raising borellii fry

[kingborris]

Hi all,

About a month ago, my pair of borelliis spawned in my 30x12x18h heavily planted community tank. other fish include pseudomugil rainbows, dwarf corys, otos, peacock gobies and shrimp

As this was their first spawn, i basically left them to it. they spawned in a 8"x1" diameter length of bamboo tube. i initially had a cloud of about 25 free swimming fry, which over the course of two weeks slowly diminished to 5 or so at 2-3mm, and then nothing. while the mum was very diligent with guarding the young, predation wouldnt be out of the question. i didnt specifically feed the fry anything, and fed my usual mix of flake, tetra prima and frozen foods. now its also possible that the fry may have starved, although they were seen grazing on the numerous plants, presumably picking of infosuria?

yesterday, the female dissappeared into her tunnel again, and was seen in the evening considerably thinner and bright yellow. i am presuming she is now tending another batch of eggs.

This time, i'd like to try and raise the fry if possible. whats the best way of doing this? can they be left in the main tank or will i have to transfer them in order of having any chance of some surviving? will they need feeding separately, or will the natural fauna in the tank be sufficient?

any tips are welcomed

TIA

 

[dr.fishy]

An attempt I made once.

Hi Kingborris;

I once had a pair breed in a ten gallon aquarium. They bred and did the same thing your pair have just done. My first thought was that the pair might do this again and again so I just put a seperator made from egg crate material wrapped with fine mesh nylon stocking stretched over the whole piece. (I bought the largest stocking I could find). It was inserted when I noticed the color change in the female. and with the male on the other side keeping him seperated from the female and the young.
This kept the young from the male and she had the reason for caring for the young herself (at least this is what I think). I'm not sure of what went through her mind but the outcome was great she raised the young by herself until they were big enough for me to suck them out with a siphon (gently).
The male might also be the problem since you say the female was diligent. If this works, great, if not then using the above siphon to remove them might work for you at an earlier stage also, or just remove the eggs on their site before hatching.
The siphon I used was some small tubing from a Jerry's home developement place. it had an ID of 3/16" and was long enough so that the young travelled for at least 3 foot before being deposited in the bucket (kept for aquarium use only of course). Being very gentle is best for this process.
I'm sure there are some other people here with more experiences than myself with this as I have only bred the Borellii and Cacatuoides species of Apistogramma. And those people will put those ideas up also.
Good luck and let us know the results what ever method you use.
Dr. Fishy

 

[Mike Wise]

I would guess that both both predation & starvation are at work here. I would separate the spawning area from the rest of the tank (at least 1 ft. square) & feed the fry newly hatched brine shrimp. Regular water change are important, too.

 

[kingborris]

thanks for the tips guys

i will let you know how i get on.