A. elizabethae spawned

[Aquatic_Adam]

Well. In the most peculiar turn of events...I have come home to find that my female elizabethae has spawned! This is a first for me (not first spawn mind you) but first elizabethae spawn. Anything in particular I should know? Are BBS a fine first food for the fry in this case?

I do have some questions that relate to my case in particular:

It seems that when I miss my water changes, that is when my fish in this tank appear to spawn? This happened with the tefes who were in the same tank before I moved them out. I have peat in the filter, I am curious as that maybe when I miss the changes the peat is able to do more work and lower the pH to the proper range? This also presents a curious challenge as I know that fry, especially elizabethae, are sensitive to any build up of organic compounds but it seems my water changes greatly effect the parameters (haven't tested my water for before and after yet and I only do about a 20% water change at any given time).

The pair that spawned was my 2 fish from the EU. While the male is pretty (I will grab pictures tomorrow) he is not as pretty as my US male (who is in the same tank but behind a separator). The US male is the one that I actually want to breed with the female but I was waiting for an opportunity to sell the EU male. After this spawning, is that a bad idea? Should I sell the US male even though I want that one to be my preferred breeding fish?

 

[Josh]

Awesome! Congratulations!
That's an odd observation about the water chemistry during water changes. I'd be interested to know if you could pinpoint it to the pH or what else might be going on there...
If you intend to breed the US male, then why sell him??

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

Hello Josh,

I probably should have linked my other thread into this one.

There are a couple factors that lead me to only wanting one male. At this moment, I only own three fish, 2M and 1F. On top of that, my tanks are limited at the moment (I am in a rental home) so all three are in the same 20g long with a divider separating the two males (I didn't want to lose the US male and he was being harassed). Lastly, I will be moving soon, well I hope soon haha, which means setting up another tank at this moment sounds awful. I do have a spare 5g that used to house Black Crystal Shrimp that I could move the US male into there. But then I am still left with the problem of only having one female

I don't want to split a confirmed pair, especially of elizabethae, but it took my friend and I forever just to get these fish! But the US male is so pretty that he deserves a lady friend!

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

US Male


I also have pics (although rather poor quality) of the other two

 

[Josh]

Ahhhh I see now. That makes a lot of sense!
Well, I'm not sure what you should do :-/ sorry I'm not much help.
That's an exquisite male specimen though! I can see why you don't want to give him up!

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

Thank you Josh! He is definitely my favorite fish that I have owned so far (only thing close to it in awesome points was my Polypterus teugelsi).

I suppose for the time being I will keep both of the males. Maybe I will transport the US male to 5g as a holding tank or I can move a lone female A. sp. tefe pearl blue out of a 10g and into the 5g. Aquatic Clarity is ordering some wild caught elizabethae and I am going to see if I can sneak getting a female from them...maybe two My girlfriend is not going to enjoy that $90+ pricetag though! Haha.

 

[Mike Wise]

I don't want to split a confirmed pair, especially of elizabethae, ...

A. elizabethae is a polygamous species. It doesn't form 'confirmed (bonded) pairs'.

 

[Aquatic_Adam]

A. elizabethae is a polygamous species. It doesn't form 'confirmed (bonded) pairs'.

Ok. That makes me feel better about attempting to switch the males and see what results. Thank you Mike. Always the helpful one you are!