New Breeding Successes!

[darkdep]

I am the happy daddy of 3 new batches of fry, thought I would share! (And document for BAP points!)

First is Protomelas spilonotus (Mara Rocks) - Info and Pics Here.  As some of you know I raised these from stripped eggs in a DIY Egg tumbler, and I can now say they are free swimming fry happily eating food now.  The males of this species are beautiful.

Next is Haplochromis sp. "Thick Skin" (aka C44 / Sp.44) - Info and Pics Here.  The father was busy, he bred with two of his females on the same day, and I transferred them to private holding areas just in time.  So I have two seperate batches of these little guys swimming around now.



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[babblefish1960]

Congratulations your dark depness, they look like happy little fish, I imagine you better hurry on that fish wall annex to start accommodating all the little blighters.

If you want BAP points however, Matt is going to have to be brought over to verify, unless you have another trustworthy member nearby that would co-operate and have a look see as to the veracity of your claims. nudge, nudge, wink, wink, cough, roxydog, cough, cough.

Kudos on your successes thus far, may you have so many that you don't know what to do.

[beowulf]

Nice all I have maneged to breed so far are guppies, white clouds and german rams.  Hope my A. Inca work out.

[PaleoFishGirl]

Congratulations, fish papa!

Break out the cigars - or is that a shmoke und a pancake?

[babblefish1960]

Congratulations, fish papa!

Break out the cigars - or is that a shmoke und a pancake?

A bong and a blintz?, ja.

[darkdep]

Nice all I have maneged to breed so far are guppies, white clouds and german rams.  Hope my A. Inca work out.

Nothing small in breeding German Rams...I want to try those someday for sure.  I was never able to keep mine alive for long for some reason!

Yep, I'll need to get Roxy over here over the next week or two.  I know she's been wanting to see the fish wall anyway so I'm sure I can twist her arm

I wasn't expecting the C44's to breed as quick as they did.  I must have been really lucky with the tank environment. 

[babblefish1960]

Congratulations, fish papa!

Break out the cigars - or is that a shmoke und a pancake?

definitely a cigar und a crepe, ja.

Good luck twisting roxydogs arm, I'm sure she'll love the little fish.

[bitterman]

Congrates APW! Guess the DIY tumbler is working well.

Bruce


PS I'm still looking for a all plastic strainer at the $ stores. They used to have them all the time, but now they are all metal like the oves you have.

[artw]

Congrats APW. now get your butt over to the store on Sunday and I'll sell you some of our new wildcaught groups. they are just waiting to be bred. (some of these are fish never seen before in Canada)

[darkdep]

bitterman:  Actually, overall I'm not really considering the strainer tumbler a total success.  I seemed to lose a lot of eggs.  Could have been my transfer method, or any number of other things but I am thinking that the actual air bubbles hitting the eggs isn't good for them...the metal strainer may have been an issue too (plastic would be better).  I'm thinking of building a tube style where only moving water is tumbling the eggs.

artw:  Trying!  I really want to see that new stock.  Only issue is that Innes is a hike for me, and the family is still sick.  You'll have to PM me with things you have in groups as opposed to singles.

[RoxyDog]

Awesome, congrats!

Well...you can twist my arm, I'm sure to like it.   

Hmmm.  Interesting.  I'm going to get to see the fish wall NOW am I?   

[darkdep]

Aw Roxy, I'm sorry.  You know I've been busy.  Maybe when you're here you can play some MLP with Rhyleigh   And she'll be happy to give you the fishwall tour...she knows how to pronounce about half the fish names now!  Good daddy. 

[groan]

Way to go DD!
I saw the eggs in the tumbler and it was very cool!
I'll have to see if my little population decide to reproduce and maybe I'll be posting my first ever New Daddy (again) post.
my first one is now almost 3 and he's a handful. I can't imagine having 10-20 more! I guess ifthey are that small and in a fishtank I can handle it.

No catfish yet then, I assume?

[darkdep]

Nope, not yet.  Back to heavy meat feeding of the females to induce more spawning. 

[darkdep]

Thought I'd bump this as I'm really excited about some more recent breeding success and some new holders.

New Fry Broods:

- Lamprologus Brevis: Really wasn't expecting these, as I wasn't making any actual effort to breed these.  I moved their shells to a new tank and discovered the babies while holding the shell in my hand (Shelldwellers are SO easy to catch and move ) I poured out the fry into a fry tank and gave the shell back to the parents.

- Cyrtocara Moorii (Blue Dolphin): I've been growing my colony out for about 1.5 years and finally spawned them.  Got about 35+ babies in the breeding net now.  Slow growers but absolutely gorgeous when full grown.

- Haplochromis sp. "Thick Skin" (C44): My breeding colony is working very well.  Two MORE batches, about 40+ babies now to add to the about 15 or so already growing. These are all F1.


In addition to these, I have more holding females to look forward to:

- Protomelas Spilonotus: Two more females holding; hopeful as always they may have S. Multipunctatus fry hitchhiking as well.  This was very cool because my wife and I got to watch the entire spawning of one of them.  These are large fish and it was very entertaining watching the Multipunctatus continually trying to get involved and seeing the male keep chasing them away.

- Placidochromis Phenochilus (Star Sapphire):  I cannot express how excited I am to announce that I have a holding star sapphire! I searched and searched for this fish forever, and eventually got some with our first Spencer Jack group order.  Pegasus and I got these at the same time and had a friendly bet as to who would breed them first...

[babblefish1960]

Congratulations on your successes and continued research in this field of endeavour. As pegasus will likely point out, the brevis don't count, accidents never do.

The multispinosa are so cool, have you had a chance to tape any of that? I imagine you hold your breath everytime you expect to see some babies from them.

As for the star sapphires, that is amazing, I am curious though, what do you win, and how do you know peg hasn't snuck some in already?

Have you any updated pictures as yet?

(edited for spelling can you believe it?) 

[darkdep]

I'm still claiming the Brevis for BAP points, even if they were an accident. 

We don't have a good video camera; if I ever get one I'd love to tape the entire spawning of the Spilonotus / Multipunctatus...it's fantastic viewing   And yes, I am holding my breath on those.  I've decided I'm not happy enough with the egg tumbler design I was using so I am going to let her hold on to the eggs longer this time, 2 weeks, then strip into a breeding net.  IF either of them have Multis, then I will lose some Spilonotus fry but I'll still have some; plus I won't have to tumble I'm hoping.  The cats will also be stronger and larger and I'll have an easier time separating them.

Don't think I win anything, I know Pegasus actually picked up lots more of these from another source so for all I know he could have bred these long ago.  But I suspect he would have told me about it so I think I did it first.    Who says breeding fish can't be competitive? 

I'll post some new pics tonight; did a big cleaning yesterday in prep for a photo night this evening.

[pegasus]

As for the star sapphires, that is amazing, I am curious though, what do you win, and how do you know peg hasn't snuck some in already?

I did get 2 females holding but in a Blue Dolphin tank, they never got past the first week. Not sure about the bet as I was told mine were two to three months younger, nevertheless, congratulation Chris. 

[darkdep]

It was never serious Michel, I think you and I made a joke once at one of the meetings

Not sure how long mine's been holding but it's no more than 3-4 days; we'll see if I get any further than a week.  I have my 5 alone in a dedicated 40gallon breeder tank so we'll see if I can get her to hold onto them.  If all goes well I'll move her to a breeding net in a week.

[pegasus]

BTW Are they getting their spots? Loosing their bars?
Spots have been showing lately but are very slow to enlarge.
I have mine in 3 differents tanks just to make sure I don't loose them to a bad heather or hydro faillure like last week.

[darkdep]

My dominant male is starting to get some spots, but my god they are coming in slow.  Bars have less contrast compared to a year ago but they are still there.

Slowest developing fish I have seen for sure...good thing is that even undeveloped they are beautiful.

[darkdep]

I spoke too soon.  I lost my Star Sapphire eggs (cries).  I think my M:F ratio is too high.  Next time I see one holding I'm moving her to isolation immediately.

I took some photos last night...check them out here:  http://ovas.ca/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;cat=2;u=512

[darkdep]

Some new breeding successes for May:

- Psudotropheus acei "Mdoka"  (Info Here)
A dark little fish that is peaceful and non-aggressive.  Similar to the regular Acei, but mostly black with a white tail.  The link is to the "Ngara" variant that is exactly the same as the "Mdoka".

- Haplochromis sp. "Kenya Gold" (Info Here)
A pretty Victorian with lots of spunk and energy, and not as aggressive as some of the other Hap species.  Stays small too.

- Aulonocara sp. "Rubin Red" (aka Ruby Red) (Info Here)
A line bred form of A. stuartgranti which is primarily red.  This was an early breeding, the father is just turning red now, and because of the small size of the mother I only got 4 fry.  Still exciting!


I've also had a lot of other new breeding lately, with more C44's, C. Moorii, and P. Phenochilus about to release, as well as two new species of Peacocks (for me ).

Still no luck with the multipunctatus

[groan]

Congrats!
Keep my name on some of those Vics!

[adam_ottawa]

Hey darkdep!

Any chance you'll be parting with any acei?  I have a tank load of demasoni that I'm thinking of clearing out and the acei would be a perfect replacement 

[darkdep]

I will, for sure.  Probably about 3-4 months tho to get to sellable size.

More released today!

- Labidochromis sp. "Hongi" (Info Here - Look at the second pic, father is exactly like that)
Unique looking African, very interactive.  Some of you were asking about these when you were over, finally got some fry, looks like about 10-12.  On the market in several months.

- Cyrtocara moorii "Blue Dolphin" (Info Here)
The classic Blue Dolphin cichlid.  A HUGE batch just released today, looks like over 50!  A great addition to any Malawi tank.

Whew!  Fish room sure is keeping me busy these days...look for a big sale late summer

[darkdep]

OMG, More:

- G1 Aulonocara stuartgranti "Undu Reef" (Blue Neon) (Info Here)
Beautiful Peacock, these are my first G1 offspring (Both parents are Wild Caught).  The father is just stunning.

[groan]

Congrats!
Oh, take my name off the Vics, lol, going Tangs.

Congrats!