celticfish's Hypancistrus sp. L173 odyssey

[celticfish]

Its been a long monotonous journey.
Much longer than my L046 trip.
Almost four times longer, mainly due to juvenile fish, but its DONE!!!

Dad's tail and the two suspect mums (high suspect on left).




Presenting the STARS of the thread...








This time around I'm afraid my pictures won't be as good as my zebra ones.
Benny's advise on 2mm float glass versus 6/8 mm glass comes to mind...
One can see the distortion on the pictures quite clearly.
I'm thinking of the christian names of Orion and Cassiopeia...
Mis-match of the hunter with the vain!

[johannes]

congrats! nice one bro!
santa's coming from "town" ...

[Champ-BKK]

Congrat!! Golden eggs.
Always nice pics.

5 pcs. for first spawn?

[desmondekker]

this is very exciting for the readers! may i check how long was the process of rasing the juveniles to breeding them?

[celticfish]

The month of March seems to be good to me.
My first journey with L046 also had first success in the month of March.

Wriggler count was 8 but two have passed on.
If you see the wrigglers pictures above the left-most one has an "empty space" between the yoke sack and the body.
I've notice that any wriggler with this symptom will inevitably die.
Just a matter of time that it happens.
And I haven't a clue what causes this or if its just a embryo development "mistake".
Sort of like bloat in every 20-30 wrigglers for Hypancistrus species.
The remaining 6 wrigglers are looking healthy and I'm quite happy with this first spawn of L173.

First sighting of two floating empty eggshells lead me to check the caves.
That was this past Sunday night 28th March.
So laid day should be 23rd March to night of 22nd March.

This dad seems to be a cool cucumber too.
Subjected to my inccessent "light sabre" to confirm the presence of wrigglers.
Fighting all the way to keep the wrigglers.
And finally, still "commanding" the cave in the aftermath of my disturbance.
I also sensed that everyfish was excited and concerned about the cave with the wrigglers.
They scooted off when my hands went in but re-appeared promptly to see the going-ons with the wriggler cave.
Made me feel quite bad... like a egg robber!

Anyways I'm now looking forward to 22nd April...



@ desmondekker,
Just about 11 months from the time I got them...

[StanChung]

Wow congrats Irwin- was just wondering when it was going to happen.

[genes]

Congrats man! First in Singapore!!! How big are the parents?

[celticfish]

Thank you people!
I can tell you the wait was looooong... a lot of hard work... and TLC!
The father should be about 3.2" and the female about 2.8".
No surprise he is not the largest fish in the group.
Sorry about the usual lack of quality for the pictures...
Its quite impossible to get a clear full-body shot in their setup without waiting for heaven to arrive...


This is the largest male whom I thought was going to be the winning bet.




This is the father with mum peaking from behind the cave.




And I'm now quite certain this is mum.
She's never too far from his cave... actually she never leave the side of the cave.
Hopefully they will be a bonded pair like Adam and Lilith.
If that happens... I promise now not to "drop the ball" like I did with Adam and Lilith as their keeper!!!!
God willing...

[noname777]

Congratulations!!!

[Fei Miao]

Congrats Irwin! Keep us posted on the developments!

[celticfish]

As requested more updates on the fry development!




























They seem to be starting to look like L046 fry in development.
The signature "M" has formed, the verticle stripe as the start of the caudal tail with two "spots" top and bottom of the tail, and the horizontal stripes along the body length.

[StanChung]

Looks like otos!

[BonjaLa]

Congratulations
The Babies really look very cute

[rage]

Bro, Congrats once again on a job well done.

[yorky]

hey bro, nice work there.. you're really a solid catty breeder. haha.

[celticfish]

Wah look what the cat dragged in... yorky!
Long time no "see".
Hope you get back into the hobby again really soon!


Now for more updates...
The most noticeable thing is their eye colour.
You can almost see the lines forming now.
From what I can see now I suspect when the lines firm up there will still be varying patterns in the fry.
BTW I was messing with the white balance hence the pink or blue cast in the pictures.
Need to work on that...




















Check out the torns in this shot!!!
I think it can pass as a Pseudacanthicus fry too.

[khtee]

Irwin, they are very very beautiful. I like , the growth rate seem very fast..... what you feed them?

[Champ-BKK]

Irwin, from pics not sure you got one snub nose. Ultraman ??

[celticfish]

You're right, it's not impossible looking at the pictures.
Also, I haven't really had the time to observe them in minutiae.
All the shots have been done "quick and sloppy"....
But I'm sure future update shot will eventually show if thats the case.

[weiquan]

Congrates irwin. love to see more pictures of the fry developments in months to come.