Hoplosternum Punctatum Spawn!

[MissNoodle]

My trio have spawned!!!
I'll file a formal spawning report, but I'm so excited, considering especially this will be the first report of them doing so on here

[MissNoodle]

Clever. I'm looking forward to a breeding notification soon.

Cheers, Eric

Here is that notification!

[Bas Pels]

Congratulations

These are so nice

[bekateen]

Woohoo! Wonderful! Good luck with the babies!

Cheers, Eric

P.S., LOL, thanks for bringing up the old thread.

[MissNoodle]

The eggs are pretty big, compared to cory eggs, and very yellow.

Ive put together that report as detailed as I could, if there's anything else I could add, let me know.

My understanding is the reports of these guys spawning in captivity is kept quiet by the commercial breeders, so assuming that means they'd use hormone methods to trigger them.
But mine spawned on their own without any major triggers outside of me just letting them do their thing with the leaves they kept breaking off my plants lol

[MissNoodle]

I do think I'm starting to get some hatching.

[bekateen]

Looking good!

[MissNoodle]

Seeing some tails poke out

[MissNoodle]

Ive got some hatched yesterday and more today!

Very strange looking compared to cory fry.

[Bas Pels]

All the luck with them

When I had H littorale in that stage, I was unable to get them te eat

[bekateen]

Super exciting. Not enough people are working on Callichthyinae.

Good luck with the fry.

Cheers, Eric

[MissNoodle]

All the luck with them

When I had H littorale in that stage, I was unable to get them te eat

I'm waiting on the yolk sac to be more absorbed, then will get them started on infusoria and First Bites.

So far okay, just feel really undeveloped and uncoordinated compared to cory fry.

But I breed sparkling gouramis too, and they seem a but like those fry where they don't move much for a couple days after hatching, and gourami fry hatch under developed too.

So im going into this with the mindset of a combo of a cory fry and gourami fry lol


I moved them (same water) to the insulated nursery now that most have hatched, as a lot of the remaining eggs have fungus and didn't want to contaminate the fry.

[MissNoodle]

Super exciting. Not enough people are working on Callichthyinae.

Good luck with the fry.

Cheers, Eric

Not enough people keep hoplos! They need to be more popular, honestly the best catfish I've had the pleasure of having. I'm surprised, because so many people love corydoras, these guys are so much like them you'd think they'd be just as popular.

[MissNoodle]

Dad and the fry that have hatched.

[MissNoodle]

Theyve been started on fry foods, yolk sac is nearly gone and they've gotten mobile now.

They got the little flappy fins, so cute.

Feeding Hikari First Bites and liquefied squished mealworm (sounds gross, but it has done me well with emperor tetra fry in the early days). See which they prefer.

They go bonkers when food is added but it's hard to tell if they're eating it lol

Tannins in the water from an Indian almond leaf put in for shelter and for secondary food source (infusoria)

[bekateen]

Awesome!

[MissNoodle]

7 days old!

[MissNoodle]

14-15 days old today
Ive been raising them with remineralized RO water in a small tote nursery, soon will be moved to a bigger containment.

Starting to look more hoplo like rather than tadpole like lol

Feeding Hikari First Bites and finely crushed Bug Bites pellet powder now.

[bekateen]

How many do you have?

Cheers, Eric

[MissNoodle]

How many do you have?

Cheers, Eric

Theres a couple dozen it seems, hard to count them as they dart around when I try to check. I got a couple leaves they hide under in the nursery.

[MissNoodle]

Some clearer photos today, collected a couple for a close look at development. Fed frozen daphnia today and they really liked it

[MissNoodle]

Theyre looking like mini hoplos more and more

[MissNoodle]

Getting bigger!

[Bas Pels]

cute

The people in Ontario are lucky - one day you will sell them and that will be their opportunity

[bekateen]

They look great!

[fishguy1978]

Very cool.

[MissNoodle]

Ive got a second spawn today.

Again, on a floating anubias leaf, and a cold front moved through last night. Seems to be the consistent factor.

[bekateen]

Congratulations!

[fishguy1978]

That's so cool

[MissNoodle]

Moved them to an aerated container with tannins and RO water