T. candidi spawned!!!

[jaeger222002]

Greetings,

Since my wife doesn't understand the excitement, I get to share with everyone here!

I want to than keveryone for the help you gave me when trying to sex these fish. I added lots of cover to the tank and probably di it just in time. At first the female was really aggressive towards the male but as he grew it totally flipped until he was on her all the time. He eventually took about half her tail off.

Added some Ember Tetras as dithers and about 2 weeks later everything in the tank got columnaris infections (probably) and I lost all the tetras but the candidi survived (whew!). This was not the only tank that had this and I lost just about everything in two other tanks as well (all the apistos survived surprisingly). That was about a month ago. About six days ago I noticed the female guarding a small hole in the wood and was relentless on the male if he came on her side of the tank. I figured she had tried to spawn but I had little hope in anything coming of it since it was their forst attempt. I woke up today, turned the light on and lo and behold the female was guarding about 23 small fry!!

Here is a really crappy photo (as warned before I am a bad photographer and now the fish are in the back corner of the tank)

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/FemaleFry.jpg

Started the tank on baby brine today but I have let algae grow on the tank in the back and have lots of moss in their as well. Any thoughts on removing the male?

Thanks for looking.

Brad

 

[Riley]

Congrats again bro.

You might want to circle where the fry are at.

Chris and myself just had a look and couldnt find em. To quote Chris...."It looks like I have been drinking when I look at that picture" and I have a slight headache....lol

 

[jaeger222002]

Alright, point taken. I guess it helps if you knew where they were first. It turns out there actually about 40 fry. I was able to count most of them when she brought them out. Here is another blurry photo but I hope this will be a little better than the last. Anyone have digital photography for fish pointers?

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/candidifry2.jpg

Brad

 

[Gillie]

I can see them ,and the only advice I can give for photos is black water really sucks for pics.

 

[Riley]

Frickin sweet!!!

 

[Apistomaster]

Having wanting to try T. candidi for many years but never taken the plunge they are a semi-mythological species to me. Seeing a female surrounded with fry helped make them seem real again.
Congratulations.

 

[jaeger222002]

Alright, I have a question for those of you have have bred this fish. Most of the fry are still alive in the tank (about 40). A few days ago I noticed that the male was frantically trying to get the female to spawn again. She could no longer fend him of like she was before so she was leaving the fry. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do so I threw the male into a breeding net with some leaves and moss. Mom went about tending fry and all seemed well. I noticed yesterday that the female was looking really large and would be full of eggs which I thought would be great since I was gonna pull fry this weekend. A few mintues ago I thought my she is spending a lot of time near the breeding net and boy she looks a lot thinner. Lo and behold she laid all of her eggs on the breeding net!!!!!!! AAARGGGHHHH!

For those of you whom have kept this fish will the mother still tend older fry while tending new eggs or should I pull them pronto?

Well as I type this she is chasing the fry away. What a disaster.

 

[Mud Pie Mama]

Lo and behold she laid all of her eggs on the breeding net!!!!!!! AAARGGGHHHH!

Wow! This fish is quite amazing in her determination and ingenuity!

 

[Gillie]

Now this is just torture without pics!:biggrin:

 

[jaeger222002]

Phil,

Here are the pics of this breeding "attempt". By the time I had finished that last post, it was clear that it would not be ok for the fry swimming in the tank. They had an affinity to be by their mother and she had decided that they were potential problems so she was attacking them when they came close. I decided at about 3:30 am that I would rather lose these eggs than the 40 fry in the tank so I decided to take out all of the decorations and catch the fry and put them in the breeding net (and let dad out). I managed to get most of the fry (saw a couple swimming around the next morning). They are currently in the breeding net and doing good. I am setting up a 20L for them this week. Mom was still guarding the eggs as of yesterday but I could see her eating some of them and others were fungusing over. The male would not let her tend to the eggs at all. She was so exposed everytime she went to fan them h would dart at her and chase her away. Still a game of cat and mouse like it was before. Fry are fine and eggs are lost but hopefully she will try again soon in a better location. Anyway, here are some pics.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/candidiBNattempt.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/candidi2050308.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/candidi050308.jpg


Also, these nere new as of 2 days ago so I should have plenty juveniles soon enough. When you are ready to get some let me know.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/Fry1050208.jpg

Brad

 

[Zack Wilson]

That's pretty interesting there. You're pretty lucky. Looks like you've got one determined female. Nice to have. I would guess that since the male may very well not have participated in the spawning, that is why he shows no tolerance of her guarding the spawn up there. His instincts wouldn't be activated.

As to the other situation, your experiences seem to differ a bit from mine. My males were always pretty well accepted by the females. During broodcare they were also pretty docile and mostly let the females run the show. Not extremely involved with broodcare, but they'd pick up any wandering fry and return them to the school. I suppose if there are no other fish in the tank this may explain some of the differences. I usually had some other target fish for the male to defend the territory from. I think you did the smart thing by removing the older fry. If they're ready to reproduce, then might as well let them.

 

[jaeger222002]

I don't know if anyone still cares but I thought I might pass on an update with my fish.

I threw all of the fry in the breeding net last time and let the male loose in the tank again. Over a two day period the female slowly ate all of the eggs on the bottom of the net. Things quickly returned to the way they had been before with the male chasing the female and when he got close he would wind his body up and "slap" his tail towards her. There would be a lot of fin nipping as well. This went on for a couple of weeks until she was fat and ready to lay eggs again.

About three weeks ago she laid eggs back in the same spot as before. Something was different this time as she tolerated the male near the eggs and never showed any aggression towards him. It didn't take long to figure out why. I had missed three fry and the male was sent to guard the area. He spent almost all of his time hunting the three fry I had managed to miss. I caught one of them but decided to let the other two stay in the tank to keep my couple happy. They made as good of a dither fish as anything and they were impossible to catch without uprooting the tank again.

It took 8 days for the fry to become freeswimmers. The new fry are 11 days old now. It's incredible how fast they grow. Here are some pics of the new fry. There are about 40 alive still.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/DSCN0279.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/DSCN0278.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/DSCN0289.jpg

After ten days the male began to harass the female again and was chasing her from the fry. He wouldn't let her near the fry. I had set up a new 20 gallon grow out tank last week for the fry that were still in the breeding net. I figured I better move the juvenile fish and get the male back in the net like before (though he will be moved to a new tank before she lays eggs on the net again). I moved 39 juvenile fish last night. They all range in size from .5 to 1 inch. here are some pics of these guys.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/DSCN0270.jpg

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj256/jaeger222002/DSCN0298.jpg

Everyone seems to be fine and I am surprised to see that the group of juvenile fish actually spend almost all of their time in the middle of the tank instead of the moss and wood. I wish some of my other juvenile apistos were like that!

Brad