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I was severely worried about my A. claro, hadn't seen much of him at all for at least 5 days so tonight I picked up the cave to make sure he was still alive. He was, left it as it went up and started a searching pattern. While I had the cave out I decided to take a quick peak and.....

EGGS!!!!!!!!

A dozen yellow eggs at the back of the cave! I quickly replaced the cave and saw him dive in again, move about a bit and return to the ceiling of the cave, almost entirely hidden.

I sincerely hope I won't have had a negative impact on this first clutch. On the bright side , at least I got a male and a female. Anyone any tips on when to intervene to save the young? I got an in-tank breeding net on standby and the sponge for a small superfish 50 filter maturing in my eheim.

Yahoo, congrats man. Nice !!!!!!

I've had very good success taking the babies away in the first day or two post-hatching.

Great news!!! Congratulations

To maximize the survival rate you can put the cave in a breeding container which remains in the breeding tank (so water parameters won't change). That way you can keep the eggs and fry save when they start hatching. Sometime's the fry get kicked out of the cave and most times you loose them due to predatory behavior of the other inhabitants of the tank. You can leave the male in his cave until day 8-10. Then the yolksack will be almost dissolved and you can start feeding the fry.
Good luck!!

hi I find that the first and second batch of claro eggs don't usually make it but the 3rd batch is usually very successful don't worry if these not that many eggs As claro don't make that many anyway about 30 eggs maximum I have personal experience as I have 6 pairs, each male and female in the pair is unrelated. but only got 3 different bloodlines. Kind regards Dom

Whow ....nice job Jeroen, congratulations, you finally did it, first in the Netherlands.
I hope the eggs are okey, I always put in ESHA2000 A bit to prevent fungus on the eggs.

Good luck, and if you have the time, can you make a picture of the head of the female?

Greetings, Walter

Thanks guys!

I've decided to let daddy do his thing with this first litter. According to Mats the fry is probably too large for the green neons to take on when they leave the cave and those are the biggest fish that forage at the bottom. The T. Espei tend to stay higher in the tank. If I do see any fry roaming around I might try to catch a few and rear them seperately. Next time dad nests I might try the trick with the in-tank breeding box, see what that does.

@Walter. I'm not entirely sure who mom is. Could be either of the other two.

This is middle fish, I suspect it might be a slow developing male, it's about a centimeter shorter than the big male. Since I took this picture it's gotten a few stubbles more around the lip but no actual tentacles.


looking pretty by j_wijnands, on Flickr


This is small fish, has grown very little since I bought it last year. Only one with lines on the head. About half the size of daddy fish. Female?

DSC_8470 by j_wijnands, on Flickr

A day or so after I discovered the eggs I noticed that middle fish is eating a lot more and is also interested in more protein. Small fish has existed for months and months on green spot algae but has recently also shown interest in wafers and fresh veg. Very clumsy and shy but it's managed to get some nibbles in on hikari algae wafers and cory wafers.

Can you make a resend photo of the big female, I have many A. Claro with small bristles, I can't figure out who the male or female is because they al have bristles, I hope is don't have all males.

How is it with your eggs, are they still in the cave and OK?

I can certainly try to take a picture.

As far as I know they're still in the cave. Daddy is in there. He moved out of the cave for a few seconds when I fed a lump of cauliflower but decided his nest was more important and went back in which shows dedication.
I'm still resisting the temptation to take another peek but it is not easy.

Hello Jeroen, i'm still praying for you and your eggs.

1walter9 wrote:Can you make a resend photo of the big female?

DSC_9620 by j_wijnands, on Flickr

Possible female.

Any signs of baby's yet??

No. And I find it difficult not to take another peak in there but I don't want to stress dad unnecessary.

Haha, i now what you mean.

Nice picture of the female, now I have a good idea how mine are, I think more male then female if I look at the bristles .

Still good luck with the dry

Should I be able to actually raise some fry then sooner or later I need to see about getting some fresh blood. Any A. Claro in the Netherlands is likely to originate from the same source and we don't know how inbred thjose are (why do I have one small one with lines and two bigger ones without)

Fresh blood is always welcome, but very hard to find, like you said, there is at the moment only one LFS who sells them for years. Nice thing to say to you, I talked to Eelco from aqua ferrytale and he said that he sold over 4000 A. Claro in the Netherlands and had never have heard about breed in The Netherlands. Compliments to you and your focus on the A. Claro

Let's hope there will be wild import once,

Greetings, Walter

Very nice,

It's a shame this fish is not more readably available, it would be a great addition to the hobby.

I have been on the lookout for these here in Ireland for quite some time now, without any luck.

Please keep us updated on the progress.

Andreas

Hey, you make us nervous, do you have fry?


gr, Walter

This morning was a bit hectic. I was packing for a two day business trip and the lights came on reminding me that it was really time to leave the house. I quickly glanced at the tank to see if everyone was alright when I noticed something moving on a rock so I quickly grabbed my camera (it sits next to the tank with the macro lens on it) and shot a few pictures. Rush job so apologies for the quality.



There was a second one stuck on the glass




As you can see they are quite big for fry. My wife spotted a third one later on and there might be more. From an initial batch of 10-12 eggs I seem to have about 1/3 hatched, possibly more, my tank has plenty of hiding space.

I'm curious to see what will happen next and if daddy will start eating again. For now I am very happy with this and proud of the work done by daddy.

Nice one!

I noticed my Claro tank had a couple of fry in the other day - i've only ever seen fry sporadically & never seen where they breed. I will have to sort them out & focus a bit on breeding them & getting some out there

Might be an idea, there's certainly a demand out there. If mine keep it up I may need to look into options of getting one or two from you or mats to get some fresh blood.

Great job on the pictures of the fry
They do look a bit emaciated tho.. Maybe try and feed them more powdered food so they can find it more easily.
Great job!

Well, this was the first time I noticed them. Just after I took this picture I place a small, algae encrusted flower pot next to them but, good point, thanks!

Yessss, nice job Jeroen, congratulations. Keep us updated.

Gr, Walter

The little guys are eating, looked a bit plumper. I scattered some spirulina, most of which went to the shrimps I'm afraid. Perhaps I'll paint a few rocks and see what that does.

Total fry count is upto 4 now but dad is sitting just outside his cave constantly wiggling his pectoral fins so perhaps there's a few more in there. I do hope he'll start eating soon and get his strength back.

The past few days at work have been extremely hectic but I hope to have some time this weekend to take more pictures.

Well.... I just see two tails sticking out of the cave.

Again or other female?

Brief fling, nothing came out of it. think as long as the weather stays stable and I don't have rainwater nothing is going to happen.

think as long as the weather stays stable and I don't have rainwater nothing is going to happen.

For me I found that stability in water conditions had better results than purposely making changes.

Birger

[quote="Birger"][quote] think as long as the weather stays stable and I don't have rainwater nothing is going to happen.[/quote]

For me I found that stability in water conditions had better results than purposely making changes.

Birger[/quote]


With respect to water conditions for spawning, IME I have to agree with Birger.