Congochromis dimidiatus spawned..

[ste12000]

Forgive the weird layout of the following threads, they were posted elsewhere while Apisto.com was offline.. Now its back so ill simply copy and paste the threads across here..

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Not quite freeswimming yet but the female made a rare apperance outside of her spawning cave and i managed a few clear snaps, i thought id share them with you guys.

I was given a group of tiny babies from my mate Ray around 3 months ago, they went in with my Pelvicachromis taeniatus fry to grow out and it was enjoyable watching them settle and growing alongside the large group of Pelvicachromis, they eventually sexed into two definate pairs. one larger than the other, the larger pair were given their own tank last month and i thought they were still too young to spawn and the aim was to grow them out!! the acidic and tannin stained waters certainly worked its magic as the females been holed up for several days and by using my torch i can see a decent sized brood of wrigglers still attached to the cave walls.. Im delighted to spawn this fish at last and its slightly sweeter because they are fish ive put so much care into growing on.

Strangely since spawning both fish have lost their reddish colours and become pretty drab, i dont have pics of courting colours yet but hope to get a full record of pictures over the following months. Really pleased with this one.

 

[ste12000]

Really excited today, the Congochromis finally gave me freeswimming fry and a good number too...Id guess around 60-80 fry are freeswimming from this morning, the parents are still pretty drab in broodcare and have kept the fry towards the back or middle hence the crummy pics.

This is a species ive gotten pretty excited about and am delighted to spawn them, Andrew wood had these going in the UK around 2008? and along with Congochromis sabinae he put fish out into the UK hobby, as with most dwarfs they were never established as a captive population and hopefully this time round a few hobbiests may be interested in keeping this delightful species alive and available for years to come?? Several hobbiests are already breeding theirs and mine is something like the third successful spawning this year, dont let that fool you, this fish is very rare in the hobby, once the current imports dry up it may well be several years before this fish is imported from the wild again.. C.dimidiatus has been lost to the hobby once and id like to see them kept alive and available here in the UK.

Heres my pair with fry(fish were 12 inches back in the dark tank so please excuse the pics)

Heres the second pair i own, these are showing more typical colouration(They are very young, this will improve with age)

Heres the pair with their fry.
[video=youtube;ZFtwluAoaEM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFtwluAoaEM[/video]

 

[dfea]

Very Cool! Yet another species I would like to work with.

Best of luck with them.

- Dan

 

[ste12000]

Thanks, i had C.sabinae a few years back but always wanted dimidiatus.. Im glad to finally get the chance to work with them, Im really enjoying them!!

 

[Cichlid Junkie]

Congrats on the fry! Mom and Dad look like they are good parents.

 

[slimbolen99]

Congrats on the spawn! Parents look great! Now, share with us your secret(s)!

Have to say also, your tanks look very natural, and I'm sure that plays a vital part. Enjoying the pics and vid.

 

[ste12000]

Congrats on the spawn! Parents look great! Now, share with us your secret(s)!

Have to say also, your tanks look very natural, and I'm sure that plays a vital part. Enjoying the pics and vid.

Hi Slimbolen, there are no secrets in my fishroom and i freely share info with fellow hobbiests..

The main "secret" is simple, water changes and plenty of them!

The breeding fish are setup on a 18 tank rack, each tank measures 24x12x12 and holds around 50 litres of water after displacement. Each tank holds one pair of fish(Sometimes a few pencilfish as dithers) and is setup with a inert sand substrate, bogwood, coconut shell caves and leaf litter(Oak and beech) Water changes are done every few days using pre warmed and treated tap water which luckily for me comes out of the tap very soft (55ppm TDS) i adjust the PH to around 5.5 using phosphoric acid and add tannins created by boiling alder cones to make a black water extract. This water is prepared in dedicated water drums and then pumped into the breeding tanks.

Feeding is almost completely done with live foods and they get microworm, Baby brineshrimp, grindalworm and microworm, they are fed small feeds upto 10 times per day.

If you give any fish the right water conditions and feed them well enough to develop eggs then breeding them comes really easily, i feel that every fish is naturally driven to mate and all we have to do is give them the correct conditions.

 

[oaken]

Don't post here much but I just wanted to say I always enjoy the pictures you take of your fish ste12000, keep it up!