spawning jaguar catfish

[wrasse]

For a long time now Ive been quietly getting together several L. Oncinus with a view to attempting to breed them. My prize fish was a 7" gravid female jaguar, a beautiful specimen. I obtained her 4 years ago along with a similar sized companion, which I have to admit I'm still not sure if its a male or female. I have 4 others of which 2 are definite males.
Earlier this month we moved house from East Lothian, Scotland - to Pailton in Warwickshire, England. That was quite an upheaval, not least for the fish. Apart from losing a danio it all went as planned. My thoughts were that the move would set-back any breeding behaviour for a few months. Once the fish were in their newly set up tanks, I began feeding frozen bloodworm - very sparingly. After 2 days all the jaguars were feeding well so I gave them their favourite algae wafers.
Last Friday the female was not happy. She was slowly swimming around the tank instead of resting in her cave. The following morning my big round female had become a slim fish and there were large eggs around the tank, some were clear, some were turning white and some were not whole. I rescued what I could into a floating pastic container with air stone, but suspected they were not fertile - which proved to be the case. The next morning she was dead - I was mortified.
All the other jaguars are doing fine, so I'm not entirely sure of the cause of death - probably a number of factors that would upset a gravid female fish. The tapwater is harder and slightly alkaline - which I slowly adjusted to neutral. The move no doubt disturbed her. She was greedy when it came to algae wafers - I suspect that brought on the spawning.
So one day I was ecstatic because I had eggs from a jaguar. The next, I was totally p*****-off. I just hope that one of the other jags proves to be a female and I can try again.
In the meantime my corydoras davidsandsii have picked-up where they left off - spawning viable eggs, but not many. I'm leaving them in with the parents until I get around to setting up proper rearing tanks.

[bigward]

Very sorry to hear of your loss wrasse.
I have 2 L. Oncinus (still juvenille's at about 4") and would be gutted if I lost them.

[Richard B]

Hi

I had a vaguely similar experience (posted in the which auchenipterids do you keep thread a while ago)

I have (by accident) kept a female jag in a tanganyikan set-up with no ill effects & indeed she dropped eggs which were eaten by the synos. When she dropped her eggs in isolation they were obviously infertile & polluted the water causing her death.(whilst i was away from home)

If we can accomplish this much -proper sucess is surely just round the corner.

On a different tack - nice to see another member in the midlands & very close to me come to that! If you're ever in warwick give me a shout

[Marc van Arc]

probably a number of factors

Hi Richard,
Yes, I think the move and the different water parameters amongst others influenced the jag's death.
Perhaps she was too greedy on the wafers, which may have caused an internal problem?
The thing is that I personally wouldn't recommend algae wafers as appropriate food for carnivores like Liosomadoras.
The fact that they'll eat it says little about whether it's good for them or not.
In the African Lakes there are cichlids that live on algae. When given "meaty" foods, they'll take it greedily.
However, they may become seriously ill and even die from it. Perhaps that's also possible the other way round. Just a thought.

On another different track: aren't you going to miss your friend at OutsideInside Aquatics?

[wrasse]

Thanks for your replies.
Interesting thoughts on the algae wafers Marc. Its the one dried food that all my jags love so they get it once or twice a week, broken into small pieces. If I can find some I'll try them on hikari carnivore wafers.
IMO Scotland is lagging behind with good fish shops. Hugh at OutsideInside has lots of healthy fish, mainly community.
Now I'm in Warwickshire some of the best shops are within easy reach. I'm spoilt for choice!

[Richard B]

My replacement Jag readily accepts brine shrimp pellets, bloodworm pellets, shrimp sticks & tropical tablet food, which makes up the bulk of the diet -other foods are also accepted. I haven't really seen it refuse anything that had been offered, so it is certainly not fussy. Meat based foods do seem best as opposed to veggie options & are going to be a closer match to what they'd get in the wild. As with any fish, the greater variety of (acceptable) foods offered the better