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Hi you all,

I told on another topic that I had a clutch of eggs from this pair of Leporacanthicus... I was right not opening a topic on the subject... till this morning, everything was very fine... the male seemed to do a great job for a first try. I didn't disturb him, and the clutch was supposed to hatch today... and it did ! But guess who found it was a good lunch occasion ? Tonight, going back home, I found the female Crenicichla sp Rio Guariquito (the only one I have left, and I can't take her off the tank without removing all the tank and the hardscape) inside the Lepo cave, fighting with the male, which tried his best to throw this f.... beast out of it ! She gave furious hits on the Lepo with her mouth, gasping big flows of water inside it...

I saw this b.... going away with several dozen of just hatched fry in her full mouth... she's fine and well fed, believe me !

Emergency response : I took the cave off the tank, emptied it inside a nursery with the male in the same tank.

Finally, I got 7 fry left and 3 of them are dead with exploded yolk sack. There are 4 left which seem all right, but I have not very much hope about them, as they seem very much too young to hatch.

I made up my mind : next time, I'll steal the clutch on the 3 days...

Tofi mad !

PS : looking for a trick to fish this f...... Creni and to throw it away in another tank !

Can you catch the Crencichla with one of those traps that is supposed to be the best way to catch fish in general?

Other than that, I have no good ideas, but I know the trouble of trying to get a fish out a tank with lots of hiding spaces. My RIO400 is far from "overfilled" with hiding spaces, but I've still got enough that I need a 65 liter tub AND some other buckets to hold all of it, and the water level goes down a couple of centimeters when I take it all out (which I've done a couple of times to catch a specific fish - but I try not to).

--
Mats

Try a fishhook with a nice bait:)

Sorry to hear about the lost fry. But I'll keep my fingers crossed for the remaining 4

Isn't it possible to make a kind of net around the fish? Is she going into a cave or other closed hole? Then it might be a thought to fix a net at the entrance so she can't escape. And then maybe using a spoon, small anough to fit in front of her in the cave, to get/push her out into the netting?? It may not be the kindest way to get her out but maybe one way without having to distroy your setup...

Good luck on cathing her.

Hi!

Isn't this the same fish that interupted the L25 male???
I agree! I nice good maggot and a small hook without barbel and you will catch her!

Very sad to hear!

I will at the most keep some Geophagus with my bigger plecos... perhaps... I love big cichlids but they seems to be a big problem when trying to breed plecos...

Crenicichla sp Rio Guariquito.... on a grilled stick perhaps! I*ve been eating some kind of Crenicichla sp. when I was in Brazil a few yeras ago .... very tasty!


Cristoffer

Isn't this the same fish that interupted the L25 male???

that's it !

Crenicichla sp Rio Guariquito.... on a grilled stick perhaps!

I'll think about it very seriously

But I guess I'll have to remove her from this tank... very soon...

If this female recognicing that she can get a meal in the pleco caves, I wouldn't risk it again... and if you're planning on breeding L25 and L007 again... the risk is that she will destroy another breeding....

I would be very sad, seeing her eating youre future L25 eggs or fry...

Cristoffer

this morning, there were still 3 larvae, which seem OK... I'm not confident, but I'm going to follow this as well as I can. If I can raise 3 of them, that will be interesting for the next spawnings (raw data)

I won't take picture too soon (because of the flash and his probable effect on fry's health). Actually, they seem so tiny that I hardly beleive they are alive... I've never seen such pico-larvae before. The yolksack is a bit smaller than Pseudacanthicus species (and I guess smaller than Hypancistrus too), but the most impressive is the tiny size of the head and body, hooked on it...

Cristoffer : are 5 days a normal duration for an incubation ? Temperature is 30°C in the tank these weeks. I think they hatched too early ?!?

are 5 days a normal duration for an incubation?

Its early... for me it has been 7- 8 days... with a temperature of 28- 30 C.

I haven't bred Pseudacanthicus yet, but I think that the eggs normaly are bigger than Hypancitrus and so on!

Cristoffer

Pseuda incubation time : 7 days at 28°C in my experiences (L320 + L25)

and I'm not talking about the size of the eggs (yolk sac), but the size of the fry itself (body and head without the yolk sac). Your experience confirms what I thought : they hatched too early, disturbed by this damn female C.

I tried to fish my Crenicichla with a hook and a worm... this fish is a devil : she broke the line, ate the worm, and succeded in getting off the hook after a night... I promise you I saw her laughing at me !

I'm mad...

the 2 survivors are going well... I'm going to try to raise them to adulthood and to set them in the tank with their parents... pictures as soon as I will be able to shoot them without danger for their survival rate.

news about this topic :

as you may know I took the Crenicichla out of the tank by fishing it with a hook and a shrimp on it. It was sporty but that's done from around end of November ! At the same time, I removed the Baryancistrus and the Leporacanthicus pair from the 1600 liters to bring them into the 375 liters on their own...

the Bary love their new home, and so do the Leporacanthicus... they spawned again in this new tank ! this time, I didn't let any choice to the male : this morning, after 3 days of "love affaire" with his female, he chased the female out of the cave. As I was very carefull about this signal, I stole the clutch to settle it into a well oxygenated, clean water, bare bottom floating nursery with a sponge filter.



From this very first day, there are quite a lot of unfertile eggs. What am I supposed to do with them : explode them with a siringe ? Let them be eaten by a malaysian snail ? What do you think ?

another picture from today, after "cleaning" the clutch from the unfertile eggs...


I guess I didn't do a too bad work, as the clutch seems ok...


Let's wait and see... and care for it.

fingers crossed

Nice! Guess we'll see some fry pics soon.

Congratulations, ElTofi! Good luck raising the fry.

--
Mats

Congrats on the breeding and the eggs!

doesn't seem that good... after 48 hours, I lost around 30 eggs because of moisture, even with twice a day cleaning and methylen blue Not sure it's gonna be a success

let's wait and see...

They are very sensetive. The best way is to let the male guard them for 7- 8 days or hatch them in some kind of net. The plastic box,´are often causing bacterial infections on the eggs. Eggs from many (if not all) Leporacanthicus species seemes very sensetive to this. Also changes in conductivity seemes to cause egg prosplems, like leeking eggs etc.

But I would change to some kind of net with oxygen!



I hope some of them survives.


Cristoffer

ok, I'll do that next time...

It has been 7 weeks between the 2 spawnings... I guess the removing from a tank to another disturbed them a moment... how long does it take by you, Cristoffer ? 4-5 weeks ?

I have several female in each group, sothe breed a bit more regular. Perhaps 6- 7 weeks is quite normal with one female. I'm not sure about this. It takes 4- 5 weeks for my females to become gravide again.


I've faild many many Lepo's breedings befor it worked better for me....
Learn by doing....

Cristoffer

thanks for the advice...

So your experience is to leave the clutch with Mr Dad 7-8 days. But from the egglay or from the hatching ? As you say, learning by doing it is the best way... but as you did it before, I'm glad to learn from you

Countdown till next spawning : 5 weeks... (or so, I hope)

obviously, what was NOT to do : steal the clutch

3rd day :



it hurts !!! but it's what I call : "learning by experience"

it's not this time I'll learn a lot about growing rate of Lepo

Only 3 fry left... but they seem very well... crossing fingers...

ElTofi wrote:thanks for the advice...

So your experience is to leave the clutch with Mr Dad 7-8 days. But from the egglay or from the hatching ? As you say, learning by doing it is the best way... but as you did it before, I'm glad to learn from you

Countdown till next spawning : 5 weeks... (or so, I hope)

From hatching! They would absorb most of the yolk sac then. But the worst thing to do is to steal the eggs just after hatching.... from my experience. The longer you can wait, the better.

If not disturbed, Dad Lepos seemes do bee quite good fathers. I had one male that was eating a lot of eggs so I had to change him with another male. Let's hope you have a good male!