Crenicichla regani spawn..

[ste12000]

I thought i would share some pictures of my first dwarf pike cichlid spawn..The fish spawned in my 4ft livingroom tank so i removed the angelfish and geophagus to the fishroom and left them alone with the fry..

The spawn is a large one at 240 fry and they are feeding well and growing quickly on baby brineshrimp. The parents are doing a fantastic job of raising them up and im hoping to leave them all together for as long as possible to witness the parental broodcare and natural behaviour..

 

[freshwaterfishfan]

Nice pictures. The regani are the only pikes I ever been able to leave the babies with the parents. With my notophthalmus spawns, the male always went nuts and attacked the female.
Steve

 

[dwarfpike]

Congratulations!!!

The female looks like the Rio Tapajos variant, yes?

Why are all the dwarf pike spawns in the UK on this site?!?!?

 

[ste12000]

Congratulations!!!

The female looks like the Rio Tapajos variant, yes?

Why are all the dwarf pike spawns in the UK on this site?!?!?

Yes these fish are wilds from the Rio tapajos..

I dont understand that question, is their a problem with UK aquarists putting pictures on a US site???

 

[dwarfpike]

Not at all!! I am just lamenting the fact I can't get any from you since you are in the wrong country is all. :wink:

I find the Tapajos variant to be the prettiest of the regani.

 

[ste12000]

Ah right..I get you now.

Im new to the Crenicichla, these fish are the first ive kept and spawned. Can you explain what you had seen to make you sure that this was the tapajos variant?? id be interested to know the sutle differences between the various locations.

Cheers, Ste

 

[dwarfpike]

It was mostly the red in the dorsal pattern. Regani don't typically have red in the dorsal (those dwarves that do tend to be noto types instead), normally just a thin dorsal edging. Yours though, has the red stripe not on the edge but under it. Tapajos are the only regani that has the red under the edging that I've seen (I haven't seen the so-called Tefe regani yet though).

Mine was the "classic" irregular dorsal pattern regani, from the middle Amazon I believe ... not a good photo, but the best one I have of her dorsal pattern: http://i312.photobucket.com/albums/ll355/dwarfpike/Dwarf%20Pikes/regani/regani3.jpg

 

[RAF]

Hi Ste,

congrats on the spawn! :-D

Can you share the aquarium setup and water parameters? I just got a Tapajos couple also, let's see if I can have as much success as you have had.

Cheers

 

[ste12000]

Hi Ste,

congrats on the spawn! :-D

Can you share the aquarium setup and water parameters? I just got a Tapajos couple also, let's see if I can have as much success as you have had.

Cheers

Hi Ricardo, Thanks..

Im sure everyone is aware of the juwel range of tanks? mine is a Juwel rio 300.

The fish were kept in a general community in my livingroom, the tank is a 4x2x2 holding around 300l but a actual 260litres or so, tankmates were 7 domestic angels and a shoal of 7 young Geophagus sp 'tapajos red head' plus a second pair of pikes. The fish were fed tetra prima and frozen bloodworm although the pikes refused any dry foods and only ate frozen bloodworm and occasional feeds of whiteworm. Water is my standard tapwater which im lucky with and get measurements of PH 6.8 and TDS 55ppm, temp is 82f...Tank decor is really simply and has a sand substrate with a few pieces of old bogwood with java fern and moss and some vallis in the corner, filtration is a large internal filter built into the tank plus a medium sized external with the flow returned via a surface spraybar.

The pair of pikes paired almost straight away and stuck together, the female found a very narrow cave in a piece of wood, she could only just fit in and spawned almost straight away, these two spawnings came to nothing and on this third spawn i knew nothing about it until i saw the male chasing away the other fish. I promptly removed the others to the fishroom and gave the pair the whole tank.. The rest is shown via the pictures..

They look like this today..

 

[RAF]

Very nice!

... and exceptional spacing conditions for them.

I'm not as fortunate as you as for tap water quality goes. I must use RO water... in truth, I'm still unsure if I have hard water or liquidified rock!

Good luck with them and keep us posted... I'm curious about the development of the young.