Pelvicachromis signatus Spawned

[dfea]

My wild caught Pelvicachromis signatus have spawned

Female walled herself in a flower pot during the day today while the male stood guard. I gently lifted the pot to check and there are eggs...YES!

Now hopefully I did not disturb it too much.

- Dan

 

[aquaticclarity]

Congrats! Signatus can be a challanging fish to spawn. Now for the bigger challenge...getting a good number of male offspring. It seems that the pH needs to be in the upper 6's to get more males but I had trouble getting the fish to spawn in water with a pH over 6.5

Any idea what the pH in their tank is?

Jeff

 

[bigbird]

well done and grongrats....cheer jk

 

[dfea]

Thanks guys! I'm pretty excited about it. I haven't had them too long so I will call this one beginners luck

Jeff, the pH is 7.13 which I thought was slightly high, but the big surprise is with the water conductivity at 517 (just got a new meter). But like you said, spawning is only the first step. Next we wait to see if the eggs are good.

Since the female walled herself back in I am going to assume I didn't disturb her too badly when I checked.

- Dan

 

[dfea]

So as I have never spawned P. signatus before, let alone wild caught, I am a bit curious about recent behavior. The female has emerged from the pot, too soon for any free swimmers. She was going between two pots while the male stood guard, so I thought maybe she was moving possibly wrigglers. She then walled herself back into the original pot for the night. This morning I found her out again and even wandering from the pot, but then I noticed the opening was walled up. And I have just observed her removing the gravel and re-entering the pot.

In comparison, my P pulcher female wouldn't leave the pot until she brought out fry.

Is this 'normal' for P. signatus or has the spawn failed?

- Dan

 

[viejo]

Fish have annoying habit of not listening to the experts. If she is closing the door after herself, it should still be OK. Of course by now you may well have seen swimming fry making all this redundant.

 

[dfea]

Unfortunately I haven't seen any fry or wrigglers yet. At this point I have to believe it failed. She is out of the pot much more than in it. But I'll give it some more time since the pair still seems to be protecting the area.

- Dan

 

[dfea]

Yes! So spawn number two (4/15) was successful. Spotted the wigglers today, should be free swimming any day now.

- Dan

 

[jmtrops]

It's been my experience that pH has not been a factor in sex ratios with signatus. Mine spawned with a pH below 6 and had 1 extra male after selling about 15 pairs.

 

[dfea]

She brought out the fry yesterday for the first time.

Sorry about the image quality.

- Dan