Tatia intermedia eggs!

[Industrial]

It looks like my Tatia intermedia just spawned for the first time!

I have a group of 4 or 5 who are 3-4". I have been feeding them bloodworms, glassworms, blackworms and occasional krill about 5 times a week the past couple of weeks. One female got incredibly round in the past week. Today looking in the tank I saw 1-2 eggs on the bottom. I looked at the females and the one that was gravid was now thin. I moved around the plants and under a loose java fern I found the mass of eggs!

I am super excited. I have no idea what triggered the spawning though. Perhaps it was the large amounts of frozen/live foods they got in the past week or two. Other than that nothing else was really out of the ordinary. My water params are pH 7.8 and a hardness of 7/8.

Since I go through periods of time where I won't be home for a day, I moved the eggs into a 10 gallon aquarium that is fully cycled (just took out fish two days ago). It's a brand new tank so I don't really want to use methylene blue. Are these eggs even susceptible to fungus since they are in their gelatinous sac? If need be, I can add some methylene blue.

[wrasse]

fantastic!

Have you seen the T. Intermedia article in shane's world?

[Industrial]

Yeah I saw that. That is what made me decide to get a group of these guys.

I also found somebody with microworm cultures, so I will be able to feed these guys more than BBS.

[fishfarmer]

The only problem I ever had hatching them was making the mistake of putting the eggs in a medium sized plastic box hanging in the aquarium with an air bubbler in it. They were ok for a while but when they started hatching the water quality totally fouled. There must have been a lot of waste products released when the egg mass broke down. All other times, the fry were pretty easy to feed, baby brine and crushed flake.

Steve

[Industrial]

That was my previous plan, but I had no plastic boxes to hang in the aquarium. It's good to know that it doesn't work with these eggs though so I don't do that next time. I'm pretty excited for when these guys hatch. Has good feeding been the trigger for everybody else's Tatia intermedia breeding?

[Industrial]

One of the males is chasing around a female and appears to be trying to angle himself to mate with her. That was fast!

[grokefish]

Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!

[medaka]

Must be the time of the year?

My T intermedia have also spawned.
Is there anyone else who had T intermedia spawn at this time of year?

[Marc van Arc]

Yup.

[Yann]

Hi

Since February I had at least 10-15 T. intermedia spawning...from 3-4 females!!!

Cheers
Yann

[medaka]

Mine spawned again yesterday...
I Noticed that the female was quite full with eggs with the male twisting and turning around the female.
Alas; I had only dashed into my fish house to feed some C112 fry before I had to go and keep an appointment and witnessed this behaviour.
Only if I had gone in ten minutes earlier I could have set up my camcorder.

[Marc van Arc]

I Noticed that the female was quite full with eggs with the male twisting and turning around the female.

I take it you already know this, but when she deposits her eggs they have already been fertilized. That male didn't do anything, except being impatient for the next mating (and thus being a nuissance.....)

Btw: too bad the camcorder thing didn't work out.

[medaka]

HI Mark

I take it you already know this, but when she deposits her eggs they have already been fertilized.

Yes. Although I would have liked to film their coming together when they copulated.

I have not long gotten a new toy, (cam corder).
I have filmed both Corydoras melini and Brochis splendens copulating recently.
I am trying to build up a film base of such things including non catfish species. Will take years to edit them all.
Hopefully next time they decide to spawn I will manage to film them.

[Industrial]

I forgot to update, all the fry died. They were eating microworm/bbs twice a day, but still didn't do so well.

If I had to guess, I would say these fry would naturally eat a lot of microorganisms that live on driftwood when they are young, and being a newly set up 2 1/2 gallon aquarium with only a sponge filter, they didn't get enough or the right kinds of food that they needed.