my s. petricolas (dwarf size) have been breeding regularly for over a year now...going on two years i guess and recently one of the two females has looked very gravid and yet there has not been the usual flurry of activity that goes on when they are mating. she continues to get larger and i fear ...

eggcrate! what an excellent idea. and 150 fry...i'm envious. : ) well, sort of. is a lot of work.

i'll have to check out that mesh....the eggs go through it easily?

when do you remove the bowls and eggs? and then what do you do with the eggs? that is, how do you care for them? i have had many ...

so even if my two are a pair, i should not expect them to produce fry?

i thought i'd seen images of someone here who had done so, but as i say, i've been too busy to take the time to check and read...quick posts and back to work or tank maintenance, or, lately, cat care....the four legged kind ...

i don't actually know that they CAN be bred but i think i recall seeing images of them somewhere here. of course i have a terrible memory...and can't even find the right images when i'm told they are here so don't rely on me for accuracy! (sorry to say!!)

still, despite all those disclaimers, i do ...

again thanks for additional details. this last batch may be a wash for me...nothing seems to be moving but i'll give them a day or so more. it seems that some hatch WAY late...is that possible? anyway, wish i was closer to you guys we could thrash out ways of raising these delightful fish. meanwhile ...

thanks for the details on how you take care of the eggs....i guess i'll give that a try as what i am doing with a net, while it worked in the 2.5G, there was still a lot of fungused eggs and now that i'm trying it in the parents' tank it doesn't work as well as i have to hold the handle of the net ...

could you say a bit more about where and how you keep the eggs once the container of them is removed and the m. blue added? do you leave them on the marbles or remove them as i have been doing? put them in another tank...??? i'm still having issues with the eggs clumping and fungusing...still i get ...

the eggs are somewhere between clear and white i'd say. i've read of other eggs being thought to be unfertilized when white but don't know if this holds true for petricolas. have not seen black eggs at all.

i have quartz sand in this tank and think that i may have missed the first eggs (if there ...

I have been using the filter in marbles in flower pot cave and capturing the eggs in a breeder net where many fungus and a few develop into what i am calling "free swimmers"...then i've sucked them up one at a time with a small baster and deposited them into a 2.5G tank with a sponge filter and onyx ...

Wood...again thanks for the response....time is not an issue. not to worry! : )

Albinoism...i was kind of wondering about that, too! Being as these are my first fry, I have so many questions but am learning as I go. They are developing much faster than I thought they would...they are quite eager ...

thanks Wood. Can you say more about their appearance, size and so on (size particularly) at 18 months? These are maybe two and a half months and around 1" long.

i'm always amazed at what hardy fish these petricolas are. not to mention interesting.

thanks....how in the world did you find those images? i went to the listing and got only nine images. i think i may have seen this page at another time. sadly that image doesn't show up well on this computer...is way small....even when enlarged. i'll try on my other computer later....that monitor is ...

hmmm. i checked both the s. petricola Cat-eLog descriptions and photos and the COTM listing and neither seems to show the images that you refer to. can you provide a link?

i was pretty certain that the banding and black areas were juvenile markings but still am interested in the background color ...

at last...: ) i have 10 petricola fry that are around an inch long now. i've just come back from being gone for nearly two weeks and notice that the coloration of a few of them is developed to the point where they look exactly like their parents. others, while having the leading white fin edge of ...

Thanks! I did add the younger one yesterday. They appear to either ignore each other or get along. The new addition was, in fact, at one point in the headquarters of the large original eupterus and the large one was just in front of that area hanging in the vals as it likes to do....they seem to ...

thanks! those thumbnails are new to my eyes!!

sadly one of the males got into the breeder net and ate all the wrigglers...and there were more and more each time i looked. : (

maybe there is a remnant or so but i don't see any right now and it took so long to get him out, requiring a disassembly ...

hmmmm. one more thought....are you saying that these all are s. petricolas but just variants or that only the original description is the real thing?

i'm thinking of n. brichardi which later (if i recall correctly) had n. pulcher identified as a different form as being one type of "new ...

Dinyar...thank you for your comments. That does help somewhat but, curiosity prevails, and i am wondering if you can say more about what people are seeing in terms of variation that would help a novice such as myself understand more about the distinguishing characteristics among the types...it does ...

I have wrigglers this am....amazing. Rich thanks for the details...one remaining question is where you are keeping the fry once they are past the wriggler stage and are free swimming. also should i start feeding them now? i have some powdered food that i can drop in and hopefully they can get it ...

that's a nice setup....i like the large container with the marbles at the bottom. the top of mine is similar....actually I have two of them, but the trays are so small....just the ordinary flower pot tray....the intake of the filter right now rises above the marbles altogether....a bit of slipshod ...

thanks! to both of you. i'll do the transfer during the day. glad to hear that they aren't THAT aggressive....i WAS inspired by the idea of them appreciating another one or maybe two given the size of the tank....i think when i posted here last, three was suggested as the limit for a 70G.

with ...

In a 70G tank I have had a eupterus for a year or so...it has gotten quite HUGE. After reading here that they can be sociable but also perhaps territorial I am wondering about how to add a new tankmate: a eupterus who is about half the size of the current one.

Nearly all the other fish are removed ...

my petricolas are spawning and this time i have the net in place...with the flowerpot, marble and uplift (tetra filter i guess) device. i am wondering if what i am seeing is eggs...they are tiny like grains of sand but perfectly round....and clear, and whitish which makes me wonder IF they are eggs ...

Hi Adam,

Yes that does help. I have been talking more with my friend about this and she had talked to a scientist who works for the company (or one company) that makes Levamisole. Apparently there is some hydrolysis (sp?) that takes place with the med in alkaline water....thus supposedly negating ...

Adam,

Thanks for that information. Can you tell me some more...what you were treating for specifically and what you saw that verified the effectiveness of the treatment? I'm trying to understand more about the use of this med and any details you can provide will be helpful.

Also i will be asking ...

I've read pretty much all the listings here (i think) about using levamisole and also thekrib and so on but no one mentions the ph of their water. According to someone who i believe to be a reliable source at Loaches on Line, this med is not effective at ph of 7 or more. Does this agree with others ...

my eupterus also spends most of the day hanging in various places and positions...deep into the vals is where he usually hangs out, despite a few passageways and a rock corner that i built for him/her.

I was able, as the previous person mentioned, to get him to accept frozen food from my hand when ...

Ah, yes. I had tried to obtain levamisole and can only get a HUGE amount of it although i have a friend who could send me some. the problem that i see with using it, is that it apparently is not effective over 7.0 ph...is that your understanding/experience? If it weren't for the ph issue, it would ...

thank you for your comments. indeed they could have picked up parasites from another source....either at the lfs where i bought them or perhaps previous inhabitants of their tank left something behind?? that i'm not aware of. currently they are the only inhabitants of their tank.

have you or has ...

I have had them for two, maybe a bit more, years. They were quite small when i got them and grew quite nicely. it seems to me that they are never eager eaters although the females get quite fat (gravid i assume) and all of them are now showing this indentation along the sides. it is directly behind ...