Spawning Ameiurus natalis

[ataridude]

I have successfully spawned a pair of Ameiurus natalis. It was very exciting and now I have many small fry that I am thrilled to be able to watch develop. Question: I have not been able to find any literature on any natural spawning in an aquarium of this species. The only information that I have found has been using an extract from a pituitary gland of a carp. Surely; I am not the first to of accomplished this.

[kiwidu21]

Hello,
I have search the person that hare successful a breeding of this species. What are the parameter ? (pH, temperature and food in your tank and for declenche the breeding)
What are the difference male/female ? What are their large ?

[ataridude]

I just happen to catch the male and female together on rod and reel. I put them in my quarantine tank and noticed that they started nesting. The food in the tank was simple live minnows which they had quit eating for a couple of weeks prior to spawning. I introduced a tank heater turning it up to 82*F and wrapped the tank in a red tablecloth to block out any other stimulate. They were left undisturbed for several days as I went on a Bullhead collecting trip to Georgia and when I came back they had spawned. No other catalyst was used. The parents did not eat until about a week after the fry were hatched.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Tremendous. Thank you for sharing. You got lucky of course that the parent fish had been preparing to spawn in the wild just before you caught them but it looks like you have created the right conditions for them in your tank to not fall out of the mood. Great job. As stated before, some visuals would be nice.

[ataridude]

I got pictures of the egg mass and of the fry hatching all the way up to 2 weeks old. I am waiting to write my paper on the subject before I post things like that. I did read in a small book about the winterization of the bullheads to prepare for them to spawn in the spring. If you know of anyone else that has done this please let me know as I have not found any documented cases except for when they used gland extracts or aquaponics for spawning.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Understood. Will look forward to it. What journal will you be writing the paper for? Or is it a less formal popular science kind of write-up for an internet publishing or some such?

[bekateen]

I got pictures of the egg mass and of the fry hatching all the way up to 2 weeks old. I am waiting to write my paper on the subject before I post things like that. I did read in a small book about the winterization of the bullheads to prepare for them to spawn in the spring. If you know of anyone else that has done this please let me know as I have not found any documented cases except for when they used gland extracts or aquaponics for spawning.

Very interesting success. Is thst your video on the Catfishes of the World facebook page? You have lots of babies. Well done!

Cheers, Eric

[Jools]

I've seen a few over the years, but as you say no one has yet taken the time to document it and then put it somewhere that will last. If you do want to write it up, we'd be delighted to put it here. That'd make it easy to find, and permanently available for others to benefit from.

Cheers,

Jools