Steatocranus casuarius

[Sam]

I recently got some Steatocranus casuarius. My experiance with rheophiles is limited to my gorgeous mated pair of S. tinanti (these guys are so cute!, they are some of my favorites, and just about the most loving pair of cichlids in my fishroom). But when I went to my LSF tonight for fish happy hour (8-11pm, 20% off all fish/plants), I knew that I had to have these guys. They are now in a soon-to-be-reaquascaped 40gal with my S. tinanti, an African knife (5in), a bicher (4in) and a Syndontis eupterus (bought him as a "lace cat" for $3.50). Everyone is getting along. The PH is neutral, and the hardness is low (rainwater water changes). What can I do to incite them to breed? I feed everyone a mixture of dried foods with frozen bloodworms at night. They breed easily like the S. tinanti, right? Any info that y'all have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Sam

 

[tjudy]

My experience with S. causarius is limited to a pair that I had about 15 years ago that would spawn, but were not producing fry. I had read somewhere that the eggs needed absolute darkness, so I changed out the cave that they were using for one that was completely closed except for 1 1/2" round hole. I jammed a 3 inch piece of pvc in the hole, filled the pot about 1/3 up with gravel, and set it in the tank in such a way that the pvc pipe was angled slightly down. The pair accepted the cave and cleaned it out in short order. A few weeks later I had more fry than I new what to do with.

I do not think the darkness is a spawning trigger, but it made the difference in fry survival.

 

[Sam]

Thanks!

Thanks! The tank that they are in has several very large boulders carefully arranged so that the S. casuarius and S. tinanti can excavate under them and spawn without the rocks crushing them. There is also a piece of wood with two deep crevices in it. The tinanti spawned in one of the crevices in August. I may add some flowerpots in a few weeks if there is no spawning activity. I only got the casuarius on Friday.