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Daily check on the tanks on the positive side of things. Babes are doing very well. They have been introduced to Zucchini the other day. As of today, one slice is completely gone and they are working over the second really well. Best guesstimate on numbers from this batch is upwards of (50) at the moment.

Also found today were more eggs. The Bacopa area once again appears to be the area of choice with over (20) eggs found there. There are a few that I can see in the crypt jungle.

Turned on the airstone for a few minutes. Will be feeding some algae powder shortly as well.

Pics to follow.

Here's a couple shots from today:

Nomming on a zuc:


And some of the eggs from today:

And on the Cocama front:

I have placed an order for some more Cocama's. They should be here sometime this week. {crosses fingers that there will be at least one lady in the bunch}

The two guys are still doing well. They are literally piglets; can go through a slice of zucchini in just over a day.

Going to look at changing the some the scape around a bit. Not too increadibly happy with how it's growing so we'll see. May just have to work with what I have at the moment as shipping plants this time of year isn't all that great.

New guys (and hopefully gals too) arrived and acclimated just fine. These ones have a different look then the ones I've had in the past and the two that are currently in the tank. They have big black and white bands and the white portion is bright. Very beautiful little guys. I'll snap a couple pics and get them posted up. They are already eating zucchini and cruising the tank very actively.

And finally a descent shot of the new Cocamas:



You can see how these guys have a broader striped pattern than the others.

The new ones have a really different pattern than any others I have seen or own.


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Definately throwing me off thats for sure. I'm have tempted to say they have to be different species since the markings are way off. Time to hit the research trail some more.

They're cocama. There is a lot of variation in the striping between individuals.

Yep. Always makes you wonder though.

MatsP wrote:I have received a zip-file with pictures. I will process them on Monday - I hope.

1000% apologies if I missed this, but did this happen?

Jools

Don't know if I've done that or not. Will check at weekend. A bit busy right now.

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Mats

Seven pictures added in March and one added in May:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/co ... or_id=1499

--
Mats

Took a bit of a hiatus over the holidays. Let's try to get caught up a bit right quick. About the only thing that I did to the tanks during that time was feed and top off the water. Still have quite a few wee ones in the tank. They definately love zucchini as it barely lasts two days in the tank. There are a couple of juvenilles that I need to move into the holding tank.

The tanks themselves, jungles. Really over grown. I'm in the process of trimming and doing gravel vacs. TDS numbers are a bit on the high side from where I like them. All the CO2 bottles need to be recharged.

The Cocama's have been really active of late. There is one definate female. I believe there may be one more but still a bit on the young side to determine. The older lady from time to time does have a couple guys around her but I haven't seen any tell tale signs of a hint of a spawn. Just social get togethers.

As with the old tank, this tank as well just doesn't seem to want to produce the nice lush planted environment as the others. I'm leaning towards the lighting now actually being a bit too much. I will be making an adjustment to this as I clean up the tank a bit. The Fissidens didn't even take hold which surprised me a bit. I'll try to salvage what I can of it and see if I can work with it in another tank for now.

Very glad to see you got some new Cocamas. About how long do you estimate it will be before they are of breeding age and im sure you have a list as long as your arm but could you possibly put me on the list of folks that want some cocama babies once you have them large enough to sell?

I'm going to guestimate at least another month to come of age. One female is definate good to go. The boys are just a tad on the young side yet.

Sounds good just LMK. I have been dreaming about adding 5-7 cocamas to my low tech mini-m that I have high grade CRS and rarer crypts in.

Been a spell since I've udpated this. My apologies. I've kind of been letting things run their course so far through the start of the winter season.

The Vittatus tank has gotten severely overgrown. I started a massive trim on it yesterday. The TDS got pretty high as well. I have removed the HUGE Subwassertang wall and did a small vac of that half of the tank. Had to give it a good shaking out to make sure none of the Oto fry guys were in there. Hopefully they all left. I have submerged in a bowl of water just in case. I'll give the wall a good trimming and get it back in place today. Next will be a thinning of the Crypt jungle. The Bacopa has as well went crazy. There are shoots all over every stem. Almost like this tank went on steroids or something. The funny thing is, I have dosed ferts or refreshed the CO2 in the tank during this run. Quite interesting.

As for the fry, looks to be around (20) or so that may have made it. Hard to get a good count at the moment. A few are big enough to move over to the holding tank now.

I'll get the tank pieced back together and get it back on it's normal routine. It was good to see what would happen by just doing top offs on it.

The Macrosphilus still haven't got their act together. I did a trim on thier tank and put some more plants in there for them. Guys still being distracted with each other. Have not split them up yet even though I keep telling myself I need to. I'm trying to be as patient as possible with them. I'm pretty sure the ladies are losing patience.

One major goal that I would like to see accomplished this year is to find both O. Flexilis and Mimulus. Of course a Cocama spawn is still on the list, but I have no control on that one.

The great wall of Sub has crumbled. Wow was there a ton of it! That side of the tank looks so bare now. All the babes are extremely active after the work done. Zipping all over the place. It's really neat to watch as there are all different sizes of wee ones. I'll give it a couple of days and then I'll do the other half of the tank; the crypt jungle. I noticed one mother crypt has a double spathe under water. Pretty kewl I must say.

Revamp of tank is now complete. Just have to let the dust settle and let things take their course. CO2 recharged and in place. She's a bare tank now. Looks that way at least. I'll snap a new tank shot tomorrow.

Wee ones seem unphased by all the commotion that was going on around them. A few of them even landed on my hand as I was replanting.

Hi James!
Catching up with your progress after a while... Good to hear your attempts and spawns are on going! What dragged me here again was a recent spawn of my old vittatus couple. This time though I have no suitable tank for them setup like last time (a year ago) so I have to keep them in floating breeder (7 eggs so far, fry in two days). My question is whether fry can have zuccini as initial food or if they can't make it without some algae which has obviously not grown on the walls of a breeder. I'm trying to plant some algae on stones outside the aquarium but it'll take time and might not be a success as it's winter here and not much sunshine.

Thanks and good luck!

Vlacek wrote:Hi James!
Catching up with your progress after a while... Good to hear your attempts and spawns are on going! What dragged me here again was a recent spawn of my old vittatus couple. This time though I have no suitable tank for them setup like last time (a year ago) so I have to keep them in floating breeder (7 eggs so far, fry in two days). My question is whether fry can have zuccini as initial food or if they can't make it without some algae which has obviously not grown on the walls of a breeder. I'm trying to plant some algae on stones outside the aquarium but it'll take time and might not be a success as it's winter here and not much sunshine.

Thanks and good luck!

Hey! Glad to hear! Unfortunately, the fry won't hit the zucchini right off the bat. It's nearly a week before I find them on it.

The best way to feed the fry for the first week or two is take some regular algae flakes and grind them up into a fine powder. Mix a small amount of the powder with tank water and pour over areas where the fry hang out. After day three, the fry start to move around a bit and you should cover more area.

Well I got a nice little surprise today. Got home and checked on things and look what we found:



I didn't originally notice them. I went to check on the tank and noticed that the MM that I had "attempted" to plant was gone. When I got to looking around, that's when I found the first eggs.

It's good to see that all the hacking that I did to this tank had no effect. I was going to replant the MM and adust the airstone back but if the spawn is ongoing, I don't want to interupt it any more than I already did.

Here is the tank after the hack. Notice the wall of Subwassertang is soooooo small now.

Nice yellowish grapes James:-) Looks promising. Thanks for the advice, I'll go with that. I have spirulina tabs which adults like so will crush them for the fry (which has already hatched yesterday evening (surprisingly)).

Vlacek wrote:Nice yellowish grapes James:-) Looks promising. Thanks for the advice, I'll go with that. I have spirulina tabs which adults like so will crush them for the fry (which has already hatched yesterday evening (surprisingly)).

You're most welcome. Expecting a nice hatch today.

Hatching as expected occured yesterday. Wiggle waggles all over the place. Here's a couple shots:



Something about this one I really like.

Another one to not get my hopes up, but I went down to go on the great snail hunt and I walked in on spawn activity from the Macrosphilus. We've been down this road before but I took a break from the hunt to give them their space. Let's see if the boys can get their act together. We'll see where it leads. {crosses fingers}

Fingers crossed for your Macrospilus! My current status is that six vitatus hatched ok. I had to release from floating breeder as the water inside got stinky quickly. After a week I know that four are still alive and looks like they are doing well, cleaning up tank walls. Will see if they'll notice zuccini I've put inside the tank today.

All looking good with the Vittatus. Looks to be about another (20) or fry guys so far. This group is grazing like little piggies. The other Juvies continue to do well. There isn't alot of cover in the tank since the big trim so it's dog-eat-dog when it comes to finding a leaf to sit on. They are encroaching on the adults area. Will be moving them soon to a holding tank to finish growing out.

I think I'm going to change tanks around. Since I can't seem to find Flexilis or Mimulus ....... yet, I think I'll move the juvies over there where there is a ton to munch on.

As for the Macro's, no dice...again.

Vittatus tank is way overcrowded at the moment. Counted (33) young fry guys yesterday. Survivor rates are going up. That's a great sign. All of them except for (6) where on two slices of zucchini. I need to get the older juvies out. Hopefully be able to work on that today some. All in all, there are somewhere around (60) Otos in this tank! The older ones are just about ready to find new homes. Will be doing a water change in the tank today.

Going to try and do some scaping in the Macrosphilus tank. See if I can change things around just a bit to see if it will help. I'm doing everything I can not to seperate the boys but I just don't feel that's going to be possible.

Very good James!

Not so good at my end, I've seen four fast growing ones some days ago but now I can only count two and seems to me they stopped growing or are not eating that much. They already stay on zuccini, still there is some reason for them to disappear