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First foods for Syno Multipunctatus fry
Posted: 22 Sep 2003, 16:43
by tedd47
I've raised about 70 of these little guys in the past 4 months but I'm having trouble finding foods for the first couple of days. I've tried bbs but I keep the fry in the little net breeding traps for the first couple of weeks and most of the bbs ends up going out the bottom of the trap and the fry turn on each other and I end up feeding finely chopped black worms or frozen daphnia. Are there any other foods that any of you are using to cut down on the cannibalism in the first couple of weeks? I usually lose 2-5 out of 15 or so due to this, and I am still feeding 3 times per day, I just don't think that the bbs is substantial enough to fill them up.
Of those of you who are or have in the past breed and raised large numbers of S. Multipunctatus fry, what did you house them in for the first couple of weeks, post hatch? What, besides bbs did you feed them for the first few weeks? Thanks in advance for your help! Ted
Posted: 22 Sep 2003, 17:17
by pturley
Take them out of the net trap and put them in an Egg tumbler (IE: Mouthbrooding cichlid types). EDIT: Wet Thumb Aquatics in Michigan makes a nice simple one, however, and Minnesota Aquarist, Ron Hansen makes the nicest ones. Email me for contact information.
With a tumbler, it's simply a matter of turning down the tumbling action during feedings to allow the BBS to dwell in the chamber for a while.
Or, you could try a hard-sided trap with a mesh insert for an overflow. Either way will work.
Later,
Paul E. Turley
Posted: 23 Sep 2003, 11:40
by Barbie
In the article here at PC on spawning syno. petricola (I think), there is a set of plans for an uplift tube to collect syno eggs from a pot full of marbles.
Just before I got ready to move, I had a batch of albino ancistrus that I was worried about trying to move, so I dropped them in the net, with the water being lifted into the net breeder from the catch basin below. Those fry grew extremely fast, and I was able to keep a much larger volume of food in front of them, due to the buffering capacity of the 55 gallons of water that was being fed through their net.
If you cut the bottom from a milk carton, or some other suitable plastic jug, and slid it down to the bottom of the net, in place of the standard frame, you'd be able to feed the fry any food that sank, with relative ease, and the safety of a constant supply of fresh water, that's highly oxygenated.
Quite a few people have great luck feeding cyclopeeze also. Its readily available in frozen form, and gives a good growth rate from fry, from what I've read.
Barbie
Here's what I did...
Posted: 23 Sep 2003, 17:15
by tedd47
I took the newest batch out of the net trap with my trusty turkey baster and placed them in a small plastic container that I had melted small holes about 2 inches from the bottom with a hot nail. I put the whole thing in the breeder trap and can now feed them bbs for the first week or so with no problems. Hopefully it will work, I'll keep you posted. There are around 50 fry in this batch so I'll be able to see how well this works. I normally move the fry through a series of the net traps until 1" so then they go into a 29 gallon grow out tank. Thanks for your help, Ted
Posted: 24 Sep 2003, 06:20
by Bilby junior
tedd47,
Just curious, how are you sporning you multipunctatas?
Spawning method
Posted: 24 Sep 2003, 15:45
by tedd47
I'm using Hap obliquidens as a host, about 40 obliquidens and 3 pair of adult S. multi's in a 150 gallon tank. No rock work, just a piece of large drift wood, sand substrate and 8-10 flower pots for the Synos. The obliquidens seem to be open area spawners but sometimes spawn in the flower pots, the pot spawners seem to pick up more Syno eggs than the open spawners since the other fish can't eat as many Syno eggs. I will also pull the female Synos and bulk them up for a month or so, this seems to increase the spawns and gives the host fish a break as well. Thanks, Ted
Posted: 24 Sep 2003, 17:16
by Chocky316
Have you tried liquifry?
Posted: 24 Sep 2003, 17:22
by Chocky316
I am extremely interested in breeding multipunctatus and petricola, but they are very hard to find and expensive when found
i have 1 full size petricola and am looking to place around 5-10 juveniles with it. my multipunctatus jumped out of the tank, but i have been looking for another 1. i really like this cat and want to raise them. maybe when ready, you could ship??
first foods
Posted: 25 Sep 2003, 15:52
by tedd47
OK, after 2 days of bbs these guys are well on their way, eating finely chopped blackworms like they were starving. I take the ball of worms and just chop them up between my fingers with surgical scissors. Messy process but better than using a razor blade which dulls pretty quick. I have customized a couple of the plastic containers with fine screen glued into side panels about 3 inches up to allow for water exchange. I also had to add the overflow from an air driven sponge filter so the water would turn over more rapidly, I lost some, I think from nitrite or ammonia build up in the small plastic container.
If you haven't tried to breed these guys I would highly recommend it, I have bred alot of cichlids and killies but the growth rate of S. multipunctatus is nothing short of amazing! It has also sparked an intrest in me to start on other Synos and some plecos!
And it is a good thing their appetite slows down after about 2" or so or there would be a lake in Africa with nothing but catfish in it!
I've got some Cyclopeeze on order as well as frozen daphnia so I may split the next batch to see which foods spark the most growth. I'll keep you informed. Ted