Repeat spawning of Dekeyseria picta L052

[bekateen]

Back in late 2017/early 2018, I received a group of

Dekeyseria picta

(

L052

), their appearance on arrival shown in my old posts, starting here (Re: How delicate are Pseudolithoxus tigris?), with follow-up posts in the same thread.

On 9-January-2020, I got my first spawn from them (mentioned here: 13 spawns in 6 weeks: It doesn't get much better than this, with additional pics and info here and here).

I'm tickled to report this morning that after two long days of trapping, they have spawned again overnight yesterday. Today the dad is happily fanning a fresh pile of eggs. I'm pretty sure it's the same male as before, since these guys tend to guard a spot once they pick it. But I have no idea if it was the same female. The first spawn was just 13 days ago; to me, that seems like an exceedingly short interbrood period for one female to yolk up another clutch of eggs, if you consider the fact that even common BNs (the most prolific plecos I've met in terms of frequency of spawns) have an interbrood period of about 18-19 days.

But conversely, it's not beyond plausibility that the same female spawned, especially since (also in my experience) once a female 'gets the bug' to spawn, she's going to keep doing it as long as her hormones drive her. That said, when this occurs, I usually find clutch size/egg count tends to decline until a longer interbrood period occurs and allows her liver and ovaries to recover in order to restock needed lipid and protein reserves to make more eggs again.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Another observation I have about these two spawns - The eggs get laid and tightly secured to the cave wall about half-way between the mouth and end of the cave. Unlike the

Ancistrus

,

Panaqolus

,

Peckoltia

and

Hypancistrus

spawns I've seen, where the males keep the eggs in front of their faces or under their chins, this

Dekeyseria

male sits with the egg masses under his abdomen, right in the center of his body between the pectoral and pelvic fins.

Also, both of the trappings I observed concluded with spawns in the mid to late afternoons with lights on and people active nearby. These do not appear to be night spawners in my tank.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

This is getting crazy. While randomly looking around the tank with last night's overnight L052 spawn (spawn #2 within 14 days of spawn #1), lo and behold, there between the rock crevices I see another intact egg mass (spawn #3), this one laid on the bare tank floor!

[bekateen]

This third egg mass appears to be unattended, so I used a turkey baster to suck it from between the rocks and I moved it to the basket containing the three day old fry (for lack of an alternative place). I count a minimum of 64 eggs.

[Baardman]

congratulations buddy!

[bekateen]

Thanks! Let's hope for a good outcome to these spawns.

[bigshawn]

Congratulations and good luck

[bekateen]

Today I added another fry basket to the tank so that I could isolate the eggs from the existing 5-day-old fry. I moved the egg mass from spawn #3 into the new basket and I also pulled the eggs of spawn #2 out of dad's cave and added them to the same basket. I count a minimum of 79 eggs in the egg mass from spawn #2 (shown below).

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

6-day-old fry from spawn #1. I have at least 20, probably more, surviving fry from this first spawn.

The other two egg masses are developing well. No signs of fungused or dead eggs so far.

[bekateen]

Dekeyseria picta L052 spawns #2 and #3 both started hatching today. On advice from others, I made several changes to the incubation of these eggs:

1. I moved the basket a few inches away from the most turbulent currents, to give the eggs a more gentle incubation.
2. I added a twig of oak leaves to the basket with the two egg masses; normally I would wait till eggs hatched to add the twig/leaves, but I added it now to disrupt any water currents in the basket, and also these leaves would be softer as food once the eggs hatch, since the leaves would have been soaking for over a week.
3. I raised the basket out of the water about 1/2 its height. This brought the eggs closer to the water surface, where they would be warmer because of closer proximity to the overhead lights.
4. I closed the aquarium lid further than usual, slowing the rate of evaporative cooling and raising tank temp. During incubation of the first spawn, daytime temps were around 74F-76F, and later 78F when I closed the lid then. Today the tank was 84F!

Today marks day 8 of incubation and BOTH egg masses have started hatching. If the hatching peaks tomorrow, I'll call that a 9-day incubation period, which is much faster than the 12-day incubation I had for the first spawn at 74-76F.

[bekateen]

Hmmm... Fry deaths have already started. Just pulled out four fry corpses. I should stay away for a day until The Purge is over, then see how many survived.

Regards, Eric

[Baardman]

Did anymore of your fry pass away?

[bekateen]

Lost at least one of the older fry over the weekend, but I doubt much more than that. But I lost a lot of fry from the second two spawns. That said, this morning I counted at least 5, maybe 10 fry alive and well from the second and third spawns, AND most of the eggs still haven't hatched yet. So maybe it's just the early hatchers that do so poorly.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Late this afternoon I found another spawn (spawn #4) in the cave...

1. 09 Jan - first spawn occurs
2. 22 Jan - second spawn occurs (13 days after spawn #1)
3. 23 Jan - third spawn found (spawn date unknown, but must be ≤ 14 days after spawn #1)
4. 03 Feb - fourth spawn occurs (12 days after spawn #2)

Dang, I forgot to check in the rocks for a spawn there. #Tomorrow

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

I took the spawn #4 eggs from dad this morning. I can count conservatively 67 eggs. I expect there are more on near the center of the mass, underneath the eggs which are visible.

On a good note, most of the rest of the eggs from spawns #2 and #3 hatched overnight and they appear to be doing well. There are still approximately 20% of the eggs in both clutches remaining to hatch.

On a "don't be greedy, but do be hopeful" note , I checked under the rocks for the other male that spawned before. I saw a fish there (couldn't sex it), but I saw no eggs. I guess this is it for now.
Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

One of my oldest D. picta fry. They are 24 days old and the biggest fry is 13mm SL.

[bekateen]

Saturday, the male was back in his cave, and this morning he's on eggs.

1. 09 Jan - first spawn occurs
2. 22 Jan - second spawn occurs (13 days after spawn #1)
3. 23 Jan - third spawn found (spawn date unknown, but must be ≤ 14 days after spawn #1)
4. 03 Feb - fourth spawn occurs (12 days after spawn #2)
5. 23 Feb - fifth spawn occurs (20 days after spawn #4)

That's five spawns I've found since January 9th. The tank is not really conducive to fry grow-out, so believe it or not I'm hoping there are not more spawns unseen in the tank (I assume not or I should have seen at least one stray fry here and there)

[bekateen]

Update photos of the oldest Dekeyseria picta L052 fry, now about 6 weeks old. For size/scale, the container seen here is 25mm x 25mm on its base. This baby is about 19mm SL.

[bekateen]

For the last week, a male and female Dekeyseria picta have been trapping on and off. This is not like them because usually in this tank they get the spawn done within 2-3 days of trapping. They had not spawned Saturday afternoon (the last time I inspected them), but Monday when I arrived at work, dad is on fresh eggs. I expect they spawned either Saturday evening or Sunday evening. (5-7pm is the time I've observed them to spawn on three of the dates)

1. 09 Jan - first spawn occurs
2. 22 Jan - second spawn occurs (13 days after spawn #1)
3. 23 Jan - third spawn found (spawn date unknown, but must be ≤ 14 days after spawn #1)
4. 03 Feb - fourth spawn occurs (12 days after spawn #2)
5. 23 Feb - fifth spawn occurs (20 days after spawn #4)
6. 07 or 08 Mar - sixth spawn occurs (13-14 days after spawn #5)

Very busy tank!

[bekateen]

Spawn #7 discovered today, 18 Mar: A group of over 40 yolky babies were found swimming loose in the parents tank. They are probably more Dekeyseria picta L052, but I'm not certain. Thes fry were probably from a spawn about 12-14 days ago somewhere under the rocks in the tank. The eggs from the 07/08 March spawn are just starting to hatch today in a fry basket.

[Baardman]

They are like rabbits now lol

[bekateen]

And another new spawn overnight last night! This time, for the first time I've seen in this cave, on the roof of the cave. They were getting kinky last night! #CoronavirusSexyTime!

And an update on spawn #6 from either March 07 or 08: That dad lost or abandoned his eggs a few days later. I found the egg mass loose in the tank and moved it to a basket. Eggs started hatching 2 or 3 days ago, and now only 3 eggs remain, all looking good and still developing (nearly done). This batch had a great hatch rate, in spite of their rough time getting lost by dad and snagged on a rock in the strong current.

Compared to all other plecos I've spawned, hatching in this species is really protracted, starting around day 8 or 9 (and most of those fry tend to die, I assume premature hatching) and dragging out to about 14 days. Most eggs hatch around day 10-12 in my tank.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Haven't updated for a while, so here is the latest summary. I rarely see more than two or three adults at a time, but there should be 11 adults alive in this tank. Based on the spawning schedule, I believe there are only two males and two females participating in the spawns. One male, I believe to be the same male, uses a single cave for all but two of the spawns. On two occasions there have been spawns in the tank which are not occurring in caves. I suspect they occur among the cobblestones. Those two spawns I think are the second pair of L052 (shown in blue color in list below).

Also, the typical interspawn interval is about 10-14 days (roughly the time it takes for the eggs to hatch, which hatch from 11-14 days post-spawning). But after 3 spawns 10-14 days apart, there is a pause of about 20 days. I wonder if the females need a chance to recondition after three spawns. The timing could be a coincidence - As we say in mathematics, "Two points make a line" ... but conversely, two points don't confirm a straight connection. Time may tell if the parents keep going and do this pause again.

• Spawn #1: 09 Jan
• Spawn #2: 22 Jan (13 days after spawn #1)
• Spawn #4: 03 Feb (12 days after spawn #2)
• Spawn #3: 23 Jan - fresh egg mass found loose in tank (spawn date unknown, but must be 13-14 days after spawn #1)
  
  • Pause
• Spawn #5: 23 Feb (20 days after spawn #4)
• Spawn #6: 08 March (14 days after spawn #5)
• Spawn #8: 19 March (11 days after spawn #6)
• Spawn #7: 04-06 March? New hatchlings found free in tank 18 March (spawn date unknown, estimated 12-14 days earlier = 10-12 days after spawn #5)
  • Pause
• Spawn #9: 09 April (21 days after spawn #8)
• Spawn #10: 20 April (11 days after spawn #9)
• Spawn #11: 30 April (10 days after spawn #10)

If the need for a pause after three spawns is really a thing, then I'm due for a 3-week hiatus by the cave spawning pair (next cave spawn would be predicted between 20-23 May). Also if there is a second pair spawning under rocks, I'm due for a free-ranging clutch of hatchling fry to appear magically any day now.

Cheers, Eric

[Baardman]

Great news How are all the baby "rabbits" doing?

[bekateen]

Thanks! The babies are doing well. Ill get more pics soon.

Cheers, Eric

[fishguy1978]

I'm curious why do you pull the eggs away from the male?

[bekateen]

I'm curious why do you pull the eggs away from the male?

Because the tank itself is not "wiggler friendly." As far as I can tell, I get fewer surviving fry from the couple of batches that hatched in tank than I get from batches I recover, even though I might lose 5+ eggs during the recovery process. Once the fry hatch, I'm having pretty good survival.

Eric

[bekateen]

I removed the eggs from the 30-April spawn today. The eggs fell away from the cave with almost no manipulation. I think I took them at the right time. Looking good!

[bekateen]

Oldest fry now 3.5 months post hatching with some fry over 30mm SL.

[bekateen]

Spawn #12, discovered this morning. Pair was trapping when I left work yesterday at 6pm. Eggs laid between then and 10am today. (11 days after spawn #11)

Out goes my hypothesis that they need a 3 week pause after every third spawn. (although this could be a different female)

Cheers, Eric