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I have 3 mature Megalechis Thoracata (1 male, 2 females).Although fairly new to fishkeeping and not experienced with catfish I thought these would be a great addition to my community set up and they are fantastic characters. It didn't take the male long before he was building bubble nests that would disintegrate over time.He would rebuild the nest but was seemingly provoking little interest from the females..... until yesterday. I woke up yesterday to be greeted by at least 50 yellow coloured eggs in the nest. To say I went off to work happy is an understatement. However on return from work no eggs in sight but nest still intact....gutted!

Is this commonplace for this species or am I just unlucky?

Some of us tried the breeding challenge with these wonderful fish at the link below with little success - lots of bubble nests blown but no survivors. Someone will come along to post their success story but the thread link below is an interesting read and has some good links here and there too.

The thread is about a challenge for many people to get the same fish and note their attempts at breeding them. The first one to breed them and sell the offspring would win the right to name the next fish for a similar challenge.
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =4&t=25730

I haven't given up on my dream of breeding them but I have to wait until I can move them to a tank by themselves.

Also look at the species page here: , you can hit a search at the bottom of the page that shows you all the threads etc where M. thoracata is mentioned.

Good luck and share the pics of your successes!

Thanks for the info which definitely made me feel better!.The challenge idea sounds very cool but seems it died a death which is a shame!. It looks like far more experienced aquarists than myself can struggle with spawning and raising fry from this species. I have plans of setting up a tank just for these, so will post my results if I get any!!

Cheers Matt

Hi Matt,

We have years of experience of the hoplo, ive nearly breed them all.

We have grown some up from our wild breeding group and now the F1's are breeding.

We have them in a 22"x30"x12" tank, not sure how many there is in there but it could be 15-20 adults mostly male too.

One day last month when we went in the fish house their tank was all frothed up so Andy (my hubby) put a clear lid in the tank its only a small one about 4", within 8 hours to our amazement we had eggs, we left the lid in the tank 3 day then moved them to a rearing tank, the fry are doing well, we are feed them live baby brine shrimp.

That's fantastic Vicky!! I'd love to have a successful breeding with these and then maybe move on to other species in the genus. I love these fish. Just a couple of questions; should I move the eggs as soon as I see them?, will a 60cm x 30cm x 30cm tank be big enough to start the fry off and depending how many I got, how long would this tank be sufficient for them?

Cheers Matt

we remove the lid when the egg start to go brown, if you look at them you can see the baby fry inside the egg but if i was you i would remove them when you see them, that way you can watch the eggs more closer and see them developing, then as you breed more and become more confidant you can leave the eggs with him longer but just keep an eye on the females they some times will eat the eggs.

yes that tank size is ok for rearing the fry about a month but it depends on how many fry they will be, we have had 2 occasion were we have had about 1400 fry (male spawned with 3 females) in one spawning and we ended up filling 18 tanks 24"x30"x12" and took over a year to move on.

Thanks Vicky I'll try removing them asap. Are multiple spawnings like that common? That's an incredible amount of fry which I obviously wouldn't be able to cope with!!! I reckon I'm going to have to be careful in how many eggs I remove.
If for example there were a hundred fry do you think I'd be ok for a month?
BTW the male rebuilt the nest yesterday but so far no sign of eggs.

Cheers Matt

I dont think multiple spawnings are common, its only happened twice in all the 20 years ive been a breeder, but saying that we do now limit the amount of females in the tank to 3.

The F1 females are only small at the moment so they are not laying many eggs, the last spawning 23/8/10 there was only about 100 eggs and i put the lid in a 30"x12"x12" tank and the fry are doing great, they are about 15mm (TL) long and still plenty of room left, so you could be ok.

When you put the eggs in the rearing tank only have water about 6" deep.

Interesting thread, I will follow it for sure.


yesterday I found a bubble nest with eggs from my Hoplosternum punctatum. This morning the eggs where still there, I even have the idea there are more eggs now then yesterday. Multiple spawn (I have 2 females) or difficult observations because off the bubbles?

I've read somewhere that the female has to be removed from the tank after spawning, is that thrue ?
My couple hasn't spawn yet.

When you put the eggs in the rearing tank only have water about 6" deep.

[/quote]
Thanks for the info but just wondered why the water needs to be so shallow. Also how often do you water change with newly-hatched fry?

Cheers Matt

Bijn wrote:Interesting thread, I will follow it for sure.


yesterday I found a bubble nest with eggs from my Hoplosternum punctatum. This morning the eggs where still there, I even have the idea there are more eggs now then yesterday. Multiple spawn (I have 2 females) or difficult observations because off the bubbles?

Good luck with the H.punctatum spawning. Let us know how they get on.It says breeding is unreported on this species profile so you'll have to report back!

Cheers Matt

the punctatum nearly spawned for me but sadly the male died last year and i have 2 females left.

this was the male


good luck with yours Bijn

Phyllonemus wrote:I've read somewhere that the female has to be removed from the tank after spawning, is that thrue ?
My couple hasn't spawn yet.

we once had a female that kept eating the eggs so we swap her but we usually dont take the females out.

MattP wrote:

When you put the eggs in the rearing tank only have water about 6" deep.

Thanks for the info but just wondered why the water needs to be so shallow. Also how often do you water change with newly-hatched fry?

Cheers Matt

so that the fry dont have to swim as far to get air, ones the fry get some body about 3 weeks you can fill the tank up then, and water changes 20-25% daily and cleaning the sponges every other day.

Thanks for the speedy reply Vicky! You sound like you've had alot of experience with these. Hopefully I've got all the info I need now fingers crossed. It's just the small matter of rescuing the eggs before they disappear which has now happened on two occasions in the last week. I then might be able to put this new found knowledge to use.

Thanks again

Cheers Matt

You are most welcome Matt.

I see from another thread you are going to CSG show/auction on Sunday, we are going too, i will have a bag with a picture of a guppy on it, if you see me please come over and you can have a chat with my hubby and me.

Hi Vicky,

I'm gutted about last weekend....my car decided with the worst possible timing to finally give up the ghost with a damaged gearbox!!.This destroyed any chance of me attending the show/auction which I'd been looking forward to for a while. I really appreciate your offer of a chat with yourself and your hubby. I hope we can catch up at the next auction, car permitting!!

Cheers Matt

MattP wrote: Good luck with the H.punctatum spawning. Let us know how they get on.

bijin

Great job. I just saw the thread, I read a few of the starting post. I think this is a great idea, I will read the rest of the posts.

I have a 40 us.gal. tank setting empty, I might set it up and watch the LFS to see what is out there in my part of the country.

LeeRoy

Fantastic Bijn!! Well done mate. How many fry are you raising? they look very healthy..... Keep the updates coming, I like a happy ending!

Cheers Matt

MattP wrote:How many fry are you raising?

Honestly, I have no idea. I had approximately 40 of them when I transferred them to an other tank but I have no idea how many of them survived the transfer.

They are now in a tank with a lot of wood and holes, counting them is impossible.

I'll keep you updated

Cool!!

Very cute.

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Mats

Their coming along very nicely! The big head of the ancistrus gives some idea of their size and makes for an amusing piccy

Cheers Matt

I have at least 8 of them

Again great pics Bijn. 8 is a very manageable number of youngsters to grow on, though it sounds like there maybe more lurking about!

Cheers Matt

If the last 2 pics are good enough for the cat-e-log I will be happy to mail them to you.

Certainly good enough in my view. I'd crop them down a bit - if you send me the full-size images to mats@planetcatfish.com, I'd be happy to add them.

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Mats