Sexing Hemiodontichtys acipensirus + Spawn 5 months later

[Thomas1209]

Hello my fellow catfish freaks,

I have always been into whiptails an recently my boss asked if I knew any cool species to add to the collection. I work as a saturday employee in a fish store here in Holland. I told her that hemiodontictys acipensirus and some more whiptails were cool looking fish. I never imagined that she would be able to get her hands on those, but she did. She got in 5 fish. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them, such a weird fish! I quickly checked their undersides to see if I could notice any sexual differences, but one fish was dead already. It was the biggest fish and I think he had the biggest lips, also he was a lot darker than the other specimen(might have been due to his dead).
Unfortunately They died or sold too quick before I could get my hands on them.
I called one of the better shops and they had 4 specimen left, and I reserved a male and a female. They are wild caught fish from their own import. Last saturday I went to the shop to pick them up. The employee caught all 4 of them and put them in seperate containers. 2 of the fish had a slightly thickened area around their hips, and had small lips so I chose the thickest fish. There was 1 fish who was more slender and seemed to have bigger/thicker lips. That would be the ''male'' in our eyes.

Since the sexual differences are really hard to see with this specie, and the papillia looked the same at both fish I am asking your guys opinion .
The last pic is the mouth of the "male".

[Thomas1209]

The possible "male"

[Thomas1209]

The possible "female" + 2 pictures of the mouths of both. If you guys need any more pictures I can easily take them out to photograph, let me know what you think.

[Thomas1209]

Anyone who can confirm the gender of these 2 fish? The interesting thing about these fish is that they seem to be quite social. Yesterday I noticed that the fish were laying closely next to eachother. After I while they went 2 ways but some hours later that evening I found them again laying next to eachother, on a different part of the tank.

[Thomas1209]

Noone who wants to have a guess?

[jac]

It is just not that simple I guess A lot depends on their sexual activity, as males develop the larger mouth skirts to carry the eggs, but these flaps shrink again if they are not in season.
I have a breeding group and many fry. In my experience these fish are very sensitive and they need time to settle down. I do not handle my fish, even taking the bigger juveniles out of the tank stresses the fish a lot.
Just provide them with a nice sandy substrate, plenty of darker places for them to hide and good foods (I feed only Repashy), temperature around 27-28 degrees celsius. Keep the parameters as stable as you can.
Good luck! And enjoy

[Thomas1209]

Sounds great. I have seen your pictures in the other topic and you have some real stunners. If I get the chance I will try to get 2 more, to increase my chances of having both sexes.
So your experience with these fish is that they stress really easily? I have noticed that whenever I even make the slightest move with my hand when I'm sitting in front of my tank, they instantly stop feeding and burry themselves into the sand. Would you mind taking a guess of the sexes of my fish or are you saying you can't tell at all when they are not sexually active?

[Thomas1209]

So, here we are, 5 months later. My pair had settled in nicely. The female was as round as she could be. After a month being at that size, she finally gave the male the eggs.

What's interesting was that I checked once at night and saw the male and female laying against eachother, with the male shaking his body and the male contracting and expanding his fins every second. I could watch this behaviour for 10 seconds after which the fish saw me and flee. 2 weeks later I had eggs. Temperature 26C, TDS 405ppm, tap water so ph 7,8. 50% water change every week, 3 times live red bloodworms and 1x live tubifex each week. They really love it.

I discovered the eggs at 18-4-2018, so they're nearly 10 days old. I can already see the eyes in them. I do think the male has chewed down his clutch a bit. I estimate he is holding around 15 eggs still, but it must have been more.

Questions:
1. Since the eggs are sensitive to water changes, should I put them in a floating container in the parents' tank? It's a community tank with quite some dwarf cory's, 6x L010a's and a L333 as bottom dwelling fish.
2. How and what should I feed them? I've heard Repashy works and they feed at night. I also have several artemia replacements, viformo and some other tablets. Would those work aswell?
3. Next time I have eggs, could it be a good idea to take the eggs after a couple of days and place them in an egg tumbler? This way the clutch would be bigger. Does it have any effect on the eggs if they are in an egg tumbler for so long?

Thanks in advance!