Larger Notho species spawn later than smaller ones?

[erikthur]

IME smaller Nothos (rubripinnis, foerschi and palmquisti) breed early and are relatively proliferative. Larger Nothos, IME orthonotus and sp. Melela River, do not lay many eggs early on. Is this correct or have I missed something concerning maintainance and such?
Any tips on how to get my flat-bellied 3 cm 2 months old orthonotus females in a better mood? Chopped night crawlers? Swimming with Endlers or what?

[TyroneGenade]

Hello,

This is kind of a trend... N. furzeri get just as big as ornothotus but they spawn from 4 weeks! It seems more to do with overall longevity based on the duration of the habitat. N. foerschi etc... can live a long time, but their habitats can appear and vanish very fast so they have to be productive early on as well as for a long time. N. sp. Melela River lives in a very wet area and the water lasts a long time (same as for N. rachovii Beira) and so they can take it easy, putting more energy into size. N. orthonotus should be spawning by now, but you have to feed them very heavily. Earthworms are just what is needed. They start spawning from about 4-6 weeks and don't lay good eggs beyond about 12 weeks, where upon they deterioate in healthy, but may live for 9 to 12 months looking really bad.

Long lived fish, also seem dumber. They take much longer to take to a spawning container than short lived species.

tt4n

[stormhawk]

Tyrone, that's a fair bit of useful info there.

Ahh, so earthworms are the trick with orthonotus?

[Svein]

Interesting, and sorry for my ignorance but is this what you call earthworm? http://www.toyen.uio.no/ekle_kryp/kr...meitemark.html
Svein

[stormhawk]

Svein, that's right. Those are earthworms. Some images I found on the web.



Image of an earthworm from http://www.york.ac.uk .

Probably a species from the UK but most of the earthworms generally look like these. Some people use them in compost heaps to break down kitchen scraps and turn them into compost for the garden. I suppose you can find these quite easily in Norway?

[Svein]

Indeed, even in Norway we have a lot of compost and earthworm We normally use them fishing trout.
Thanks
Regards
Svein

[erikthur]

Thanks Tyrone for input,
I went to the local bait shop and bought some more worms today (BTW my main food source for my lonely heart Megalebias elongatus male) and the chopped worms are at least a success taste-wise. I hope I will get eggs in return. I had a lonely heart Notho orthonotus male earlier who grew well but stopped eating (and got velvet) at approx 5 months old. So you are probably right about it is time to put some more effort into the breeding.

[erikthur]

I am happy to report that I could collect 40 orhonotus eggs this morning.
They loved the chopped worms they are getting at least every other day.

[RonWill]

...in Norway we have a lot of compost and earthworm

Svein,
I've been supplementing the mac's diet with young composting worm from my vermiculture, which recycles vegetable waste to good stuff for my terrestrial plants.

Others may scorn having worms in the kitchen but that's just me

Here's a bunch of it...


BTW, the macs love it!!! just don't overdo it

and oh, I love trouts... steamed or BBQ'ed <yummy!!>

[RonWill]

They loved the chopped worms they are getting at least every other day

Erik, I think we just found out what makes some fishes tick. Update us on how the orthonotus are doing.

I just thought of something. Why not start a vermiculture? If not for composting, at least for the killies... no? It's a good clean source of high protein food.

[nonamethefish]

Agreed. I don't know what you guys have to pay for worms over there but the system I started has paid back for itself...as buying worms from the baitshop can be expensive.

How the setup looked a few months ago.

[Scott_sg]

They are a great fish food, all the guys with big fish used to use them a lot. I also remember back in the early 80's some people were pushing them as alternative human food.. Apparently once the gut is clean they are almost pure protein.

Never tried them myself though.

Scott