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I purchased two pairs of trifasciata maciliense from Jeff (AquaticClarity) at the Greater Chicago show on Memorial Day weekend, and lacking a better place for them, I put them in a long 20 with about 50 Rosy Tetras around 1.25" in length. I also dropped two small flowerpots in the tank, so the females would have a place to escape the males' attentions. Only hole is the small one in the bottom (currently the top) of the pots.
Of course, one male immediately took the dominant position, keeping the second in hiding behind a sponge filter. The females each took possession of a flowerpot at opposite ends of the tank. Surprisingly, they colored up and were displaying for the dominant male quite often. About the middle of June I realized the right hand female was staying in the pot, even at feeding time. Shining a flashlight down the hole, I could see wiggler fry on the inside surface of the pot!
Because the tank was so crowded I decided to pull them, and prepared a 5 gallon tank for when they started swimming. Turned out to be over 50 fry in this batch. Three days later they were hopping around the dish I had them in, so I released them into the 5. At this point, I realized that the other female was not coming out to feed! Sure enough, the flashlight again revealed wigglers hanging on the inside of the pot. Again, I siphoned them into a dish, which was floated in the 5 with the recently swimming group. Three days later I released these now-swimming fry with the slightly older ones. Again, the spawn was over 50 fry, so I have approx. 100 month old trifasciata fry in that tank.
Ah, but my title says TWO hundred, doesn't it? You guessed it: two weeks after the first spawn, the right hand female had another batch. This time I counted to 80 and lost track. Obviously I was not going to add these to the first two spawns, so I set another 5 gallon tank, this time next to the 20. I set it up on two pieces of 2x4 so that the height matched the big tank, and put an overflow system to circulate water from the big tank to the smaller. Works well, too.
The left hand female tried to confuse me - she waited another week before spawning again. Those wigglers will likely start swimming today or tomorrow, and I have floated their dish in the tank with batch 3. There's about 50 in this group. I have a number of 10 gallon tanks to transfer the fry into as they grow, and just bought 5 new 40 breeders at the Petco dollar a gallon sale. There are a lot of other fry in my fishroom at the moment, too; I needed the space.
I suppose you want to see some pictures. This is left hand female, and dominant male.
First two spawns are in a "warm" tank, about 82 F. Last two are a bit cooler, around 77 F. I hope to test the idea that sex ratios are temperature influenced.
So what does one do with over 200 trifasciata fry?
Of course, one male immediately took the dominant position, keeping the second in hiding behind a sponge filter. The females each took possession of a flowerpot at opposite ends of the tank. Surprisingly, they colored up and were displaying for the dominant male quite often. About the middle of June I realized the right hand female was staying in the pot, even at feeding time. Shining a flashlight down the hole, I could see wiggler fry on the inside surface of the pot!
Because the tank was so crowded I decided to pull them, and prepared a 5 gallon tank for when they started swimming. Turned out to be over 50 fry in this batch. Three days later they were hopping around the dish I had them in, so I released them into the 5. At this point, I realized that the other female was not coming out to feed! Sure enough, the flashlight again revealed wigglers hanging on the inside of the pot. Again, I siphoned them into a dish, which was floated in the 5 with the recently swimming group. Three days later I released these now-swimming fry with the slightly older ones. Again, the spawn was over 50 fry, so I have approx. 100 month old trifasciata fry in that tank.
Ah, but my title says TWO hundred, doesn't it? You guessed it: two weeks after the first spawn, the right hand female had another batch. This time I counted to 80 and lost track. Obviously I was not going to add these to the first two spawns, so I set another 5 gallon tank, this time next to the 20. I set it up on two pieces of 2x4 so that the height matched the big tank, and put an overflow system to circulate water from the big tank to the smaller. Works well, too.
The left hand female tried to confuse me - she waited another week before spawning again. Those wigglers will likely start swimming today or tomorrow, and I have floated their dish in the tank with batch 3. There's about 50 in this group. I have a number of 10 gallon tanks to transfer the fry into as they grow, and just bought 5 new 40 breeders at the Petco dollar a gallon sale. There are a lot of other fry in my fishroom at the moment, too; I needed the space.
I suppose you want to see some pictures. This is left hand female, and dominant male.
First two spawns are in a "warm" tank, about 82 F. Last two are a bit cooler, around 77 F. I hope to test the idea that sex ratios are temperature influenced.
So what does one do with over 200 trifasciata fry?
