California received a shipment from Aquarium Glaser! :-)

[bekateen]

Hi All

Just had a great blessing. My LFS (Tropical Haven, Modesto, California) allowed me (along with five friends) to come up with a list of fish from Aquarium Glaser in Germany. The LFS added our wish list to a larger order and A.G. shipped us a great collection of fish.

Some of the fish we ordered and received were:

• Corydoras eques
  
• Corydoras haraldschultzi
• Centromochlus orca
  
• Hypancistrus debilittera
  
• Hypancistrus sp(L201)
  big spot
• Panaqolus albivermis
  (really big!)

The LFS ordered a lot of other

Otocinclus

, three types of hatchet fish, and a bunch of other neat fish.

Hopefully this opens a path to future shipments.

[jac]

Very nice Thomas! The Centromochlus look great And I love the eques

[bekateen]

Thanks Jac.

[bekateen]

Finally got to assemble a decent video of the ninja wood cats as they settle into QT. So far, it appears that five of the fish may be females. I haven't been able to see all seven at once. Conversely, they may all be too small to sex, although I doubt that. Time will tell, I suppose; and if I have all females, then I'll just have to buy more! I can live with that.

Cheers, Eric

Direct link to YouTube: Ninja wood cats (Centromochlus orca)

[bigward]

Word of warning - I used to feed my Tatia Perugiae with a feeding cone until 1 of them got their pectoral fin stuck and died overnight.
My Ninjas come out in the day light as soon as they smell food in the water, its great to watch.

[bekateen]

Thanks for the warning.

That was an unfortunate accident you had. I guess I've been lucky - I've had an identical feeding cone in my C. perugiae tank for 2 years with no incidents. But now I'll look for alternatives.

Cheers, Eric

[bigward]

Yeah if there is bad luck around I will get it haha
If you have used one for that long your fish must be used to it

[bekateen]

. I'll still start considering options.

Also, someone just told me they feed theirs spinach. I'm going to give that a try as a supplement.

[bekateen]

UPDATE on the

Centromochlus orca

: After 10 months, all are still alive. They've grown a lot, filled out their bodies eating live black worms, and now I can see modified anal fins. I don't have all females after all! I have males too!

Cheers, Eric

Direct link to YouTube video: Sexing the Ninja wood cat, Centromochlus orca

[bekateen]

Don't see them out in the open very often, so I thought I'd share - the first time I've seen one of these fish out in months!

[bekateen]

Oooh, today I discovered one of the Aquarium Glaser male debilittera in a cave with some older fry. And he's trapping a girl at the same time. I had no idea they had spawned already!

This has been a good 2-3 weeks in my tanks! First the L201 big spots spawned, and then they spawned again (different male), at the same time I found baby CW104 in another tank (again, I didn't know the parents spawned), and now the debilittera!

Cheers, Eric

[Fundulopanchax76]

So your plecos already spawn without asking you !

[bekateen]

On 16 February, when I found dad in the cave with fry, I tried dumping (repeatedly)... and then shaking... the cave to drop the fry into a fry basket. Only after no fry fell out did I then see the female trapped inside. And yet, in spite of all the shaking, she didn't leave the cave (or he didn't let her).

I didn't want to let the fry get loose in the tank, so I put the whole cave in the fry basket, with both parents inside. But two days later the adults were still inside, the male was quivering his tail like they do, and the babies were still hiding deep in the cave, unwilling and perhaps unable to leave the cave because mom and dad were blocking them. I tried shaking the cave again, and still no fry fell out. And the female stayed inside.

After those two days, I surrendered the idea of getting the fry out, so I removed the cave from the fry basket and put it back in the tank in its original position... and still, with all this commotion, the female didn't leave.

Finally, after 5 days of trapping (that I knew of - who knows how long she was in the cave before I found her on the day of the other photo), she laid new eggs and this morning dad is sitting on a new pile of fresh eggs. YAY!

But there is no sign of the fry. Either they are all loose in the tank, or they are still hiding in the cave, now behind the eggs.

No matter, it's a great day.

Cheers, Eric

[TwoTankAmin]

Congrats Eric.

Just a thought here. You may want to pull dad and cave to a temporary small tank- even a 5.5 can work but a 10 is better. That way after the fry leave the cave you can either pull them or leave them a while and also feed the dad and give him a short rest. He is probably pretty hungry and I am sure some lady would prefer he do his duty with her rather than eat himself back to tip top shape.

[bekateen]

Thanks TTA, that's a good idea. I'll see if I can find an arrangement. I don't like to pull the eggs before hatching if I can help it. But moving the whole cave would avoid that.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Dad abandoned his second spawn on the day the fry hatched and I lost all of them. But he spawned a third time and I recovered two wrigglers today. Combined with the single fry from the first spawn, I have three babies, which is better than none.

Cheers,
Eric

[Fundulopanchax76]

Yes 3 is beter than 0 ! lol

[bekateen]

Update:

Finally got a good look at the escapee fry from the first spawn. Newest fry started eating and growing.

Cheers, Eric

Colombian Zebra Pleco (Hypancistrus debilittera) Fry from Two Spawns: 2 months old and 10 days old

[Fundulopanchax76]

Your big surprise baby is really cute !

[bekateen]

Here's some better views of the oldest baby... AND it turns out I found another of the same age! I put them in a photo tank for this photo shoot.

Cheers, Eric

Hypancistrus debilittera and H. sp. L201 big spot fry 2 months old

[smitty]

I'm loving it!

[bekateen]

New debilittera spawn found today. Since I've gotten only four fry from four spawns raised by dad, this time I took the eggs and I'll try hatching them separately. Better luck, hopefully.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

H. debilittera eggs are now at least 3 days old (I don't know their exact age, since I don't know exactly when they were laid, but I suspect I found them the morning after laying).

Two eggs failed to develop (right of picture) and I picked them away from the rest of the egg mass using bamboo shishkabob skewers.

The remaining 13-14 eggs are developing. The white streaks across the top of some eggs are the embryos; I can see them wriggling from time to time.

Cheers, Eric

[Mexnotex]

Great and interesting reading.
Thanks for the updates!
M. Ortiz

[bekateen]

Thanks. Sadly I have to report that I woke this morning to all but two eggs failed. The two embryos with heartbeats don't look great, so I don't expect them to survive.

If I pull eggs from dad again, I'll consider adding alder cones or leaves, and using a tumbler.

Given the failure of these eggs and two clutches of Ancistrus sp Rio Ucayali recently, I'm wondering if my water is too hard or alkaline. Fortunately, it hasn't affected hatching of my L397 or L201.

Cheers, Eric