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Well,

Here's what I've done so far. I have a 30 gallon river type tank, mainly for some loaches, and white clouds, but I put all 4 of my chaetos spec in there. There';s just a large powerhead in there with a sponge filter attached. There are 2 each of 2 different kinds. One set I've had for almost 2 years, the other from sometime last year. I was sort of considering trying to get them to breed, but got preoccupied with other fish things. So peroccupied I was considering auctioning them at my Fish club's next meeting.

Was doing the periodic water change and moving decorations to vacuum under them when I move a rock, and there's a chaeto stuck to it. No big, normal right. He drops off and I see eggs. 20 or so, bright yellow centers with nice clear margins around them, all stuck to the bottom of the rock.

So I stopped my water change, and went nuts trying to find info about breeding them. The only good article I got was from here somewhere. None of my books had anything other than either not bred in aquaria, or accidental. Did some water tests, pH around 7, perhaps 7.2, hardness, likely lower than 2 degrees of both KH and GH, and Nitrates lower than 5, actually very low for the load on this tank. Last week I did double water changes on all my tanks to get Nitrates down.

I've so far moved the eggs to their own 10 gallon, along with 5 gallons of water from their tank, an airstone and a heater. The airstone is near the eggs, and I can see a bit of a current. In the time it took me to set the new tank up the male chaeto was back on the rock, and the last time was not interested in letting go.

I'm looking for additional advice. I was planning on slowly adding new water to the tank, either from the parent's tank, or aged tap water. I'm a little worried about fungus, but not too much. I think the eggs were quite new, as in just the last 6 hours they have changed a bit. Now each egg has a slim white line inside the yellow, which certainly looks like a brand new fry developing. Edges still clear, no fuzziness. Total there are 21 eggs.

Anyone know what I should feed them if I manage to get them to hatch??? My adults like spinach, lettuce, algae wafers, sinking pellets, and almost anything else they can get. My guess is the problem is having food be small enough.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

--Mia Woodman

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Update:

Well, this morning they looked about the same as last night. I'm keeping a towel over the tank just in case they are light sensitive. Ended up not adding any fungus prevenative, as I couldn't find any, and all the eggs look viable. When I got back from work I checked them again. Last night they had thin white critters in each egg, vaguely fish shaped, basically a head area and a tail area. Now the little guys are moving in the eggs, basically whipping back and forth. Really Cool.

So I seem to be doing okay. I have no idea how long it might take the eggs to hatch. Kind of hope I'm here to watch.

--Mia

Great News Mia!! Them moments must be so great to see! Well done!

Well, not much happened today. Around 6 pm I checked the eggs. One died and had started to fungus. The others look good, and I removed that one. It was the one farthest from the airstone and closest to any light source, so that may have contributed. I've added a few gallons of water to their tank.

The little guys are sort of clearish now, and the yellow portion of the eggs have noticeably reduced. They have eyes, or at least dots about where eyes would be and still wiggle around inside the eggs quite a bit.

--Mia

Well,

They're hatching. Semes I've been taking good enough care. I've added about 2 gallons of new dechloribnated water over the last 2 days. The had very nice looking eyes yesterday, and look like tiny little sticks attached to balls now. Some wiggling, but not as much as in the eggs. They are about the same size as the eggs. Seems like hatching time is about 4 days, give or take. I found the eggs 4 days ago in 2 hours.

--Mia

Well,

I have a few crappy pics, but people might be interested.

Eggs from day I found them.

Some of the fry now.

Eggs from earlier today.


They are definitely going to be absorbing their yolk sacs for a while, so not worried about food yet. I have lots of tanks with different kinds of algae problems, so I'm going to root around, mainly algae and java moss will be offteed, alog with some Liquifry (lazy person baby food).

--Mia

Amazing! I asume they are eating grazed algae on rocks or how about mashed pea's on pepple's left to dry for one day and added the next. Good luck! Mia.

Well, no new pics, but some new info.

Last night a total of 3 eggs had hatched, and I was a bit concerned about the rest of the eggs, as there was little movement or activity. I decided to give tham a little time to try for themselves before I bothered them. Today, still only 3 had hatched. So I gave in. Going on info from Farlowella spec cats and twig cats, the males normally help "hatch" the fry.

I basically picked up the rock and swished it back and forth in the tank. That got the little guys moving again. Within 10 minutes almost all of the fry had hatched. They don't seem stressed by the swishing, and are acting much like the other already hatched fry. I also turned the light on.

Also another thing I noticed. Most baby fish have extrememly small mouths, you can't even see them. These guys have large mouths, obviously visible to the naked eye. I wonder if that will make feeding them easier??

The fry do not attach to objects like I expected but float around or lay on their sides a lot, very uncontrolled in their mnovements. I expect normally the male would corral them in a group and make sure they were well oxygenated.

--Mia

How big were the parents?

Female is about 2 inches, male almost 3.

--Mia

mwood322 wrote:Anyone know what I should feed them if I manage to get them to hatch??? My adults like spinach, lettuce, algae wafers, sinking pellets, and almost anything else they can get. My guess is the problem is having food be small enough.

The issue with these fish is getting food to the young once they have hatched. Have you read the information in Shane's World and iCOSA? You've done the right thing in using a rearing tank and you should use water from the main tank for this and keep up the frequent water change regime.

Young fish should have a constant supply of food right under their noses. This will require constant vigilance and regular water changes but, in combination with a powerful airstone, you should be able to raise the fry in this environment.

Jools

Small update:

The little guys are starting to stick to things, mainly under their hatching rock. All still have yolk sacs, and bumble around when they attempt to swim.

As to food:

Any suggesstions would be much appreciated,. I expect them to eat tomorrow or the next day and want to be ready. I'm so far planning on spinach, romaine lettuce, very softened cucumber or zucchinni, crushed peas, algae covered plants, java moss, liquifry, finely mashed paste of flake, and algae covered rocks from my other river tank.

Their mouths look very big compared to most fry I've had before.

--Mia

Update.

Well I have about 5-6 six little guys left. They're about 3/8 of an inch long. Most are gray, though they become almost clear when frightened. For some reason their bellies are black when full.

They seem hardy enough now, but a few didn't make it during the changeover to food. The ones I have seem to graze the rocks a bit, and seem mainly interested in liquifry and ground up flakes. Tried veggies, but very little response. I'm kind of treating these guys like hillstream loaches, in that they don't actually eat algae, just the little things that live in it.

--Mia

Well, not a big update but a few more observations. They are exactly like miniature bulldog catfish. They stick to rocks extremley well, and hide most of the day. Every once in a while I catch one on the glass.

They have also moved beyond liquifry for the moment and seem most interested in ground up flakes. I've seen some chasing it, kind of like stalking real live food. I guess the nice thing about current loving fish is the current can trick them into thinking the food is alive.

Total is up around 7-8 now, as once I started the flakes in earnest they started coming out more.

--Mia

Pics as of Today..

--Mia

mwood322 wrote:Well, not a big update but a few more observations. They are exactly like miniature bulldog catfish. They stick to rocks extremley well, and hide most of the day. Every once in a while I catch one on the glass.
--Mia

I found myself one or two tiny Chaetostoma milesi a few days ago in a large creek-tank of two meters and lots of flat stones etc. - no chance to catch them.
I hope they get up well - as the Corydoras barbatus did in the same tank.

Klaus.

Hi Klaus!

It is a pleasure to have you here.
Great news about the Chaetostoma fry!
By the way great website!
Cheers
Yann

Hi,

I know it's been a long time for an update. I lost all of their first attempt at fry. I had to go on a vacation, and they got fed, but not enough water changes.

I did however set the pair up in their own tank alone, and while cleaning today spotted some new babies, which look much better than my last batch. The adults don't seem to be bothering the babies, so I'm planning on just upping feeding and water changes and leaving them in there to see what happens.

--Mia

Hi!

Well sorry to hear that you lost the first fry!
And glad to hear that the adults have respawn and that the young seems to be doing good!
Keep us update!!!
Cheers
Yann