A Wonderful Wednesday Morning Surprise!

[CharlieM9]

As I turned the lights on in the fishroom this morning, I noticed the following picture (knobnose whiptail)! Here's to hoping things keep going well!!

P.s. Apologies for the terribly blurry picture, I took it as I was running out the door to go to work.

[Jools]

Nice!



Jools

[Barbie]

Nicely done! We will patiently await better pics!

Barbie

[CharlieM9]

Day 3 and he is still holding. The eggs appear to be starting to develop. Grabbed a couple photos with the real camera this morning before heading out for work. Of course he is choosing to hang out behind the filters in attempts to hide, so even those are not the greatest. Will upload them this evening.

[Richard B]

Top stuff

[jac]

What species is this? Sorry, not familiar with "knob nose whiptail"

[bekateen]

Hemiodontichthys acipenserinus

[CharlieM9]

What species is this? Sorry, not familiar with "knob nose whiptail"

Sorry Jac, I'm not familiar enough with posting yet to do the tags like beaten did for me! Thanks

[bekateen]

Hi CharlieM9,

If you want to use tags in your posts, it's very easy to do, and there are two ways to do it:

1. When you're typing a post, click on the icon that says "clog" located above the area where you're typing (inside the red circle in the picture below). Then, type the name of your species in between the two clog tags (above the red arrows in the picture below) that were created when you clicked on the clog tag icon. This method is easy to use and works well for most species, as long as you spell the species name correctly - a misspelled name will create a non-functioning link.

   

2. Go to the Cat-eLog data sheet for your species and look near the bottom of the page. You will see a line called the "BBCode" - this has the species name pre-typed inside of its own clog tags (see inside the red oval in the picture below). You can then copy that whole text and paste it directly into your forum post, and voila! You've made your link. I find this option best when either the species has a name that I don't remember how to spell, or when the species has an irregularity in its name. For example, the common bristlenose is Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus, but its clog tag lacks the period and has an underscore between "cf" and "cirrhosus": Its tag is written ["clog]Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus[/clog"] (except you would need to remove the quotes; I added them just so you can see the clog tags in the text of this message).

   

Good luck with your eggs!

Cheers, Eric

[CharlieM9]

Thanks again Bekateen!!!

As promised here are updated and better pictures. Still pretty terrible as I was trying to disturb the dad as little as I possibly could. The first one is the morning I discovered him, the second picture is from day 3 morning!

edit: they actually posted in reverse....day 3 is first and day 1 is second...sorry

[CharlieM9]

New updates today. Looks like the eggs are getting pretty close to hatching time. He let one single egg loose and I snapped a couple pics before leaving for work this morning. Enjoy!

[jac]

Very nice!
Good luck with the hatchlings!

[CharlieM9]

Very nice!
Good luck with the hatchlings!

Thanks Jac!! He is still holding believe it or not. This morning was day 13. I can tell from the single loose egg that they are getting close to hatching as he wiggles around inside the egg and development of pectoral fins. Which the fins as of last night just appeared to be the main stem only so far. There also is still a good amount of yolk in the eggs so Im not worried about how long it is taking just yet.

[CharlieM9]

Newest update. All the remaining fry hathe during the night. The first two that hatched on the 3rd and the 5th have already started eating baby brine shrimp and microworms. yesterday I found a second male holding a large cluster of eggs too So things are staying busy with that tank!!

Edit: there are 18 total fry

[bekateen]

Wow! New babies and more eggs? Wonderful! How fun.
Cheers, Eric

[CharlieM9]

As an update, the adult group seems to keep chugging away at spawns. This past week for three days I actually had 3 males holding at the same time. The original young are growing on quite well, but an odd observation is that they seem to prefer, and totally ignore live ones, dead slightly congeeling bbs. I have not witnessed this in my other whiptail but these guys seems to wait until the bbs die and start to form that weird almost jelly state to the live bbs. I will post pics and measurements of the young ones when I get back into town.

[CharlieM9]

The first spawn pics.

[jac]

Looking great! Well done

How are they for eating? Do you have any problems with getting them to eat?

[CharlieM9]

Looking great! Well done

How are they for eating? Do you have any problems with getting them to eat?

They are eagerly eating baby brine and microworms. Though for the first week, they only seemed to want to eat the "jelly" like substance that comes from live baby brine shrimp dieing. I had not seen anything like that before, where they ignored live foods but once the food died, they ate it with vigor. I actually just had a small male release a group of about 8 in the Main tank, so we will see how these fair. It is closing in on their first week of being yolk free and still doing well.

I can say though, that for their size and being whiptail, they eat far more than I would've expected.

[jac]

Thank you for the information. I find it quite interesting!

[jac]

Hi Charlie!

How are your fish and juveniles doing? Did you get them to eat properly? How did the loose fry in the main tank do?
I'm asking because I found my first spawn this morning I read your post again. Am I correct incubation time is around 20 days before hatching?

Hope you don't mind me asking

[bekateen]

Am I correct incubation time is around 20 days before hatching?

Hi Jac,

I don't wish to usurp Charlie's opportunity to update you on his progress, but I believe that an answer to one of your questions is in the thread. Charlie reported the eggs in Jan 21, and later said the first eggs hatched around Feb 3. That would be a 14 day incubation period.

Wow, you've had another species spawn? (these, right on the heels of your oil cats?!?) Wonderful.

Cheers, Eric

[jac]

Hi Eric!

In fact, if you read correctly, most eggs hatched in the night of 8-9 Febuari. So if this would be so, also comparing to his later spawns, I wanted to know if the average incubation time would be around 20 days. This would be the same as my other mouth brooding fish the Apithanos.

And yes, both new species in a weeks time Both came with me from the last CSG convention in March this year. And both came from Pier Aquatics

[bekateen]

Hi Jac, I see what you mean. I was looking for the minimum time reported. Also, I looked at the two BLOGS for this species (one of them being Charlie's), which report 9 and 14 day incubation periods. No matter, though, because knowing average hatching time is just as valuable and useful as knowing minimum hatching time. Best of luck to you.

Cheers, Eric

[catmandave]

What size tank are the adults maintained in and can you please supply water parameters.
It appears from some of the photos of the fry that they were moved to an auxiliary tank,
can you comment on this.

[CharlieM9]

Dave, the breeding report on this site I wrote about them supplies all of that info for you!

They were moved to a marina hang on breeder box yes. I don't remember if I put that in the report or not. Enjoy!!

[CharlieM9]

Hi Charlie!

How are your fish and juveniles doing? Did you get them to eat properly? How did the loose fry in the main tank do?
I'm asking because I found my first spawn this morning I read your post again. Am I correct incubation time is around 20 days before hatching?

Hope you don't mind me asking

Jac, I do not know how I missed several posts on this topic. Yes the incubation is right around 18-20 days for the eggs.

The fry do well in the main tank as long as they have enough food available at all times. Subsequent spawning after the first one, have shown the fry to eat live food and not just when it gets gelatinous. I still prefer to move the male to a new tank once it's about day 15-16.

Congratulations on the spawn by the way! Keep us updated!

The juveniles are doing very well and are around the 2" mark and have been putting on mass not just length recently.

[CharlieM9]

Hi Jac, I see what you mean. I was looking for the minimum time reported. Also, I looked at the two BLOGS for this species (one of them being Charlie's), which report 9 and 14 day incubation periods. No matter, though, because knowing average hatching time is just as valuable and useful as knowing minimum hatching time. Best of luck to you.

Cheers, Eric

They actually are a rather funny species to get a "real" incubation time from unless you would move the dad the morning that you notice the eggs. Because at least with mine I have observed females adding to the size of the spawn within a few days, and also males even swapping eggs from two males to just one male holding. It appears in this last case as though it follows the hierarchy of dominance.

[jac]

They actually are a rather funny species to get a "real" incubation time from unless you would move the dad the morning that you notice the eggs. Because at least with mine I have observed females adding to the size of the spawn within a few days, and also males even swapping eggs from two males to just one male holding. It appears in this last case as though it follows the hierarchy of dominance.

Funny you should say that!! My observation is similar. The females show a lot of interest in the male holding the eggs. Actually my egg clutch hasn't "grown" but decreased to half the size. But then, it is his first spawn here.

Thanks for the update and information

[CharlieM9]

They actually are a rather funny species to get a "real" incubation time from unless you would move the dad the morning that you notice the eggs. Because at least with mine I have observed females adding to the size of the spawn within a few days, and also males even swapping eggs from two males to just one male holding. It appears in this last case as though it follows the hierarchy of dominance.

Funny you should say that!! My observation is similar. The females show a lot of interest in the male holding the eggs. Actually my egg clutch hasn't "grown" but decreased to half the size. But then, it is his first spawn here.

Thanks for the update and information

Jac, this is my same exact issue too. It appears as if each individual male has a number of eggs he is comfortable holding. Out of my three males, two seem to be stuck around 20, while one seems happy holding 35-40. But of course the one that spawns the most only likes to hold 20 . Keep the updates or questions coming!