Breeding Ivancara Adoketa

[tolstoy21]

Question for all of you how have had successful spawns of I. Adoketa.

I've had an F2 pair for maybe a year and a half. In that time, they have spawned numerous times--I can fairly reliably trigger them at this point--but, I never get any viable fry.

When I check the eggs in the tank that the female is guarding, many of them seem infertile and turn white, with only a few remaining pink. Within a day or two, they are slowly consumed by the female. I don't believe she consumes the eggs until they are visibly white, so I don't think she an uncaring egg gobbler.

Twice I have tried removing the eggs and hatching them in a breeder box, and then in an egg tumbler with a gentle flow rate. Both of these attempts have resulted in a maybe 3 or 4 wrigglers, but none of these survive past a few days. I have only once successfully raised a single fry, but it ultimately displayed swim bladder issues. I still have that fish, but it's small and definitely and a bottom hugger. But as my first and only success, they are near and dear to my heart.

Tank setup:

• 20g high
• No substrate
• Decorated with rock and driftwood
• Water is RO
• Ph is dropped and held between 4.5 & 5 through the use of Fluval peat pellets in a box filter, black water extract and sometimes oak leaf litter (this gets messy so I stoped using it in favor of extract)
• TDS is negligible. Kh and Gh likewise negligible
• Water temp is 77-79F
• Overall tank flow is mild

Any advice? Could it simply be that my male is infertile or terrible at fertilizing eggs? Or are my water parameters an issue? I hear some folks obtain success by running a UV sterilizer. Does anyone have any experience with using one in this scenario?

Anyway, thank in advance for any advice or experience anyone can share. It is greatly appreciated.

-- Nicholas

 

[MacZ]

TDS is negligible. Kh and Gh likewise negligible

Care to give numbers?

Also: What do you feed?

Temp could maybe be higher up to 28°C.

It is possible sand and leaf litter might do the trick.

I hear some folks obtain success by running a UV sterilizer.

You have very low pH and (I have no numbers, but suspect so) low EC/TDS. That has the same effect as a UV (keeping pathogens and bacteria counts low), I doubt you can really push anything adding one.

 

[Apistoguy52]

Question for all of you how have had successful spawns of I. Adoketa.

I've had an F2 pair for maybe a year and a half. In that time, they have spawned numerous times--I can fairly reliably trigger them at this point--but, I never get any viable fry.

When I check the eggs in the tank that the female is guarding, many of them seem infertile and turn white, with only a few remaining pink. Within a day or two, they are slowly consumed by the female. I don't believe she consumes the eggs until they are visibly white, so I don't think she an uncaring egg gobbler.

Twice I have tried removing the eggs and hatching them in a breeder box, and then in an egg tumbler with a gentle flow rate. Both of these attempts have resulted in a maybe 3 or 4 wrigglers, but none of these survive past a few days. I have only once successfully raised a single fry, but it ultimately displayed swim bladder issues. I still have that fish, but it's small and definitely and a bottom hugger. But as my first and only success, they are near and dear to my heart.

Tank setup:

• 20g high
• No substrate
• Decorated with rock and driftwood
• Water is RO
• Ph is dropped and held between 4.5 & 5 through the use of Fluval peat pellets in a box filter, black water extract and sometimes oak leaf litter (this gets messy so I stoped using it in favor of extract)
• TDS is negligible. Kh and Gh likewise negligible
• Water temp is 77-79F
• Overall tank flow is mild

Any advice? Could it simply be that my male is infertile or terrible at fertilizing eggs? Or are my water parameters an issue? I hear some folks obtain success by running a UV sterilizer. Does anyone have any experience with using one in this scenario?

Anyway, thank in advance for any advice or experience anyone can share. It is greatly appreciated.

-- Nicholas

By the numbers, pH and EC are right where you want them. Temp seems a bit high to me, tank seems quite small. I’ve been doing all my spawning in 30 longs (36x12 footprint), and 40 breeders (35x18), ph 4.5-5.5, 60-100 us/cm, 23.5-24.5*c.

 

[tolstoy21]

By the numbers, pH and EC are right where you want them. Temp seems a bit high to me, tank seems quite small. I’ve been doing all my spawning in 30 longs (36x12 footprint), and 40 breeders (35x18), ph 4.5-5.5, 60-100 us/cm, 23.5-24.5*c.

Thanks for the reply.

I was actually thinking about moving them to a 40 breeder (the 20g seems a tad small for them at this point) and introducing sand substrate.

Like I said, I have no problem getting them to spawn, I just have problems getting the eggs to hatch, and those few eggs I can get to hatch, the fry don't survive very long.

It's a tad hard to lower the tank temp as 76-78 is what I keep the fishroom at.

 

[anewbie]

For blackwater species as a general rule if the eggs are laid but don't hatch you need lower tds; however it could also be at a young age the male hasn't learned out to fertilize them.