Breeding sp. sunrise, sunpin

[blueblue]

Recently, i have got some interesting discussions with some friends
regarding the breeding behaviour of A. sp. sunrise (also called sunpin).

Are there any experiences to share about the breeding behaviour of
this species? ^.^

 

[Mike Wise]

They should breed just like their close relatives, A. atahualpa. TomC has bred them. Maybe he can tell us how he did it.

 

[blueblue]

They should breed just like their close relatives, A. atahualpa. TomC has bred them. Maybe he can tell us how he did it.

Thanks Mike, and let's wait for TomC ^.^

 

[blueblue]

While waiting for TomC, let me share some experiences of breeding Sunrise from various hobbyists in Hong Kong.

1. Sunrise is NOT difficult to breed and many people have got its F1. This fish has been bred extensively in mainland China and then imported to Hong Kong (so the price is low now)... BUT this fish seems to breed in
very acidic (pH ~ 5), and also alkaline (pH ~ 7.5!!) water...

One hobbyist in Hong Kong has bred this fish with very acidic water with ADA
aquasoil as the substrate. He has found that the female sunrise will lay eggs
easily BUT the female fish will eat eggs as well!! So, after failing a couple of times, he tries artificial hatching and he has got some fry now...

Another breeder has tried to increase the pH to 7 something and has observed some mating action of the fish... This observation looks very interesting to me and i will be very glad to hear the comments and experience from other friends here.

2. How to distinguish between a female Sunrise and a female Sunset (atahualpa)? It seems to be very difficult, and many breeders suspect that
they have actually got a pair of fish with a male Sunrise and a female Sunset, which makes breeding very hard. What do you think?

 

[Tom C]

While waiting for Tom C....

Sorry about the delay, a lot of work the last month have occupied most of my time and brain capacity.

Yes, the A. sp. Sunrise has bred in one of my tanks. Thanks to Mike Wise, who gently brought me one male and three females in March this year.

Thinking that they would do best if they could form a nice pair themselves, I put them all in the same tank. I saw a lot of chasing among the females in the tank, but left them together as there were lots of hiding places in the tank. That was not the smartest thing to do.
Within the first week two of the females were dead ( one in the tank, the other at the basement floor).
Some days later, the last female had dough out a nice cave under a stone, and obviously had something to defend in there; the male was not allowed to get closer than about 10 – 15 cm from the cave entry.

The tank had fine sand at the bottom, lots of woods and some stones and plants, the water; pH 4,7 and 65 microSiemens (very soft, acid, peatfiltered water). Temperature 26 ˚C.

After a week, there were more than 50 free swimming fries, and the male were, after a couple of days, allowed to swim together with the mother and her fries.
Three weeks later, the mother didn’t want anything more to do with her babies, and laid eggs again in the same cave. The male were still swimming together with the young ones, but he was not leading them around like the mother had done.
Again there were about 50 fries, and for a couple of weeks they swam around with their mother while the older young ones were still in the tank. Her agressiveness against the older fries became more and more violent, so I moved the first 50 to another tank.

A lot of the fries grew up, but as far as I can see, only two or three of them are males!
To make a long search for the reason short; a small window behind the tanks had been left open, and the temperature at night in the tank was about 23-24 ˚C. Usually, when I came home from work, the lamps over all the tanks had been on for several hours, and the temperature outdoors were higher, so to me it always seemed like it was 26 ˚C in the tank.

I’ve bred A. atahualpa earlier, and the Sunrise’s behaviour and requirements did not differ much from the atahualpa.


To the differences A. sp. Sunrise/atahualpa:

Last October I cought A. atahualpa in this blackwaters near Iquitos in Peru:
Photo 1
Photo 2

The water: pH:3,46 (!), microSiemens:32 and temperature 26,3˚C.

Here is a male and a female who lived in theese waters: ( the photos are taken in one of my tanks after having brought them back home)

Here is a female A. sp. Sunrise. Another photo.

And a male A. sp. Sunrise. Here is another photo.


Please excuse my poor English, hope you'll understand it.

 

[blueblue]

Thanks much Tom for your kind sharing. ^.^

Oh yes, have you tried to breed the sunrise with an increased
temperature? I would expect a higher proportion of male among the F1
with an increased temperature...