The challenge part 2

[worton[pl]]

Hey,

you sure you have hydra? Those grows pretty big (like 1cm) and live their lives alone.
But there is second species very similar but much smaller and live in big colonies.
It's Bryozoa if I remember corectly .
Also there is third animal that sometimes we can see in our aquariums and they look similar to Bryozoa. But i'm not sure how you call them in english.
They are in Ciliata group and are probably the biggest Protozoan . They are called Stentor in Poland.
They and also hydra are harmless in my opinion. They have no physicall power to harm even a small fry. However they are very interesting animals and imho helps in keeping water quality good . I have all of those 3 animals in my tanks ;).

Regards.

[worton[pl]]

Hey,

well I've transfered my group to their breeding tank. 1 male and 3 females. Male became very aggressive and females must to sit in refuges because when they leave male is chasing them relentlessly. He also build a little bubble nest hehe. It looks funny because he is so big and nest so small . I guess he need more time .

Well that's all for now. I'm going to do huge water change and feed some live bloodworms to warm my little kittens a little bit ;)

Regards.

[worton[pl]]

Hey,

well it is a little bit more complicated that I used to think .

Definitely male is in breeding mood (nest is big and he is guarding it non stop) but he became really aggressive. Females are fat, really full of eggs but are not able to swim throug the tank because male is attacking them just in a second he see any female.

So my question is how to make it happen? Male is acting like there are already eggs in the nest (but it is for 100% empty) and chasing off females. Any hints?

Thanks!

[L number Banana]

Hi worton{pl},

Same thing's happening to me and the male is flicking water at me every time I open the lid to feed so I've given up handfeeding altogether. My females are getting really big on the sides.

I'm going to try a bit harder to find some live food, my previous attempts were pretty lame because live food is creepy but maybe I can steel myself this time. Also going to do a cooler/softer water thing next time I do a water change. I'll have to wear a wetsuit Should try to get a video of that...

Do they have a natural breeding season? We're on different sides of the planet almost so it can't be coincidental cold weather, or can it? I don't know how fish biological clock work. My corys were supposed to breed in spring but that would mean that spring is all year in my tank??

[worton[pl]]

Hey banana ,

well my male left on my hand a nasty scar after last water change. He is attacking me as well , splashes of water were fun at the beginning but now they became annoying .

I'm worried that you need at least two tanks to spawn this species or one big enought to allow female feel comfortable (so not in a vision area of a male). In separate tanks you may condition females and males separately and then just join them.

I'm doing 50% waterchanges every other day which brings temperature down from 27C to 23C. So it is probably not up to temperature only. I feed with frozen food but will try live food as well. But I doubt male will alllow females to eat without few punches.

I have really hard water bu for now, if I won't calm down a male a little bit nothing will help probably. RO unit is ready to use so maybe I will give it a try. A good rule here (and in spawning any fish) is to make single steps. Not too many changes at one time since later you won't be able to say if successfull spawn was effect of good diet, temperature changes, water parameter changes or something else .

Other option is that females are still not in breeding mood and that's why male is so aggressive towards them so maybe using softer water and live food will do the trick .

Please, keep me informed and thanks for an informations.

What about others? This topic was also made for sharing experience, not only for competition - that's what make it so great .

Regards.

[Carp37]

well my male left on my hand a nasty scar after last water change. He is attacking me as well , splashes of water were fun at the beginning but now they became annoying .Regards.

Wow, I'm amazed a hoplo could do that- was it from the pectoral spines? Mine bashed me a couple of times, but he couldn't really be called aggressive- he'd half-heartedly crash into me/brush against me if I put my hand in when he was guarding, but my hoplos upstairs also do this to an extent when they're expecting feeding.

I'm still giving this a miss at the moment- the female I tried still has cloudy eyes so I'm not sure if she's blind or not, and I don't want to risk the others until I'm satisfied with the water quality. As stated before, they spawned at least 3 times (at about 10 day intervals) but seeing eggs in the bubble nest was impossible without lifting the lid, which usually broke the bubble nest up. The bubble nest also tended to become one big bubble if the male wasn't giving it his undivided attention, which made me very wary of removing both parents. I'm pretty sure the eggs were fertile though, as they went quite dark.

[worton[pl]]

Hey Carp,

my male is even attacking a glass if I'm in front of the tank. And try to be noisy in fishroom he will in part of a second be under nest ready to attack anything. I will try to record this and post on youtube.

I've removed a lid from a tank and destroyed a nest because I hope he will became more calmer without nest to protect .


I'm not sure how he did hurt me . It was a blink of the eye and I wasn't expecting him to be so aggressive. Wound was not deep but looked badly .

Regards.

[PeterUK]

No updates for 2 months now
Anything happening ?

I've just got a trio of 4 inch Callichthys callichthys.
At what size are they likely to be sexually mature ?

[L number Banana]

Nothing happening here. I gave up and moved them to the big tank. Three left after something swept through one tank and killed the two in there. Thankfully, I have 1 male and 2 female

megalechis thoracata

left. No sign of a bubble nest ever appeared again but they look active and healthy.

[Carp37]

I gave up a few weeks after my female became blind/partially blind, and moved them back to the 5' tank for a rest. If I try again it needs to be in a tank with easier access to it than the one I chose . I've still got 8 of the original 9 fish- one was found almost dead one evening, whereas she'd been begging for food in the morning- I suspect she may have got stuck in a bogwood tree stump.

I was getting frustrated that it was impossible to tell when eggs had been laid other than by raising the lid, which disturbed the nest.

[Proteus]

whilst those guys are working on the challenge, can a new group start for the next challenge?

[nvcichlids]

I missed something, what is the new species?

[L number Banana]

I'm game for that though my tank space is filling up fast. With all the talk of breeding the near impossible

Kryptopterus minor

, I'm in breeding mode myself, um, you know what I mean

Species suggestions? Where's Grokefish, this is his challenge so maybe he has something in mind or would we start a whole new thing?

[nvcichlids]

With all the talk of breeding the near impossible

Kryptopterus minor

, ?

Aww, I wanted to add a colony of those to my Celestial Pearl Danio tank and hope that they would breed,

[Proteus]

I'm game for anything that small let me know if its gonna be on

[L number Banana]

L number Banana wrote:With all the talk of breeding the near impossible Kryptopterus minor, ?

nvcichlids:

Aww, I wanted to add a colony of those to my Celestial Pearl Danio tank and hope that they would breed,

I'm up for a one on one challenge, or one on a few Nothing's impossible!

Started the Krypto-tank here:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =4&t=28790
Moved to here:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =9&t=28914
And the fish are on order!

Here's a thread about breeding but the last link is hopeful!
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =9&t=28668

Any one else up for trying to make PC members the first to WELL-DOCUMENT glass catfish breeding attempts? Proteus?

[Proteus]

I'm up to it!


Sorry been months since I've been around. Weeks just flew by. So much things around here has changed but I'm up to giving little guys a go.


Just let me know when Challenge part 3 sign up starts.

[grokefish]

I'm game for that though my tank space is filling up fast. With all the talk of breeding the near impossible

Kryptopterus minor

, I'm in breeding mode myself, um, you know what I mean

Species suggestions? Where's Grokefish, this is his challenge so maybe he has something in mind or would we start a whole new thing?

Sorry dudette but I have been very busy this last 8 mnths going bust so I havn't paid much attention to anything else at all.
My breeding attempt failed miserably as all but one of my hoplos pegged it at a very early stage. The one that is left I found in my shoe one morning and quickly chucked him back into the tank.
He is definately worse for wear as his barbels fell off and he is very much not the fish he used to be, probs a bit o brain damage but at least he survived it was very touch and go he was floating round for a while, quite amazing how fish ever survive things like this.

Feel free anybody and everyone to take control of this challenge, the rules were more like the pirates code anyway.

[Proteus]

Sounds good any volunteers who wants to take charge of challenge part 3?

and my question is should we all agree on some fish that's currently available right now (as in season) for any hobbyists who want to give this a try?

[hoplo]

Is the hoplo challenge still on?

[Hellspawn]

Maybe it's time to change to a new species? Except from what I've read before you are the only one on the forums who's actually done it in the past. Maybe you can shed some light at what the others are doing wrong?