PlanetCatfish.com

An update. The egges were fertile (pic taken showing fry developing). I rescued some and put them in a breeding net. The ones left in the tank were eaten by the female. She then decided to jump into the breeding net in the night and eat the others!

The.Dark.One wrote:She then decided to jump into the breeding net in the night and eat the others!

So sorry to hear. That is a little too greedy for my taste. I guess it's a case of "Plan for next time move eggs to another tank".

--
Mats

Thanks Mats. Yes, if they spawn again I will do it differently

My T Exilis have spawned again. This time I rescued a few before being eaten. I think they look viable.

Nice work! They do look viable - how will you raise them?

Cheers,

Jools

@Jools... they were still 'whole' yesterday, although I'm not yet 100% convinced they are fertile eggs. I'll take another look later today.

I've followed this thread on and off for some time and had a few large spotted C. Perugia for some years. All females but laying eggs!

In the hope to get some males I ordered some from a source in Germany and got 6 nice males and females...small spotted! So I keep the seperate from my large spotted ones.

I've seen some of the discussions on perugiae vs. altae but not had a closer look on mine other than the sports are different between the two groups I have.

Yesterday I got some fish I ordered. 6 aulopygia and 6 galaxias wich turned out as 12 intermedia as they arrived.

So currently I have:

4 C. perugiae big spot.
6 C. perugiae small spot
12 Tatia intermedia.

Here are some of the T Exilis eggs today (day 4).
Not all of the eggs were fertile and some turned to mush, but these look more promising.

Jools wrote:how will you raise them?

- this time, assuming they hatch, I'm going to try and raise these somewhat clinically. Starting in a small aerated container, changing the water frequently. This is so I can observe and be sure they are feeding.

-Richard

My 5 Trachelyopterus sp. 3 are now for sale.

I'm thinking about going for a rather more visible Auchenipterid : Centromochlus heckelii.

The mating (making?) of . This lasted for about 12(!) minutes. The branch in the lower picture stopped them from coming towards me and - probably - better pictures....

(Continued from the above posting)
This is one tired male. He needed another 10 minutes before he swam off. His partner swam off immediately after they separated.

Wow, that's great. I guess you have to keep an eye out for eggs in a few days from the female?

Jools

PS I've acquired a number of these (from Pier Aquatics) which I am growing on (I think). I've got about 10 and have put them into a 30" tank which continues to look empty!

Jools wrote:Wow, that's great. I guess you have to keep an eye out for eggs in a few days from the female?

PS I've acquired a number of these (from Pier Aquatics) which I am growing on (I think). I've got about 10 and have put them into a 30" tank which continues to look empty!

If only I had the time.....

Wrt to your PS: I don't know how long you already have them, but they need some time to feel comfortable - like most auchenipterids. Once at ease, they will reward you with their colours and elegant way of swimming; even with lights on. Red mosquito larvae help a lot to make them feel at ease.

Just in the process of acclimatising a trio (1M/2F) of to my aquarium! Largest is 68mm SL (which happens to be the male), the two females slightly smaller. Will try and get some photos of them in the photo tank before releasing them into the main aquarium...never to be seen again
Martin

Martin, where did you get them from? Good find!

Marc van Arc wrote:Martin, where did you get them from? Good find!

Hi Marc
They came from Rare Aquatics, am tempted to get a couple more before they are all gone...
Martin

And yet another mating. 1 male, 4 females; I bet he's having fun

@Martin: did you get some more specimens?

Marc van Arc wrote: @Martin: did you get some more specimens?

No Marc, I'm not comfortable that I'm seeing the trio I have feeding enough to warrant adding more. The shop had them out and feeding in the light, but I only see one or two after lights out and they are not as ravenous feeders as the smaller C.perugiae, so am not going to risk adding more for the moment. I will admit to not having actually not seen any of the Tatia dunni trio or the Spinipterus group even once since moving them to their larger tank!! I have days where I want to rip the tank apart to check, but am loathe to upset everything if they are just in hiding.
Edit: strangely enough I just looked into the pipes that have been empty since adding them a month or so ago to see one of the Tatia dunni has made it home!
Martin

Wrt Spinipterus: I know what you're saying. I have 7 and see 3 of them, because I know where they hang out. They survive in the large tank, but that's literally all. They don't grow a bit.
I should have put them in the smaller tank. They are certainly nocturnal enough to evade the tigerbarbs and at least they would have had a little more to eat.

I bit the bullet and am currently acclimatising two more (1 male and 1 female). The largest is ~75mm SL and the smaller one ~60mm SL.
I do see these, well regularly see 1 or 2 of the trio out as the lights dim, so these are the most active of all the auchenipterids I keep!

Martin S wrote:I bit the bullet

You must have pretty strong teeth

Here's one of my group of helping herself to some of the discus food right under their noses! Martin

So an interesting group of Centromochlus have appeared on Aquabid. They look to be Centromochlus perugiae but with a slight difference in pattern. It is probably just a variation which we see in a lot of catfish or perhaps these are just young individuals. Either way, kind of interesting: http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/ ... 1376288201.

Just to inform anyone interested that the same happened over here as 50 pages (= page 57; nearly 2 years) ago: the return of the very-hard-to-beat Ich strain.
I myself am to blame, there's hardly any doubt about that. Nearly two weeks ago I caught some fishes, changed water and added 2 Semaprochilodus characins. Not something one would regard as a risk and nor did I.
A week ago I wished I had left the (large) tank in peace, for the Ich-hell broke lose once again.
I raised the temprature to 29C, added an extra diffusor for oxygen and added 600 grammes of salt in 6 days time (100 grammes per day; resolved of course).
The fishes are struggling; so am I.
To be continued......

Update: as things only seemed to get worse last Sunday, I decided to go for an "all or nothing" option.
I added a full dose of FMC (not a medicin catfishes "like") on Sunday evening and repeated that last Wednesday. At last I noticed some improvement.
Currently all (not quite; see below) fishes are on their way back to good health. I changed about 1/4 of the water today (adding dissolved salt to the "new" water) and I guess I now have to wait for a full health recovery. Most fishes behave like they should and almost all are eating again.
However, there have been victims. Two Semaprochilodus died, so in the end the reason of the fishes (and me) having to go through this ordeal turned out to be utterly useless.
I also miss the two largest Ageneiosus cf atronasus females, which looked like they only needed chips to be served as a favourite English dish last weekend.....
And the Otorongo's?? I really don't have a clue. But - to be honest - I also didn't have one previously when they were in good health.
In short: it's not over yet, but it won't become a total wipe-out like before.

Fingers crossed it all works out Marc, having been through a wipe out once, I can't imagine how disheartening this must be.
Please keep us up to date with progress.
Martin

Apparently I got away with it and I'm very, very pleased for my fishes.
Still no sight of the 2 A. cf atronasus females, so I'm afraid they have indeed become victims. Also no sight of any Otorongo, but that doesn't say much.
The Semaprochilodus are quarrelling, the Hoplos are digging, the Trachelyopterus are mating and all fishes I am able to see are eating..... it seems things have become normal again.
Lucky me.
Now buy yourself a Q-tank or leave these fishes in peace!

Cleaned one filter last Wednesday, the other one today and dropped the temperature (gradually, so it may take a few weeks to get to 24 C). Every week (starting next week) I'll do a bit of water changing in order to get rid of the salt. And I added some coal today to get rid of the FMC.

Great to hear Marc, hopefully the otorongos will turn up - I'm upgrading in the next few weeks and am hoping to find mine having not seen a single one for a few months now!

Thanks Martin.

I was able to count 6 A. cf atronasus yesterday evening, which means that 1 of the larger females must still be alive (and healthy!). That leads me to the conclusion that the other specimen should be out there somewhere as well, as they were both equally badly infected. I will have a good look again soon.
So in the end - otorongo's aside - "only" 2 fishes died.
In fighting this disease I got an awful lot of help from Sidguppy (again). Thanks for that.

@Martin: good luck with your upgrade - and finding the otorongo's. To be honest, I had expected more of this species and if I had known they would be so elusive, I would not have bought them. Even my old S. asci were far more visible.

Marc van Arc wrote: @Martin: good luck with your upgrade - and finding the otorongo's. To be honest, I had expected more of this species and if I had known they would be so elusive, I would not have bought them. Even my old S. asci were far more visible.

I've said this before, but in the tank they started in, I saw them every day, even with the lights on, when I added thawed frozen foods, but once I added them to the larger tank, never saw them again! Which is a shame, as they are one of my favourites.
Martin