Biotoecus opercularis fry

[Fatts]

I came home this afternoon and there is a nice clutch of eggs in one of my tanks. Looking at them closly though they are completely white and the female is not "guarding" over the cave like my other dwarfs do after they spawn. Leads me to think that maybe the eggs did not get fertilized, but I will see in a couple days I guess. The male is at least showing the brood colors and so is the female.

The question I have is for those of you that have kept these guys. Are the fry too small to eat newly hatched BS? I read that, so I got a culture of vinegar eels up and going. I have loads of California BS eggs to feed as well. What about decap BSEs?

Thanks

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi Scott,

The information I have seems to indicate that bbs will be too big for the first few days the fry are free swimming (the main source is http://www.blackwaterfish.com/bio_article.htm ). I have a couple of tanks of these guys and hope that I can get them breeding then put the knowledge gleaned to the test!!! (my plan for the fry was to take a commercial flake food, pound this in a mortar & pestle then hydrate in tank water and the rest of the action is the same as the blackwater article, hopefully this would work??).

How have you set your tanks up, what are the water stats, how did the fish prepare the spawning site???

Apologies for all the questions, but for me these guys are a hot topic!!!

Andrew

 

[Fatts]

That is the same article that I found saying BBS where too big. Dr Romer reports that he was able to feed BBS though. I guess it is that fine line between too small and OK. I plan to use Vinegar eels, ground flake, BBS and BSEs if the fry are big enough.

As far as water parameters go. They are in a 20 gal long tank. I am using 80% RO / DI water. Gives me about 15 microseimens/cm. I take my tap water and boil it with peat then use that to cut the RO / DI. Ph is 4.28 to 4.30. Substrate is black silicon sand. I use 35 mm camera film cases for breeding caves (there are also clay flower pot shards but the fish ignore them). Temp is about 29 degrees. Change 6 gal of water every other day.

I fed the adults golden pearls, decap BSEs, BBS and frozen glass worms. I found the glass warms to be the trick to get them to spawn. I fed them a few once a day for 4 days and the female start to rippen.

 

[Fatts]

Andrew,
Sorry I missed you question about how they prepared the site. It was not a pit dig around the cave like most observations say, instead there was a small mound built up right in front of the opening. The opening is closed enough that the female acutally have to lie flat on her side to wiggle into the cave.

Quick update: All the eggs have hatched and there are a whole lotta wigglers hanging around in the back of the cave. That was quick 3 days to hatch.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Fatts]

This evening while feeding BBS to the parents, a few of the fry ventured out. Kinda weird, I could still see the yolk sack and yet they were coming out of the cave.

Man, they are tiny too. I see why everyone says vinegar eels. They are definatly some of the littlest ones I have seen yet. Mayland and Bork say 3 days of vinegar eels and then they should be big enough for BBS, I would be suprised! I am thinking at least a week maybe 2.

 

[Fatts]

Free-swimming today. There must be at least 60 free-swimmers here. They are so small that all you see is eyes and a tail. Funny looking little guys. They are too small for decap BSEs as well as BBS

 

[Greg PL]

best of luck with them, Scott.
what do you plan to use then if the BS is too big? micro worms, for starters?

 

[Fatts]

I got them on microworms and vinegar eels. Not sure that I like using either one though. I don't like that I can't see the fry are eating them. At least with BBS you can see the orange belly. With these little things you can't see anything.

 

[Fatts]

The hard stressful par is over. They started to take BBS today with the parents. Mayland and Bork were right 3 days on vinegar eels and microworms and then they will be big enough for BBS.

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi Scott,

Seems to be the season for these guys to breed, I now have 1 pair with eggs!!!

Temp 26
GH 1
KH 0
pH ~5.0

Now comes the fun!!!

Andrew

 

[Fatts]

Andrew,
How are you fry fairing? What did you use for first food? I have about 40-50 left now and they are really growing fast. I don't expect anymore losses now.

I had 3 females and a male in my tank, the 2 non-breeder females were picking off the fry that strayed to far from mom and dad. So of course, the non-breeders now have a home of their own with an additional male.

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi Scott,

They're just about free swimming today (there's still 1 or 2 just hanging on to the roof of the pipe), I buckled to popular opinion and got my hands on a microworm culture.

I'm kicking myself, of the 2 pipes I put in the tank, this female chose the 1 thats on the angle towards the front corner of the tank. So I can't see fully into the pipe to confirm how many fry there are.

Does your male take any part, the female seems to have been left completely on her own to look after the eggs/wigglers??

The 2nd female in this tank has now taken a shine to the dominant male and this morning they were starting to show off to each other. Looks like she will use the 2nd pipe (the 1 I can see into completely!!). Will probably have to catch the spare 'male' in the tank now.

Regards

Andrew

 

[Fatts]

At first he was just there. Then after the fry went free-swimming he began to take part in the brood care. He actually did better than she did at keeping the 60+ free-swimmers in a small group.

As long as the non-breeders were in the tank the male was very involved. I took the non-breeders out last week and slowly the female has started to drive him farther and farther away. It looks like by the end of the weekend I may have to remove him, she is getting pretty violent.

Catching the non-breeders was not too easy. These appear to be pretty smart. With my apistos I stick a net in the tank and they basically jump in it. The bios I had to use the coke bottle trick and it still took about 6 hours to get 2 fish out.

 

[Deedoo]

How are the Bioto's babies ? Are they growing well ?

 

[Fatts]

Mine are doing great. They are just over 1/2 inch long and eating BBS like champs. Actually, Mom just dropped more eggs last night, and this time it looks like there are more of them.

 

[Microman]

I also have a spawning in a terracotta spawning cave, fry are just visible swimming around inside cave,should be out actively looking for food tomorrow.Have vinegar eels and microworm on hand.
Parameters, PH 4.8, Gh and Kh almost undetectable, Temp 84f.
Will take in what you guys have done and will keep my fingers crossed that i get them past the first week or two.
Mark....

 

[Microman]

Fry out today and actively looking for food,taken Microworm and Vinegar eel.
Parents lazy compared to Apistos,do not keep fry together and do not defend territory as well.
I an going to remove dithers and other pair of Biotoecus just in case of predation.

 

[Fatts]

Mark,
My female was quite mean to all the tankmates. Is this the first day freeswimming? By the 2nd mine had it down and where more than aggresive. The non-breeding male was even scared of the female, she was ruthless in protecting the fry. I would recommend you remove the male too.... I took out the non-breeders and she was ruthless to the Dad. By the 3rd day he had a lot of fin damage and was hidding in the corner.

I was using microworms and vinager eels for 3 days. I definatly prefered the vinager eels, they forced the fry to swim about more than microworms do. Microworms just lay at the bottom. The eels would swim all over the place.

Good luck man, I was very stressed for the 1st 3 days, after than they started to take BBS with mom and dad.

 

[Microman]

2nd Day free swimming now,think they have taken vinegar eel. Parents still not aggressive,dithers getting really close to fry. Will have to spend a little time today removing them and the other Biotoecus,worried for the fry.Notice how spread out the fry are,they are not kept in one spot Apisto fashion.
Pics of fry and parents.

 

[Fatts]

They are really spread out. What size tank are they in? Mine were not spread out like that at all. They were packed into about half that space. One thing I did notice was that the non-breeders would try to pick off the fry when Mom and Dad were not looking. Looks like you got quite a few though, Good luck with them.

BTW that is a beautiful male, I couldn't see the female too well.