Breeding Panaque

[blueblue]

Does anybody know the breeding habits and information of Panaque?
There seems to be no information at all on it...

[MatsP]

Small Panaque species, such as P. maccus and P. sp(L204) have been bred several times, see Shane's World -> Reproduction articles for more details.

Large Panaque have been vaguely reported but not properly confirmed, so there isn't any information avaialble. In my personal opinion, they should breed just like other species - just need bigger tank, bigger caves, bigger food and bigger water changes. But that's a very rough guide.

Of course, the other fact is that there is no such thing as a secret recipe to breeding fish. It's 90% a question of making the fish feel happy and healthy in it's captive home, 4% is haveing a mature fish, 4% is making sure you have a male and a female, and the remaining 2% is "triggering" - making the fish think "Ah, spawning time".

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Mats

[blueblue]

Thanks Mats. Right, my question actually refers to the large Panaque. I have this question because i noticed that a number of breeders in Germany, Japan, and Hong Kong have attempted to breed the large Panaques, especially when now the export of wildcaught Panaques from Brasil is under strict control... Let's hope to see some real successful stories soon and hobbyists around can continue to keep these lovely animals without any concerns of damaging the environment.

[MatsP]

I agree with all that - however, I have a slightly different view on the level of damage to the environment vs. fishkeeping. In my view, the more value there is in wildcaught fish, the more value there is in keeping the natural habitat "alive" or "preserved". If we have plenty of captive bred P. nigrolineatus, there would be little value in the river fish that they naturally live in. Not trying to divert the discussion to be about politics, but who do you think suffer most from the prohibition of export in Brazil? Fish keepers across the world? Probably not, we just get the ones from Colombia, Venezuela or Peru instead. But the native people who make money on catching the fish (and the exporters, etc), what do they do to support their family? So if they can't live of the fish in the river, what is the value of the river-life being preserved?

Aside from some a few isolated examples, it's very rare that the capture of fish for aquatics actually makes the species go extinct. Other human intervention is MUCH worse - felling the forest around the river and building hydroelectric plants is definitely much worse threats. I spoke to Mark Sabaj about the subject of wild-caught fish. And he certainly thought that OTHER factors of human interference with nature is a MUCH bigger threat.

So I'm not so sure that saving the fish from being captured in nature by breeding it is actually of benefit to the longer term survival of the fish.

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Mats

[blueblue]

I agree with all that - however, I have a slightly different view on the level of damage to the environment vs. fishkeeping.

Dear Mats: You're right and I believe that the aquarium hobby does not harm the environment as much as other things such as the DAM project.
In addition, the quantity of fish that we keep at home is probably less than the quantity killed as food in Amazon! ...

[Mongo]

As this has gone off topic, here goes.

The greater the value of the fish, which seems to be determined by availability and looks even in the case of catfish. While collection for the aquarium trade, in the majority of cases is unlikely to have any effect on the numbers in the environment that it originates. If though a species is found that is so desirable, if the collection has the effect of degrading the surrounding environment, the consequences are then unknown.

I am a great believer in that fish should bred in captivity wherever possible. While fish keeping is my hobby, and I will buy wild fish, hypocritical maybe, but guess fish are happiest where they evolved.

All the best

Mongo