Hemiloricaria melini "BARCELOS"

[Amazoniensis]

what's up folks,
i've got really good news
my Hemiloricaria melini spawned.

i don't really know what is the pH but acidic.
Temperature 28°C and 31 µS/cm





like 10 youngs out the tube, like 50 inside.

[naturalart]

Congratulations, and nice pics.

[Mol_PMB]

Great
I'd love to have some of them for my Rio Negro tank


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[syno321]

Felicitations! I've got 3 F1 male and females that spawned last year and I didn't get any hatchlings. The first 2 spawns I left with the male with no success, the last spawn I removed to a hatching container, again with no success. The sexual dimorphism was obvious, with the females being slightly longer and more rotund, and the males sporting the "Brush Cut" bristles on the dorsal surface of their head. Right now the males lack the bristles, but one of them is in the tube waiting. Could you please give us more details as to the spawning and hatching variables like water conditions and treatments, water change regimen as it relates to the spawning, diet, filtration, size of aquarium, decor, and any other factors that you think may be relevant? I've spawned a few of the Whiptail type of catfish, and by far this is the most attractive one I've kept. I would love to attain success reproducing this species, and would appreciate any information you can give us.

[Amazoniensis]

Hello,
as regards the tank:
substrate: a mixture of peat and organic decomposition (oak, alder, birch & chestnut leaves)
Average temperature: 28°C
100% reverse osmosis or rain water (conductivity ~ 30μS/cm in the aquarium)
water changes: between/around 50% to 80% of the water every 15 days to 3 weeks. the temperature can drop up to 23°C.
decoration: some mangrove roots, some branches of oak, some seeds (Cariniana sp), Java moss and 3 tubes for my L.

Food:
-Sera wels chips
-Api poissons de fond (groundfish).
-Live chironomids Larvae or frozen.
-Live Artemia nauplii
-Frozen Artemia
-Sinking wafers
and a mixture of several small granules (grana cichlids, prima discus & Tica vital 6)

dried food every day and frozen food every 5 days.

hope this could help you.

This morning all the kids are out the tube

i'll give them Artemia nauplii + µworms.

Regards, Nicolas.

[syno321]

Thank you Nicolas! Are you filtering the tank with a mattenfilter? It looks like a shallow tank? how many liters? It looks like quite a large amount of organic material on the bottom.

[Amazoniensis]

Hello, I 'm using this filter



tank size: 110x40x25cm (Length x width x height)

[exasperatus2002]

Great job!

[racoll]

Great pictures. Congratulations!

[syno321]

Thanks for the information

[Amazoniensis]

[apistomaster]

Hello, I 'm using this filter



tank size: 110x40x25cm (Length x width x height)

I adopted these Azoo Oxygen-Plus #6 sponge filters as my standard filter.
The Marineland Maxi-Jet 600 powerhead fits perfectly to these sponge filters by way of the supplied tapered adapter tube instead of using the filter airlift tube. Can't do this with Hydro Sponge
I would use one powered and one run via airlift in all my tanks from the 20 longs to the 40 gal breeders.
The powerhead driven filter sponges would eventually become too clogged to rinse and reuse but the benefits outweighed the cost of replacing the sponges.
I never had to worry about fry and brine shrimp nauplii being lost to a filter

[syno321]

Wow! Spectacular video! Now THAT looks like the bottom of a stream in South America! You also have some of my favorite pencilfish, Nannostomas marginatus. I have to ask you, are the tubes that the melini are occupying open on both ends, or is one end closed off? I couldn't tell looking at the video. Thanks again.

[Amazoniensis]

thank you
the tubes are closed so there is only one side open.

salutations.

[syno321]

The wealth of information you have provided is very generous. Thank you very much!

[Amazoniensis]

i tried a lot of things to feed the youngsters:
live artemia nauplii, µworms, vegetal flakes, nori, tetra tabimin, jbl novotabs, cucumber, potato and more ..
they are really difficult to feed !
but I keep hope when i see this picture I feel that the belly is pink, maybe a sign that they probably eat nauplii

[Amazoniensis]

female


male

[syno321]

I find that with most of the species of bottom dwelling fish the young remain motionless for the greater part of the daylight hours. I'm sure that this, along with their broken-up color pattern, are survival mechanisms to avoid predation. They don't search for their meals, as would cichlid fry. Even cichlid fry raised in too large an aquarium can expend too much energy locating food to optimize growth. I find that it is beneficial to move young bottom dwelling fish to smaller containers where they almost "swim" in their food. I like to use a product distributed by Marina that uses air to move water from the main aquarium to the holding container, and then gravity feeds the water back into the main tank, providing a constant supply of fresh water, and optimizing the filtration provided to the main tank.

[Amazoniensis]

one of the males jumped out of the tank

[Amazoniensis]

syno are you talking about a breeding box like this?
http://i47.servimg.com/u/f47/11/17/24/48/img_4521.jpg

they spawned again for the 3rd time !

[syno321]

Yes. They come in larger sizes as well. Again, congratulations on the third spawn

[Amazoniensis]

the first youngs of the second spawn started to swim after 9 days of incubation at 28 ° C (conductivity = 55μS/cm)



a 18 days old young look at his belly full of nauplii

[festaedan]

Sorry for the loss but congrats on yet another spawn!

[Amazoniensis]

They spawning for the fourth time today

a 18 days old kid (left) a young freshly born (right)


a kid of the second spawn


an egg of the 4th spawn !

[Narwhal72]

Glad to see they are starting to eat for you. With whiptails in particular I have had a terrible time getting the fry to feed well. I agree with syno. that putting them in a smaller container where the food density is higher helps tremendously. You may want to try some of the gel diets like Repashy (not sure if it is available internationally) as they have a long residence time in the aquarium and that gives the fish more time to find the food without it fouling the water.

Andy

[Amazoniensis]

thank you Andy i bought an "easy breeding box" yesterday.

[Nabobmob1]

Congrats on the spawn, it is a lovely fish.

One trick I got I believe from Eric Bodrock was to scrape the green algae off aquarium lids and offer it as a food for young whiptail fry. Has come in quite handy for the few whiptails I've worked with.

[syno321]

[quote="Nabobmob1"]Congrats on the spawn, it is a lovely fish.

One trick I got I believe from Eric Bodrock was to scrape the green algae off aquarium lids and offer it as a food for young whiptail fry. Has come in quite handy for the few whiptails I've worked with.[/quote]

I've never tried this with Whiptail fry but I do this all the time with my Ancistrus cirrhosis and Ancistrus claro fry. It's a great and relatively safe way of having food for the fry the instant they're ready to start eating. They also seem to like hiding in it.

[Narwhal72]

That's a really good idea. I will have to try that idea myself next time.

[Amazoniensis]

3rd spawn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPGXdAxTIV0
4th spawn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWdC1oN2yHA
5th spawn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSpsUOlgI9c

the tank
after a good water change 21µS/cm @ 29.5°C