New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

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fishguy1978
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they?

Post by fishguy1978 »

Nice, gl.
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they?

Post by bekateen »

Here's one of the new arrivals sitting still in the relative open... @Shane?
20220118_132115~2.jpg
This individual looks a lot like
1~2.jpg
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I color adjusted this to remove the blue tint. But I can't improve the contrast.
I color adjusted this to remove the blue tint. But I can't improve the contrast.
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they?

Post by bekateen »

All new Microglanis are healing from ich, although some still have a way to go. This individual is one of my favorites in the group. I'm not sure if it's the same fish pictured on the previous page, since I can typically see only one or two fish at the same time, and rarely do they sit still for long in the open.

20220121_090730~2.jpg

Cheers,
Eric
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they?

Post by bekateen »

Finally getting serious and taking time to catch eggs from these . They're egg scatters. Great experiential advice I got from Becca Goldring, who bred them last year (or maybe the year before). She recommended I build a false floor. But instead of a false floor, I'm trying the egg-catching tray. I'm using a kitchen food tray for good transparency and spare parts I have around the house: some knitting canvas and pieces left over from some breeder nets I use.
328111138_1429594114466647_1002970999598908096_n.jpg
328288439_512276831013401_7098182817390058455_n.jpg
328287670_921015722398828_114163303730052700_n.jpg
328107661_915598099678819_4819017746121265846_n.jpg
328277587_754296002786698_2432691997330565283_n.jpg
328101267_557486879755821_2948090862936098726_n.jpg
The blue plugs are surplused from the Imagitarium fry/net baskets I like to use (a fry basket is also shown in the photo for reference). The plugs are intended to anchor the transparent plastic tubes holding the suction cup braces on the fry basket, but I've found in the past these plugs often fail and fall out, allowing the fry basket to dislodge from the wall and fry escape. So I used a hot metal rod to heat-expand the plastic tubes on this fry basket (you can see their melted ends in the photos). This way, I didn't need to use the blue plugs and it allowed me to repurpose the blue plugs on the new egg catcher. I thought the plugs were better than zip ties for this purpose because I want to be able to remove the black knitting canvas to recover the eggs after a spawn. This is the first time I've made anything like this, so it's definitely experimental. Let's find out if (a) it works, and (b) it holds up over time (without the plugs failing here).

Also, related to taxonomy, today I finally got around to separating true from the various similar fish which are in the hobby; for now I left those lumped together as . I added information on collecting data and slight coloration differences, and I did my best effort to divide the images into three "variants" (plus albino as another variant). The three colored variants are:
  1. Variant 1: The large (up to 7 cm SL) fish with a relatively clean yellow-pink base color. This fish typically has a solid-colored posteroventral-slanting V-shaped subdorsal saddle.
  2. Variant 2: The medium (about 5-6 cm SL) fish with a solid saddle and wood grain or mottled base color. This fish tends to have an almost symmetrical U-shaped subdorsal saddle, pointing down (no posterior slant).
  3. Variant 3: The smaller fish (about 4 cm SL) with a conspicuous pale spot in the middle of the subdorsal saddle and the posterior margin of the saddle has a triangular shape, pointing backwards towards the tail. The saddle and its pale spot (in my specimens and in at least one published photo) are interrupted by a dark-pigmented broken line (the lateral line?) cutting horizontally through the saddle and spot. As discussed previously in this thread (HERE and HERE, where I was trying to associate all these forms with known species), the subdorsal saddle of this fish somewhat resembles that of (a species of which I've never seen a live or good preserved image; I'm basing this statement on the original drawing of M. zonatus).
For almost two years, I haven't heard from the biologist who's describing these iheringi-like fish, but I hope he's making progress on his manuscript.

Cheers, Eric
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they?

Post by bekateen »

I'm also building an identical setup to put in the tank with our from the Rio Nanay.
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they?

Post by fishguy1978 »

Looks good. Love diy projects.
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by bekateen »

:-T Finally! My first spawn of ! \:d/

Now comes the difficult part of disassembling the tank in order to recover the eggs from under the false floor.

Cheers, Eric
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by Shane »

Great job!
-Shane
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by bekateen »

Yesterday I put all of the eggs in a German breeder ring. By the end of the day, the eggs all looked white. This morning I awoke to more fresh eggs under the false floor, so this time I'm leaving the eggs there to see if they develop.

I'm hoping that the first eggs laid were just "old/bad" eggs, as a female who hasn't reproduced in a long time was "cleaning out the pipes," so to speak. :)

:YMPRAY:
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Eric
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by bekateen »

Although most of the eggs collected Sunday morning looked good, they all turned white within hours of me harvesting them. It reminds me of some of my first Amblydoras spawns, where eggs collected quickly die. On Monday morning, I could see a few fresh eggs under the false floor in the parents' tank, mixed together with some white eggs. I expect that some of the eggs were leftover from the first spawn (but I failed to collect them), but I also suspect that most of them, including all the good looking eggs, were freshly laid overnight Sunday to Monday.

I awoke this morning to wigglers skimming about under the false floor. My strategy is to leave them in the tank with the parents for a few days then collect them Friday to move them to their own container, much like I do with the Amblydoras babies. Hopefully, the babies don't swim up through the false floor and get eaten by the parents. X_X

Cheers,
Eric
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by bekateen »

Tonight I removed the adults, removed the false floor and suctioned up about 60-75 fry with a turkey baster. They're now in a German breeder ring. Then I reassembled the tank and returned the adults.

Cheers, Eric

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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by Jools »

I think you've now got a really good chance of rearing these. Microglanis are not fussy eaters - do you have a plan for feeding them - newly hatched BS or something else?

Jools
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by bekateen »

Thanks Jools. My plan is to treat them like Amblydoras. Move them soon to a small tank 2-5 gallons, aerated and heated, no filtration (just frequent water changes). Feed microworms.

Cheers, Eric
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by bekateen »

I moved the hatchlings to a 1- gallon tank today, set up like the Amblydoras fry tank.

Cheers, Eric

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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by bekateen »

The Microglanis have started eating microworms and pulverized dry foods.
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by bekateen »

Sadly, I lost all of these babies across days 5-7 after hatching. Three things I might have done the night before to cause their demise:
1) a 50% water change
2) fed them some dried pulverized food
3) added additional oak leaves to give them more hiding places.

:(

Now I wait for the next spawn to start again.

Cheers, Eric
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Re: New group of 6 Microglanis iheringi... or are they? SPAWNED!

Post by bekateen »

At home I've gotten two spawns from a group of 16 , but this group of 22 adults which I keep at work has never produced eggs (which I've found, anyway). So today I removed the old small egg-catcher and replaced it with a bigger basket, hopefully to encourage their spawning behavior over the basket instead of elsewhere in the tank. From a lesson I learned using the smaller basket, this basket has side vents to allow cross- flow of water so that any eggs landing inside will receive water flow and aeration.

Remodeling the egg-catching false floor basket for Microglanis aff. iheringi
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