 Basics | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overview | The first spawn was on Thursday 24th of March 2016. The breeding group consisted of 1 male and 1 female. The smallest male was at least 35mm SL and the smallest female was at least 38mm SL. The youngest adult was approximately 6 months old. The individuals were obtained from Tropical Haven (LFS), Modesto, CA. | |||||||||
| Feeding |
| |||||||||
| Water Parameters (at time of spawning) | ||||||||||
| pH | 6.50 to 6.60 | |||||||||
| Conductivity | 300µs to 400µs | |||||||||
| Temperature | 23.5°C to 27.0°C | |||||||||
| Current | Air (vertical) | |||||||||
| Other Water Params | Tapwater treated with only with Aquavitro Alpha to remove chloramines and chlorine. This product is a new product from SeaChem, and it is exactly the same as SeaChem Prime, except more concentrated (you use 3/4ml Alpha per 10 gal instead of 1ml Prime per 10 gal). | |||||||||
| Aquarium | ||||||||||
| Dimensions | The aquarium dimensions were 305mm x 152mm x 203mm (12" x 6" x 8") all Length x Width x Height. | |||||||||
| Furniture | Sand bottom, driftwood, and Java moss and Java fern. | |||||||||
| Filtration | Sponge filter and air pump. | |||||||||
| Lighting | None. Ambient room light. | |||||||||
| Heating | None (ambient room temperature, house thermostat 68F in day, 60F at night. | |||||||||
| Breeding | ||||||||||
| Behaviour | No special water treatments or cold water changes occurred prior to spawning. The only thing I did before they spawned was feed them live Tubifex worms for a day or two prior to spawning. SPAWNING VIDEO HERE: https://youtu.be/7zcrsjBuwEs. Spawning occurred late at night, between 11pm and 12:30am. Standard T-position. Eggs laid on glass (about half of eggs), some (almost half) in a mass of Java moss, and a very few few on wood. All eggs were laid in groups of 1, 2, or 3. First spawn produced 70 eggs total; about 10-15% off color, probably not viable. A second spawn occurred 3 nights later, with 30 eggs laid, again mostly on glass and rest in Java moss, and again, about 10-15% off color. No water changes had preceded this spawning, but the parents had been fed live Tubifex worms on the night of the spawning and two nights before that. Oh man! A third round of egg laying today, almost 48 hours after the second spawn. These eggs were not present when I went to work this morning, so they were laid either during daylight (unlike the last two late night spawns) or they were laid after dusk tonight (it's 9pm now). Also 100% of today's eggs (32 new eggs, all successfully removed from tank to incubation dish) were on the glass, none in Java moss. One tragedy though - while scraping off the eggs, I broke my favorite (and only) plastic ruler which I cherish for just this job! :'( Later, my F1 offspring started spawning. They were just 6 months old. :-) | |||||||||
| Eggs | _diphyes_eggs/1.jpg) There were 70 translucent clear eggs laid which were 1.5mm in diameter. | |||||||||
| Time to hatch | 6 days Number: 30 Free swimming: 2 days | |||||||||
| Segregation | 17 hours after egg laying was observed, all eggs appeared to be okay in parent tank with parents. However, since other breeders mention that parents eat eggs, I used a semi-rigid ruler to scrape eggs off glass and other objects, and I picked eggs out of Java moss with a wooden toothpick, then I transferred all eggs (64 recovered out of 70 total; a few were accidentally dropped back into tank, and a few popped while scraping off glass) to a 500 ml Tupperware plastic bowl filled with 1/2 inch deep water from parents tank, with five small-medium Ramshorn snails added. Then I floated this dish on the surface of the parents' tank for incubation. To change water, I simply poured old water out of dish, then refilled dish by tipping its edge under water in parents' tanks to allow refilling. | |||||||||
| Fry sizes | 7 days: 8mm 14 days: 10mm 21 days: 12mm | |||||||||
| Juvenile sizes | 1 month: 14mm 3 months: 0mm 6 months: 35mm | |||||||||
| 1 month | _diphyes_1m/1.jpg) | |||||||||
| Fry and juvenile feeding | Eggs incubated in this manner, at 74-75F, began hatching 5.5 days after egg laying; most of the eggs hatched 7 days after egg laying. Far fewer of the eggs of first batch hatched than I expected would. Only half hatched after 7 days, and some of the fry died within hours of hatching. Fry were fed frozen baby brine shrimp beginning one day after hatching. | |||||||||
