Lambchop rasboras spawning!

[Elaine T]

Had the funniest thing happen. I've been feeding conditioning foods to
the fish to get them ready for missed feedings while I'm on vacation.
Also been changing a lot of water so that tank conditions will stay very
good.

Well, you guessed it, my T. espei (lambchop rasboras) were spawning this
morning. The males changed color from orange to reddish, and all three
of the females were doing upside-down runs, slowly shuddering along the
undersides of the leaves of my broad-leaf sag and Telantheria.
Sometimes, one of the males came in right next to the female, laid a
tail over the female, and fertilized the eggs.

Thing is, I can't see any eggs, unless maybe they're incredibly tiny.
I've found a site describing egg-less fake spawning runs before the eggs
are laid and I'm wondering if that's what is happening. Has anyone seen
T. espei or even T. heteromorpha eggs, and what did they look like?

I'll have to try to get these fish to spawn again after I'm back and can
try raising the fry. I've never bred characins before.

--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><

[Richard Sexton]

>Thing is, I can't see any eggs, unless maybe they're incredibly tiny.
>I've found a site describing egg-less fake spawning runs before the eggs
>are laid and I'm wondering if that's what is happening. Has anyone seen
>T. espei or even T. heteromorpha eggs, and what did they look like?

Real small I understand.

>I'll have to try to get these fish to spawn again after I'm back and can
>try raising the fry. I've never bred characins before.

Good on you, breeding Rasbors is an accomlishment. Check out Randy Cary'e
website, he's the Characni guy.

I only kow one guy that breeds things like his. He stores rainwater
over peat and sets up a tank that's half this and hald tap. Big lump
of clean java mose and a sponge filter. Fish are fed very well on
the ebst and livest foods you can get, and the female is put in the
night before. Before sunup the male is put in the tank which you've
put in a place that get first morning sun. The fish breed at sunup.

When they're done the parents are removed and the tank is blacked
out until the fry are swimming. The eggs are light and bacteria
sesitive and extremely tiny, eating only infusorians.

--
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[Elaine T]

Richard Sexton wrote:
>>Thing is, I can't see any eggs, unless maybe they're incredibly tiny.
>>I've found a site describing egg-less fake spawning runs before the eggs
>>are laid and I'm wondering if that's what is happening. Has anyone seen
>>T. espei or even T. heteromorpha eggs, and what did they look like?
>
>
> Real small I understand.
>
>
>>I'll have to try to get these fish to spawn again after I'm back and can
>>try raising the fry. I've never bred characins before.
>
>
> Good on you, breeding Rasbors is an accomlishment. Check out Randy Cary'e
> website, he's the Characni guy.
>
> I only kow one guy that breeds things like his. He stores rainwater
> over peat and sets up a tank that's half this and hald tap. Big lump
> of clean java mose and a sponge filter. Fish are fed very well on
> the ebst and livest foods you can get, and the female is put in the
> night before. Before sunup the male is put in the tank which you've
> put in a place that get first morning sun. The fish breed at sunup.
>
> When they're done the parents are removed and the tank is blacked
> out until the fry are swimming. The eggs are light and bacteria
> sesitive and extremely tiny, eating only infusorians.
>
Thanks for the info. Randy Carey's website is interesting.

The tank setup sounds easy enough, but after watching the fish I think
I'd go with broadleaved plastic or silk plants over java moss. The fish
carefully chose only the undersides of broadleaved plants near the
waterline for their eggs and totally ignored the java moss in the tank.
I guess a spawning grid for falling eggs would be good as well.

It's gonna be tough getting my water down to the pH where the eggs will
actually hatch. The tank where the fish were spawning this morning is
at pH 7.6 (maxed out my bromthymol blue) and it's already half
rainwater. I guess I'd have to use even less tapwater and filter both
the display tank and spawning tank over peat. I wonder at what point I
would be able to keep the fry in tapwater rather than RO.

I got a paramecium culture at the aquarium society raffle so I'm fine
with food as long as it doesn't crash while I'm gone and I can
successfully propagate it.

Well, maybe I'll give it a go if I can get the fish into spawning
condition again. The color change in the males is dramatic so I sure
won't miss it when it happens.

--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><

[Richard Sexton]

>The tank setup sounds easy enough, but after watching the fish I think
>I'd go with broadleaved plastic or silk plants over java moss. The fish
>carefully chose only the undersides of broadleaved plants near the
>waterline for their eggs and totally ignored the java moss in the tank.
> I guess a spawning grid for falling eggs would be good as well.

Just outof curiosity did you have crypts in that tank? The McInnery book
mentions they could not get glowline rasboras to breen unless they
juiced some crytpcpryne roots and threw that in.

>It's gonna be tough getting my water down to the pH where the eggs will
>actually hatch. The tank where the fish were spawning this morning is
>at pH 7.6 (maxed out my bromthymol blue) and it's already half
>rainwater. I guess I'd have to use even less tapwater and filter both
>the display tank and spawning tank over peat. I wonder at what point I
>would be able to keep the fry in tapwater rather than RO.

Take a bucket, half distilled 1/4 tap ad a hand full of peat moss
wait 2 weeks, carfully siphon it off. This is the magic breeding
water.

>I got a paramecium culture at the aquarium society raffle so I'm fine
>with food as long as it doesn't crash while I'm gone and I can
>successfully propagate it.

"Gee I can tell from the 8 one gallon glass jars in
your kitchen you breed fish". Besides crashing the other
problem is you need to have *enough* paramecium. Several
cultures works pretty well. Lee Harper's recipe for infusoria
is 1 dried corn husk and 1 or 2 alfalfa rabbit pellets. The
latter gives them "fast" food while the corn husk keeps the
culture going for a long time. Works for months.

You should only need infusoria for 2 weeks I'd guess, but
depending on the size of the spawn you could end up needing a lot.
Now you know one of the reaosns I latched on to killies, they
(pretty much) all take bbs upon hatching ;-)

--
Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org | Mercedes Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org

[Elaine T]

Richard Sexton wrote:
>>The tank setup sounds easy enough, but after watching the fish I think
>>I'd go with broadleaved plastic or silk plants over java moss. The fish
>>carefully chose only the undersides of broadleaved plants near the
>>waterline for their eggs and totally ignored the java moss in the tank.
>> I guess a spawning grid for falling eggs would be good as well.
>
>
> Just outof curiosity did you have crypts in that tank? The McInnery book
> mentions they could not get glowline rasboras to breen unless they
> juiced some crytpcpryne roots and threw that in.
>
Yep. I'm incapable of planting a tank without crypts. It's my little 5
gallon and has C. wendtii in it. 1 huge green one starting to
propagate, and 3 bronze ones growing like weeds. There are a few
smaller ones around too. The rasboras didn't touch the crypts, though.
The laid on the taller stuff. Maybe if I had balansae they would have
used it.
>
>>It's gonna be tough getting my water down to the pH where the eggs will
>>actually hatch. The tank where the fish were spawning this morning is
>>at pH 7.6 (maxed out my bromthymol blue) and it's already half
>>rainwater. I guess I'd have to use even less tapwater and filter both
>>the display tank and spawning tank over peat. I wonder at what point I
>>would be able to keep the fry in tapwater rather than RO.
>
>
> Take a bucket, half distilled 1/4 tap ad a hand full of peat moss
> wait 2 weeks, carfully siphon it off. This is the magic breeding
> water.
>
Okey dokey. Can do. I guess it's more the magic egg hatching water
than breeding water. ;-)

>>I got a paramecium culture at the aquarium society raffle so I'm fine
>>with food as long as it doesn't crash while I'm gone and I can
>>successfully propagate it.
>
>
> "Gee I can tell from the 8 one gallon glass jars in
> your kitchen you breed fish". Besides crashing the other
> problem is you need to have *enough* paramecium. Several
> cultures works pretty well. Lee Harper's recipe for infusoria
> is 1 dried corn husk and 1 or 2 alfalfa rabbit pellets. The
> latter gives them "fast" food while the corn husk keeps the
> culture going for a long time. Works for months.
>
The one I got is on alfalfa rabbit pellets. I'll hunt down some corn
husks. 8 gallons huh? ROFLMAO.

> You should only need infusoria for 2 weeks I'd guess, but
> depending on the size of the spawn you could end up needing a lot.

Randy's website says that the smaller rasboras he's bred don't lay a lot
of eggs. Hopefully the spawn will be somewhat manageable. I don't have
tank space for hundreds of fish.

> Now you know one of the reaosns I latched on to killies, they
> (pretty much) all take bbs upon hatching ;-)
>
Yeah. I'm a guppy fan myself. You can leave parents in with the kids,
special foods are optional, and breeding is trivial so you can
concentrate on fixing a line. Cichlids are fun too since not only do
they not eat the young, but guard them. Turn off the filter for a bit,
shoot some baby brine into the cloud of fry with a turkey baster, and
all is well. I tried F. gardneri once, but lost the first batch of eggs
to fungus and then the male killed the female so that was that.

But those blasted rasboras just HAD to spawn right in front of me.
*rolls eyes*

--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><

[Mean_Chlorine]

Thusly Elaine T > Spake Unto All:

>> Good on you, breeding Rasbors is an accomlishment. Check out Randy Cary'e
>> website, he's the Characni guy.

>Thanks for the info. Randy Carey's website is interesting.

Just a very minor nitpick - rasboras aren't characins. They're
cyprinids, more specifically barbs.

[Elaine T]

Mean_Chlorine wrote:
> Thusly Elaine T > Spake Unto All:
>
>
>>>Good on you, breeding Rasbors is an accomlishment. Check out Randy Cary'e
>>>website, he's the Characni guy.
>
>
>>Thanks for the info. Randy Carey's website is interesting.
>
>
> Just a very minor nitpick - rasboras aren't characins. They're
> cyprinids, more specifically barbs.
>
Oops. Thanks.

--
__ Elaine T __
><__'> http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><