Hypancistrus L236 SW RB line spawning (new babies)

[catfishmelao]

Hello - I have good news and bad news to share. The good news is that I have some L236 SW RB line babies. Yeah! (picture attached)
I was out for a week and when I camelback I did found fry swimming in the 40b tank. The 40g tank is setup with the group of 10 L236 SW RB line that I acquired last month (picture attached earlier on this post: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/vie ... 54#p338954). The bad news is that they were swimming in the bottom of the tank and I was able to get only 7 from the 9 that I can see, placed those 7 in a ziss breeder box BL-2T and the other 2 are still there (in the tank) and probably will die. Maybe there are more in the tank but it is very difficult to get them, plus I have a couple of L236 SW trapped so maybe we will have more babies next week.

I only use tap water, no RO water.
My tap water has a PH of 6.8 and I have Mopani wood with a lot of caves in the tank(picture attached). The current PH is around 6.6 and it goes back to 6.8 when a waiter change is done. I do 50% of water changes twice a week (manually, I do not have automated water change system installed yet).
Filter: Fluval FX-2 canister and 2 sponge filter.
Tank is set to 81F (27.2C approximately)

I have been feeding EBO and Rapashy (Botton Scratcher) with some Fluval insects sticks and some veggies. That is all. Nothing special.

I am a novice and maybe it is luck or water quality in Atlanta, but I feel very fortunate that only a month after buying the L236 SW RB line I have new family members and two females trapped by males at the moment.

Cheers!
Melao

[catfishmelao]

I have just noticed that there is a male taking care of the eggs in one of the caves were one of the two females were trapped late Saturday. I did not check the caves yesterday so probably the male have been taking care of the eggs since yesterday. Hope I can have another group of frys. This time I will remove them as soon as I see they are able to wiggler to avoid them to get lost in the 40 gallon tank. The breeder box is in the same tank (same water parameters).

[bekateen]

Congratulations! As far as your bad news that some are loose in the tank, my experience with Hypancistrus is that the parents will leave the babies alone.

Good luck with them!

Cheers, Eric

[catfishmelao]

Thanks Eric!
My main concern is that they won't get enough food and they will die of starvation in a 40g tank. Let's hope for the best.

Cheers!
Melao

[emanuel]

Congratulations! As far as your bad news that some are loose in the tank, my experience with Hypancistrus is that the parents will leave the babies alone.

Good luck with them!

Cheers, Eric

I agree. I don't see any problem in leaving the babies with the parents, I'm experimenting with it myself with success.

Thanks Eric!
My main concern is that they won't get enough food and they will die of starvation in a 40g tank. Let's hope for the best.

Cheers!
Melao

When I have free babies in the tank, I give specific granulate for fry, which, being very fine, gets into places where adults cannot reach, but babies can. With this method I have never had any problems raising and feeding all the babies in the main tank with the parents.
I also regularly give vegetables, such as shelled peas or courgettes, the babies will be able to eat them together with the adults

[catfishmelao]

Thanks Emanuel. So far the babies in the tank are doing well, I have not had any lost yet. I also have more new babies that I was able to move to the breeder box. see picture below of two of them.

[emanuel]

catfishmelao, I'm very pleased that things are going well. I had no doubt that it would also work for babies in the tub with adults.