Rio Itaya black Rineloricaria lanceolata spawned

[bekateen]

Hi All,

The black

Rineloricaria lanceolata

(which we caught in the Rio Itaya and brought back to the USA in November) gave me their first spawn last night. Pale, translucent yellow colored eggs. I'm very happy.

The eggs were discovered at 3pm today, with the last inspection Friday evening. I presume they laid the eggs overnight, but IDK if R. lanceolata is a diurnal spawner.

Cheers, Eric

[characinkid]

Congratulations Eric. They have obviously settled in well and look to have laid a good number of eggs.
Good luck raising the fry.

[aaatropicalfish]

Congratulations, that's great news!

Hope we see these and your eigenmanni in the SAS' BAP auction soon!

[bekateen]

Thanks guys. I'll keep the info flowing.

[bekateen]

Day 9 of egg incubation. No eggs hatched yet.

[sturiosoma]

I'm thinking your gonna be at 11-12 days for wigglers

Jeanne

[bekateen]

Yeah, I expect so; that's about what it takes my Rineloricaria eigenmanni. But the only lanceolata BLOG recorded here with hatching data says 10 days, and I always start checking early, in case they hatch early. I want to get dad out of the breeder box as soon as possible after hatching.

Cheers, Eric

[sturiosoma]

Yes and I forgot to congrat, and is this a first for you as far as lanceolata go, and I would find my grungiest algae ridden breeder box that you have as fry can be difficult

Jeanne

[bekateen]

Thanks Jeanne.

Another inspection today and still no hatchlings. Tomorrow (day 11) is hopefully magical.

I don't have algae but I do have live microworms and algae powder, and plain grunge from the parents' tank. Hopefully that gets them off to a good start. I can set some plates in a tank outside to get algae, but that'll take a few days.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Morning of day 11 and still no hatchlings. Dad is dutifully sitting on the eggs.

I feel like an expectant father in the old-tyme maternity ward hallway (pre-1980s, at a time before most dads were in the birthing room to support their wives), waiting for news.

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking."

[bekateen]

Checked this afternoon. Still no hatchlings.

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking."

[bekateen]

Checked once more as I left work tonight. Still no hatchlings....

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines."

[bekateen]

Got to work this morning. Dad is still sitting on a pile of eggs, but the party has started! Break out the cigars!

"Looks like I picked the RIGHT week to quit sniffing glue."

[bekateen]

By the time I left work last night, about 12 fry were hatched. There were still over 70 eggs under dad. Hopefully this morning brings an explosion of fry.

Cheers, Eric

[characinkid]

Have to say those are adorably cute! They are a great looking fish, but little ones are just plain adorable!

[bekateen]

Have to say those are adorably cute! They are a great looking fish, but little ones are just plain adorable!

Thanks! Yes I think so too, especially with those round snouts and tiny lip papillae!

Good news and bad news and great news. This morning I arrived to work to find that the bamboo cave was empty. There were no eggs and dad had abandoned the cave. The problem is that there were not 70-80 fry in the box (that was my estimate of egg count); there were only 27 fry in the box.

Did they all hatch? At first I thought dad ate the remaining eggs, but further inspection revealed that the majority of the fry had escaped the box and were loose in the tank.

If they're like my

Rineloricaria eigenmanni

, they will have a very low probability of survival at this age in the tank (for lack of finding sufficient food), so I used a turkey baster to suck up as many as I could find: On this first try, I added another 20 fry to the breeder box. A few hours later I looked again and I recovered another 12-15 additional fry (now at about 60 fry in box). I also found two who were stranded on the overflow ledge OUTSIDE the box. That might mean they are climbing up the wall of the overflow and out the overflow, rather than being washed out, because the water level is below the overflow line.

Tragically, I think they escaped because I was concerned that the Fluval outflow grill was too coarse and would allow them to escape, so I put a foam pad behind the grill. I think that the foam, which had fine pores, may have partially clogged or simply just slowed the outflow, which resulted in a rise of the water level, allowing fry to wash over the overflow rim of the box. That foam is now removed. To prevent further escapes, I've inserted coarse foam strips in the main outlet (behind the grill) and in the overflow outlet; the foam is coarse enough that it shouldn't impede water flow, but it should stop fry from escaping.

And another two hours later I looked again and collected at least 20 more. I continue to go back to the tank about every 30 min-1hour and get more. There are now over 95 fry in the breeder box (although some are still loose in the tank).

I can see that the day old babies have very little yolk left, so I added some live microworms to the tank to supplement the mulm that has accumulated naturally on the oak leaves in the breeder box while dad was sitting on the eggs.

Cheers, Eric

[sturiosoma]

Congrats Eric and what do you think about adding some of your green water to the breeder box

Jeanne

[bekateen]

Congrats Eric and what do you think about adding some of your green water to the breeder box

Jeanne

Hi Jeanne,
I'm growing the green water now. I put some plastic pieces (that are able to fit in the breeder box) out in my greenhouse aquarium. They are not very algae covered yet. The babies have a day or two of yolk to go through, plus I've got the oak leaves with biofilm on them, some mulm sediment and live microworms. I'll add the algae coated plates with some green water in a day or two.

I can imagine them eating on the plates, but I'm not sure if greenwater will do much, considering how quickly water washes through the breeder box. The tank isn't well illuminated (just ambient room lighting), so it won't grow algae on its own at any pace. But the greenhouse tanks are my best source for fresh algae.

I'll keep updated.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Found more fry in the tank this morning. Total count of babies in the breeder box now is 108. And there are undoubtedly more in the tank still.

[bekateen]

I just put the bamboo pipe back in the tank yesterday after all the eggs hatched in the breeder box, and already there's a male and female back inside the bamboo. This male looks smaller than the male that spawned before. I'm not sure he'll pull it off or be able to keep a bigger male from taking over the bamboo before he can get a spawn done.

[characinkid]

Hi Eric,
Congrats on all the babies, thats awesome.
Can you use algae wafers to feed the babies? Seems like they might take to that and Ive seen folks who breed Ancistrus use them? What do you feed the parents?

[bekateen]

Hi Eric,
Congrats on all the babies, thats awesome.
Can you use algae wafers to feed the babies? Seems like they might take to that and Ive seen folks who breed Ancistrus use them? What do you feed the parents?

Thanks!

Before I turn to algae wafers, first I'll try the algae-coated plastic plates I'm preparing with some of the green water from the tank (as recommended by Jeanne), and then my next option would be algae flakes. I'm a big fan of the SeaChem NutriDiet Chlorella flakes, the Fluval BugBites Spirulina Formula flakes, and the NLS AlgaeMax Spirulina foods (the latter is a pellet, not a flake). These all have algae as their first ingredient instead of fishmeal. The other food I like to use with fry is uncooked Repashy powder, just saturated in the water and allowed to settle as a dust. In general, I find babies do better with flakes I can crumble between my fingers and powders rather than with big pellets.

All that said, it's my understanding that

Rineloricaria lanceolata

is more of a biofilm eater and that they'll flourish on live microworms. So my first foods are the live microworms 2x per day and the algae coated plates. But I have lots of algae foods on hand, so if the microworms aren't cutting it, I have options.

Also another update. But the end of the work day, I had caught even more babies. I now have 115 fry in the breeder box.

Cheers, Eric

[sturiosoma]

Eric could you post a pic of your breeder box and fry

Jeanne

[bekateen]

Jeanne, yes I'll get that picture next time I'm at work.

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

Eric could you post a pic of your breeder box and fry

Jeanne

Here you go:

[bekateen]

I just put the bamboo pipe back in the tank yesterday after all the eggs hatched in the breeder box, and already there's a male and female back inside the bamboo. This male looks smaller than the male that spawned before. I'm not sure he'll pull it off or be able to keep a bigger male from taking over the bamboo before he can get a spawn done.

I dropped into work today to feed the babies. Only two days after returning dad and his bamboo cave to the aquarium, I find this!

Dang they're horny!

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

I have six specimens of this species, two large males, one smaller male, two large females and one smaller fish, I think female. With this second spawn occurring so quickly, I thought this male looked smaller than the first male to spawn. But now, comparing the two spawn photos and looking at the facial markings of the dad, it appears to be the same male.

[sturiosoma]

Eric could you post a pic of your breeder box and fry

Jeanne

Here you go:

Thanks for the pics Eric, and just what I expected to see a breeder box full of wall hangers, and if you don't mind my asking what would you estimate your survival rate was with your eigenmanni spawn you reported on a while back

Jeanne

[bekateen]

Thanks for the pics Eric, and just what I expected to see a breeder box full of wall hangers, and if you don't mind my asking what would you estimate your survival rate was with your eigenmanni spawn you reported on a while back

Jeanne

I don't mind at all. So far, I had one dead in the first couple of days after hatching, and then last night I found one dead. That's it, only two dead over one month, out of over 60 fry surviving still. Those babies are nearly 25 mm SL now. Using these Fluval breeder boxes, this is probably my best survival ever for Rineloricaria. In the blue Imagitarium boxes, and even in the better German Breeder Rings, the microworms fall through the bottom, so the babies get less time to eat at each feeding.

Cheers, Eric

[sturiosoma]

Thanks for the pics Eric, and just what I expected to see a breeder box full of wall hangers, and if you don't mind my asking what would you estimate your survival rate was with your eigenmanni spawn you reported on a while back

Jeanne

I don't mind at all. So far, I had one dead in the first couple of days after hatching, and then last night I found one dead. That's it, only two dead over one month, out of over 60 fry surviving still. Those babies are nearly 25 mm SL now. Using these Fluval breeder boxes, this is probably my best survival ever for Rineloricaria. In the blue Imagitarium boxes, and even in the better German Breeder Rings, the microworms fall through the bottom, so the babies get less time to eat at each feeding.

Cheers, Eric

Hey Eric have you ever thought of with you having a greenhouse to put one of your spare breeder boxes and who doesn't have a spare in the greenhouse and allow it to fester sort of speak for those unplanned spawns

Jeanne