Red lizard eggs

[tomr]

I have red lizard eggs for the second time. Last time, about a year ago, the cat fanned the eggs for aweek and then they dissappeared. hopefully more sucess this time.

[corybreed]

Best of luck with the eggs. I hope you get a good hatch.

Mark

[Thriftyfisher]

Once the fry hatch and leave the protection of the adult male they are easy prey for any females or other males in the tank. That is probably why your eggs disapeard after 7 days and you didn't find any fry. For this reason, I remove the male to his own tank just before they eggs hatch. It doesn’t need to be a big tank, just big enough to hold the cave. Use water from the main tank and put an air stone and heater in it. Once the fry hatch you can take the male and cave back out and then raise the fry per the article in Shane’s world; http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... cle_id=419

Good luck!

[donpetty]

I also was fortunate enough to have a male who has a batch of eggs from my red Lizards as of this morning;
These red lizards share a tank with some CW010 and the tank is kept at 72f. My question is
from your post you said use a heater? I do not use heaters in my tanks as the temps remain
between 70-75f, I raise my cory from from egg to small fry in plastic tubs. If I were to use a heater
at what temperature are you recommending? My plan was to use a larger fry tub and move the male, the tube and enough tank water, once I see fry I will move the male and the tube back to the main tank. Any recommendations? Thank you.

[tomr]

thanks, thrifty

[Thriftyfisher]

Sorry, I forget that not everyone lives in an old house with a cold basement, I mean fishroom. If you don't have heaters and your tanks stay in the 70's I am jealous. Really, you just want to keep the water in the hatching tank the same temperature as the tank in which they were laid. If you can do that then, no heater for you.

[tomr]

Still sitting on them. No fungus or anything.

[tomr]

Eggs hatched today. 9 days at about 82 degrees.

[apistomaster]

I have 8 L10a which breed occasionally. So far they have eaten their eggs within 72 hours however an unnoticed spawn in a 40 breeder did result in a single survivor which is now mature. I only have 8 so I set them up in a 20 long where the majority of spawns have occurred but all of these broods have been eaten before they could hatch. I don't know what I could do to get some better results except removing their eggs immediately after spawning and trying artificial incubation techniques which is exactly what I plan to try on their next spawn. Mine don't spawn often so it may be awhile before i can try the artificial approach.
I sure would like to perfect a better yielding technique as they are one of my favorites and they are worth raising. I just dislike having to resort to artificial means of production. And even if I did there is no assurance that I would be able to consistently produce them in salable quantities.
I hope you have better success than I. So far it sounds like your breeders are providing god brood care so you shoul have better luck than I. Their long egg incubation period leaves a lot of time for things to go wrong so getting the brood to hatch with the male providing good brood care is a good sign.

[Thriftyfisher]

I agree that having the male raise the eggs is the best method, if possible.

However, if your eggs are in an open-ended tube incubating is not that bad. In the picture is a tube that has eggs in it. This was my first attempt at artificially hatching these fish and it turned out pretty good. A few things to remember;

The eggs need to be in the dark. In this case the tube didn’t let light in so I didn’t have to worry about putting the tube in the dark.

Make sure the temperature is the same as the main tank. In this case, I floated a small plastic tank in a larger tank to allow for a constant temperature. If you have a warm fish room then you do not need to do this.

I would treat the eggs with an antifungal treatment such as Methalene Blue. I like to use a couple pond snails to eat bad eggs. However, I would be careful if you don’t have a snail population you trust you could easily lose all of the eggs if you use the wrong species of snail (never ramshorn).

Make sure the eggs are on the top of the tube, the tube is at an angle and put an air stone at the lower end so that bubbles continually go across the eggs. This will do the work of the male in keeping the eggs well oxygenated and clean.

You might want to help the eggs hatch by using a turkey baster and shooting water over them. It took me several hours to help all of the eggs hatch out one night. Look for the first egg to hatch and then work with the other ones. You don’t want to force them too soon or wait too long.

If you don’t have a tube with two open ends the task would be more difficult but should be doable. Just make sure the hatch tank is really well oxygenated and maybe take the tube, empty the water out and then fill it back up and return it to the hatching tank.

I hope this helps.

[apistomaster]

I have raised hundreds of Sturisoma aureum(http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... cle_id=412) and my L10a are breeding in much the same way except they are spawning in front of the caves or tubes on the bare glass. I use barely enough sand to cover the bottom and they fan an area clean then place their eggs on the cleaned patch. Afterwords the males sometimes rest inside the cave with their heads over the egg patch at the mouth of the caves. I supply both open ended. closed end caves and plenty of wood but they only have used the caves for partially concealing their bodies and sometimes they spawn without bothering to use a cave at all. They have never spawned in a concealed location. I will have to detach the eggs by using a single edge razor blade to remove them to a hatching container.
If they are viable then they probably would not need any methylene blue or acriflavine although I sometimes have used methylene blue on a couple ejected egg masses produced my my L134 but that doesn't happen often.
There are many different strains of L10a. Mine are the type which are only bright red while they are still juveniles. They turn pretty brown once mature although the females retain more red than the males.
This makes me think there are various hybrids leaning more or less towards one of the species than the other used in their original development so it isn't necessarily a fish one can make sweeping generalizations about. The fellow who raised the specimens I have breeding says his always spawned inside caves and never used an open ended tube.

[tomr]

Mine spawned both times in both ends open tube. It is actually a filter intake tube, clear. this time, i took the tube and dad and moved them to an overflow type box thing.when they hatched, i put dad back in tank. They arent looking for food yet. i read about 2-3 days.My adults are red.they are going in an empty 10 gallon tonite.

[jackrevi]

congratulations, good luck with the growth of fish fry!!

[Xod]

Does the male eat while guarding the eggs?

[Bas Pels]

I've bred a few Rhineloricaria, but noet this species. I never saw the male leaving the eggs. But then, mine were in a competitive area: a tank with more conspecifics. Perhaps, when isolated, they might dare a bit more

But without leaqving hte eggs, the male does manage the 2 or 3 weeks

[tomr]

the male did not leave the eggs. the fry are now slowly dying.i only have a few left.

[Thriftyfisher]

What have you been feeding the fry? They are meat eaters and worm flake works well, as do micro worms and really small grindal worms (what I use for all of my catfish fry). You could also try the new Rapashy fish food, I have been told by friends that it works well for fry.

I find that these fish have really small stomachs, therefore, they need to have a lot of food. Food such as micro worms or grindal worms don’t go bad very quickly and will last in the water for a day or more allowing the fry to feed at will. My understanding is that the Rapashy foods don’t foul the water quickly and can be used in the same way. Things like frozen rotifers, daphnia or protein flakes (worm or other) can foul the water and need to be fed many times a day or the tank needs to be cleaned several times a day to keep it clean.

The other thing I have noticed is these fish seem to be more nocturnal. I never saw mine on the tank floor looking for food until the lights were out. Then they would all be on the bottom. You might try feeding at night and then coming back an hour later and see if they have full stomachs.

Good luck, these are really neat fish.

[Xod]

I am in a huge debate as whether to leave the eggs in the tube in the main tank or to artificially hatch them. Everything seems good so far so im leaning towards leaving it as it and removing the tube to a hatcher at day 5. There were a few eggs thrown out of the tube that were completely clear. Are those the ones that weren't fertilized?

[Taratron]

Got any pics of the breeding tank? I recently picked up 2 males and 3 females, and they're in a 20 with sand and some fake plants, driftwood and slate, and a metric ton of red cherry shrimp.

I've read different opinions on temperature; some breeders say to keep it in the low 80's and with a powerhead, others say unheated with a sponge filter.

[jp11biod]

Mine have not spawned in a few months but when they were, it was at 80F with a sponge filter with no significant flow. There are 5 adults in the group in a 15 gal tank.

[Xod]

Check it out, just bought this Marina breeder. Its really well equipped. Great buy.




This is the cave.

[tomr]

Mine were in a bare 10 gallon with a sponge. i pulled the male and tube and put in one of those marina breeders. When the eggs hatched i took the male and left them . i should have left them in there longer cause it would have been easier to feed the fry.

[jp11biod]

those Marina breeding boxes are awesome

[tomr]

Well all of the fry are dead. As luck would have it, tthe parents laid eggs again. hopefully better luck this time.

[Xod]

sorry for the loss. good news to hear they bred again. Does anyone have information about breeding plecos with baby RCS? I currently just had two females spawn about 30 shrimps and was wondering if it would be a good idea to grow them up together. Since the RCS can clean off any excess food.

[MatsP]

sorry for the loss. good news to hear they bred again. Does anyone have information about breeding plecos with baby RCS? I currently just had two females spawn about 30 shrimps and was wondering if it would be a good idea to grow them up together. Since the RCS can clean off any excess food.

My shrimp aren't exactly muliplying (by a number higher than 1 at least), but they don't harm pleco babies in any way.

--
Mats

[apistomaster]

Those Marina Breeder boxes look like a nice accessory to have.
I find that shrimp colonies are much easier to establish if you start with as large a group as possible. I recommend no fewer than 25 to start.

[Xod]

I currently house about 50 shrimps. Typically their off springs get eaten by my tetras. This is the first time I bred them in the marina and they sure grow fast. Little guys molt after one day of birth.

I'll grow the shrimps and plecos together in the marina breeder box and see how that goes.

[Xod]

A pic of the eggs at 5 days.

[Xod]

Woke up this morning to find half the eggs have hatched.. however no fry. Would the father have eaten them?