Conditioning Microsynodontis- first spawn 4-14(not viable)

[Jeffww]

I'm looking to condition my microsynodontis to breed. However the problem I'm having is that they only feed late at night and what I do to feed them is drop in a pinch of pellets and leave the room. Is there a good way to do this using frozen food like mosquito larvae and bloodworms? I know I have several very fat females but I'm looking to try to trigger a spawning.

I've had these guys for almost 2 years now and they haven't gotten anywhere near the full 2". males are around 1-1.5" and females ~1.5-1.75".
I've also observed them become very active when I do water changes as well.

My plan of action right now is:

1. condition for 1-2 weeks.
2. lower the water level by about 3-4 inches
3. Lower water temperature from 78 to ~75F and do waterchanges with RO water.

Do you guys think it'll be worth a shot?

[Richard B]

For conditioning i tend to use 3 typres of food: 1 frozen live foods - bloodworm, daphnia etc, 2 tetra gel foods like the delica & Natura, and 3 finely shredded/minced earthworms. I also condition for 4-6 weeks

Your plans seem sound but you may want to try varying one factor each time you try; for example...

one time raise the temp to 80' for a week (with increased oxygenation)beofre the cool water change.

one time use water that is higher than normal in alkalinity

etc etc

[Jeffww]

That sounds like a good plan. I'll try that. I'm not sure if I can even mince earthworms small enough for them to eat. They have tiny mouths. I do have a box I feed to my frogs and I'll see what I can do though.

I did some research and it turns out the river system they are from (northern hemisphere as well) floods from september and peaking in may. I'm guessing they would respond well to a "drought" period and then a flooding. Perhaps an increase in flow might get them in the mood too.

[Birger]

Which species do you have???

I had eggs from

Microsynodontis sp.1

in April...and another I know had some a couple months later....both accounts are recorded here on PC if you do a forum search

Birger

[Jeffww]

Same species. I was looking earlier and someone had success at around 6.8ph and 75F.

[Jeffww]

As another question, I'm not clear if the eggs are adhesive or not. I saw that someone used a false bottom trap to capture the eggs so I'm assuming they simply scatter the eggs wherever?

[Birger]

You still need to use a small spawning mops or live plants like Anubias with a ball of roots over the trap.
Most likely they will drop the eggs over the plants.
I am using the same setup for my M. polli at the moment, they are in great shape so we will see if it works.

Birger

[Richard B]

I'm not sure if I can even mince earthworms small enough for them to eat.

Grind them up in a pestle & mortar. Turn off filtration to stop water movement & then feed the 'gloop' that you've produced. Messy work that some people dont like doing but pays dividends in the health of your fish. Keep the worms in a ventilated lidded tub containing damp sphagnum moss or similar for 24 hours prior to mincing as this will allow thenm to clear out their intestines.

[Jeffww]

I'm not sure if I can even mince earthworms small enough for them to eat.

Grind them up in a pestle & mortar. Turn off filtration to stop water movement & then feed the 'gloop' that you've produced. Messy work that some people dont like doing but pays dividends in the health of your fish. Keep the worms in a ventilated lidded tub containing damp sphagnum moss or similar for 24 hours prior to mincing as this will allow thenm to clear out their intestines.

Got it.

Just wanted to show one of my fat females.

[Richard B]

That is a good looking microsyno!

[Jeffww]

Thanks.

I've been feeding heavily with blood worms, NLS and new era. I tried the earthworms but the fish did not really like them and it clouded the water really badly.


That being said, today since it started raining/ low pressure system I decided to start the artificial rainy season.

Did an initial 50% pwc with distilled reconstituted with a tiny amount of baking soda.

Dropped TDS from ~500 (didn't do a wc for 2 weeks and feeding heavily) to about 300. Going to do one later around 2am and get the TDS back down to around 200. Temperature drop to 76F. Haven't had a chance to test pH. But likely low.

[Jeffww]

Decided to leave them locked in their room without any disturbances at all for two nights. I'll check on them tomorrow. I'm pretty excited. But I know I shouldn't get my hope up.

[Jeffww]

Spawning occurred sometime this week 1 week after adding a large amount of extra flow turned on during day and off at night.

T= 78F

Haven't really taken any other parameters. I will take them later today.

I wasn't able to salvage any eggs though. Those that I found were half developed/fungused over.

If I can find any uneaten fungused eggs I will take a picture of them. Rather large eggs. Deposited on anubias leafs/roots.

[corybreed]

Great progress so far. Hopefully you will get a viable spawn soon.

Mark

[Jeffww]

Thanks. I'll keep trying. And I'll keep an eye out for possible surviving wigglers.

here's the proof.

My iphone couldn't focus in any further. They were covered in fuzzy fungus though as of today. Siphoned them up. Now I'm wondering if any of the eggs were viable. There were quite a few of them.

[Birger]

Nice, similar to what happened for me and same month...keep trying....good to see people having some success with these.Should compare your water conditions to medaka's and see if there is a difference, maybe will make a difference in keeping the eggs viable.

Birger