Spawning P. Taeniatus

[Joe Gatchell]

How important is my water hardness? Mine is measuring about 120. My pH is around 6, does it need to be lower? I've provided a sand substrate, some caves (one is a small clay pot I cut a hole in the bottom about a 1.5 - 2 inch opening.) (If this doesn't work I was going to order some of the caves from plecocaves.com) Am, Nitrites and Nitrates are all in good parameters. What sort of foods should I be conditioning them on? Their current tankmates are four young congo tetras. I threw about 4 ghost shrimp in there to do a little scrap maintenance, I figured they would eat them but so far haven't. This is a 29 gallon tank.

Am I missing anything?

 

[tjudy]

The only thing on your list I would adjust is the pH. It is too low. Is your water all tap water? (If so, I would love to have your tap water!) If you are mixing tap and R/O I think that you could use more tap in your mix and be ok.

A pH of 6.0 is going to result in a female-heavy sex ratio in the offspring. The natural habitats have very soft water and a neutral pH. The TDS does not have to be all that soft (120 ppm is fine, and I have bred P. taeniatus with problems with TDS as high as 500 ppm). it is the pH that is the issue.

 

[Joe Gatchell]

Anything I can do to up the pH? It's all straight tap water.
EDIT: I just rechecked it using the API Liquid test kit, I had used some strips my buddy gave me the first time. It appears to be between 6.8 and 7.0, so I should be good?

 

[Joe Gatchell]

Another question. I have to of the pairs housed together in a 29 gallon. They have only paired off in the last probably 2-3 weeks. So far, there has been no major fighting, but there is definitely an alpha pair, am I just asking for trouble keeping them like this? I'm in the process of trying to sell a pair or two, but tank space is suddenly limited (which I'm working on that as well at the moment). I also have an extra female that has no mate, I have her in with my kribs right now and they seem to be leaving her alone. I'm not really sure what to do about her either, will she be killed if she's kept in the same tank as a pair?

 

[tjudy]

IMO/E... a 30" x 12" bottom area is good for a pair. If you keep others in the tank with them, pile up a lot of driftwood so they can stay out of the pair's sight. I would remove the other M/F pairs... HOWEVER, I would add driftwood hiding places and leave the extra female in with the breeding pair. Her presence gives the pair a common enemy to defend against. So long as the extra fish has a place to hide she will probably not be killed.

 

[Mike Wise]

Ft. Wayne has soft tap water?? I'm really surprised!

 

[Joe Gatchell]

IMO/E... a 30" x 12" bottom area is good for a pair. If you keep others in the tank with them, pile up a lot of driftwood so they can stay out of the pair's sight. I would remove the other M/F pairs... HOWEVER, I would add driftwood hiding places and leave the extra female in with the breeding pair. Her presence gives the pair a common enemy to defend against. So long as the extra fish has a place to hide she will probably not be killed.

Ted,
Ok, I did a little moving, added some extra hiding spaces and driftwood and put the extra female in my spawning tank. They haven't harrassed her too much, though the paired female really colored up pretty bright almost immediately on seeing the other female. The male just kind of lunged at her lazily so she moved off.

Mike, I rechecked, the water's not that soft, ended up being closer to neutral.

Wish me luck!

 

[Joe Gatchell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKdqrLU_dRA

Here's link to a video of my finished product.

 

[Joe Gatchell]

The male undertook a huge sand excavating project tonight underneath one of the pieces of driftwood while the female stayed close by watching. Hoping that is a good indication they're looking for a place to spawn. I sat and watched him spitting sand out for about 20 minutes. (Until the kids found me, then I had to move away so they didn't disturb the tank, I keep it in my room now, hoping the relative quiet and lack of child induced vibrations will be beneficial.)

 

[Joe Gatchell]

Well, I haven't seen my extra female since Tuesday. I decided to search for her and found her floating underneath the cave. Which is a little creepy because she was dead on the ceiling in the same cave the pair was hanging out in. Must have got caught in there when they went in. :frown: