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Acquired a group of 6 wild caughts on June 8. The catfish spawned on June 26. They are housed in a 26g tank. My water parameters are Ph8 Gh26 Kh16
June 26

July 2

July 17



I ended up with 14 free swimming fry. Parents showed no mouthbrooding and protected the cave well. I removed the parents after the fry became wigglers. The eggs are all stuck together but bounce around the cave freely.

Good news, the pair spawned again last night. Looks to be about 40 eggs in this cluster. I will try to get some better pics. I still am not able to tell the male from female.

Jeff

Congratulations What's the tank temperature? David

Nice one Good to see someone else keeping this great species

Excellent news

Grats on the spawn!

I used to breed this species as well, and the sticky eggs are a pointer to this species not being a mouthbreeding species
mouthbrooders usually have non sticky eggs that can be moved around in the mouth.
Phyllonemus for example has non sticky orange eggs.

can you post a picture of the parents? cause you might have been breeding L brevispinis.
most imports these days are brevispinis, not cyclurus; even the brand new book on African catfishes messed it up with these 2 species (!)
the pictures in the book labelled cyclurus are brevispinis and vice versa.

cyclurus has a square tail (straight edge) with a clear non pigmented strip.
all the fins of cyclurus have this clear nonpigmented edge

the tailfin of brevispinis is rounded and it lacks the clear edge, ditto the rest of the fins.
the final edge appears to be nonpigmented, but it doesn't go from pigmented to nonpigmented in 1 go

the headshape is different too.
cyclurus has a big fatty head and smaller eyes, the head of brevispinis is like a newt; when viewed from the side the eyes bulge out upwards.

sidguppy on Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:10 pm
the head of brevispinis is like a newt;

That is a very good analagy Sid , i'd never thought about describing it that way

Here are some pictures of the adults out of the group. These arent the breeding pair as they are in the cave with the eggs and I didn't want to stress them out too much. Sorry for the quality of pics. I tried to get pics of the tails for a better id of these guys. I'll see if I can get better pics.

Thanks, Jeff

Here is one more tail closeup that might help.
Jeff

davidkozak wrote:Congratulations What's the tank temperature? David

Tank temp runs between 74° and 78°
Jeff

This looks like brevispinis to me - Sid, your expertise please

yup, definitely brevispinis

the rounded tail without the clear band is the best and most easy to view feature on this fish.

I googled a small but very clear picture of the real cyclurus not from this site, check the fins!!


another one, also cyclurus: