collection yet. That said, I found 8 of these eggs actually clinging to the bottom and sides of the fry basket. Those are not surfaces I've checked really closely in the past, which means both that I may have missed a number of eggs on previous days, and also that some or all of these 8 eggs might have been from yesterday.

To date, I've collected at least 261 eggs. I'm sure I have nowhere close to that many fry - maybe 50 to 100? No idea really... I've made no attempt to count the fry recently. There have been no more deaths for a couple of days now, but there were at least 20 deaths last week.

When I look at the fry individually, it doesn't seem like they've grown at all (in part I expect because some of the largest have been dying). But when I compare the fry swimming in the basket to each other, it is clear that some are larger than others. Let's keep feeding them and hoping for the best.

Cheers, Eric

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 04 Sep 2020, 20:01

2020-09-04: 21 eggs found.
- (4 day interval)

On a sad note, the deaths have picked back up. Four yesterday and four today. They all are dark, not pale white, so I think they are older. I gotta figure out what I'm missing here.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 05 Sep 2020, 10:01

What are they eating Eric? From memory, even adults have relatively small mouths, might be one for NHBS?

Jools

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 05 Sep 2020, 16:55

I'm feeding them three foods: pulverized Repashy powder (a fine dust, wetted), live microworms, and for the bigger individuals, frozen Cyclops, which are slightly larger than baby brine shrimp.

Cheers, Eric

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 05 Sep 2020, 17:27

That seems to be a fine mix, not much else I could add except perhaps ensuring you're feeding in the dark or "dusk"?

Jools

YouTube · Post by **bekateen** » 07 Sep 2020, 23:48

2020-09-06: 34 eggs found.
- (2 day interval)

Trachelyichthys exilis spawn :-)

Trachelyichthys exilis spawn :-)

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