weiquan's Hypancistrus sp. L400 spawned

[weiquan]

Hi peeps,

I have 3 adult L400, 1 female and 2 males. Recently they spawned and this is my 1st exprience and i would like to share it with you all.

The female L400
L400female.jpg

bottom view of her

L400femalebottom2.jpg

The male L400

L400male1.jpg

bottom view of him

L400malebottom.jpg

so recently they got jiggy with it. The male trapped the female inside his cave and they were inside the cave for days and when finally the female escaped i saw the male guarding the eggs.

caveegg.jpg

With days of torch light shining i could see a egg being kicked out partially. But the next day i believed the dad brought it back in lol.



But unfortunately, 2 days later i found 2 eggs outside the cave. They were both stuck together and 1 egg was already montionless. The other egg had a head already and was wiggling for its life. I quickly placed them into a breeder trap with maximum bubbling.



The next day the dead egg started rotting or rather fungusing and it detached from the alive egg. Thank godness! haha I quickly removed and did a though clean up of the breeder trap. I was worried if it did not dettach itself the fungus would spread to the alive egg. I figured out that the dad must have kicked out the dead egg and the poor living egg was unlucky enough to be attached together and out he went lol...

Here is the alive egg still wiggling once in a few seconds waiting to finish up its egg sac. In a few days i would be placing all the babies in the breeder trap to feed manually once the egg sac is finished up. This alive baby is a good guage for me too see when i should harvest the babies.



i hope you all enjoyed reading my mini adventure!

Regards,
weiquan

[Quixotic]

Congratulations on the spawn. How many eggs were there in total?

Besides the close up shots, I think a lot of us would also be interested on the entire setup, so an overall tank shot would be greatly appreciated.

[Gecko]

Congratulations! I believe this is the first recorded case locally...

[celticfish]

SWEET!!

I think the "egg" that got kick out halfway is already a wriggler.
Youcan see the shadow of its tail.
Tha shape of the yolk also indicates that they are wrigglers.
The male and female are definitely fertile!
And it looks like a good size and healthy lot too!

btw how long have you had them?
And what size are they?

[Merviso]

Well done bro! Congratulations!

It's always a great joy to see breeding reports... Cheers!

[weiquan]

I not sure about their sizes of the dad and mum now but im very sure they are more than 3.5 inch TL. I have not had a chance to measure them.

Finally today i had the time to take the wigglers out. i was afriad if i waited another day a few wigglers might escape the cave. Because i could see the single wiggler in my breeder trap swimming all over the space he had.

and here they are.. lovely right?



Spots are already starting to appear.



actually until now i do not know the exact number of eggs i have and i do not have the patience to count them yet but i believe they are between 17 -19 pcs. i accidentally broke a egg sac of one of the wigglers when i was transferring them and it died instantly. i still feel bad about it until now.

Here is a close up of one single piece.




and finally after placing back the cave, i could see the dad searching the cave for his babies. He is really a responsible dad






one more thing to share here is a picture of the dad's tail a month before they started to spawn. I believed he fought with another male or maybe the female?? but he got most of his tail bitten off lol. The tail has totally regenerated now under my TLC look at the picture above.






thanks for reading!

Cheers,
weiquan

[Gecko]

Very nice! By the way, can you share why you decide to remove the babies to raise separately? There are good cases either way....

[weiquan]

hello gecko. Impressive collection of L173 by the way. i hope they start breeding for you in the near future.

Anyway my main consideration was as days passed i could see the egg sac getting smaller. Im afraid the babies might start to wonder out of the cave because as mentioned the single wiggler in my breeder trap was already swimming all over the breeder trap. You be surprised how strong the wiggler can swim with such a big egg sac lol.

Once they wonder out and they finish their egg sac im afriad they wont be well feed because im going to feed frozen daphnia which might be difficult to be found by the juveniles in my substrate. So i decided to place them inside a breeder trap to manually feed them until they grow till a suitable size.

i will try to post pictures as they progress during my free time.

[Gecko]

Thanks. I think your method would ensure higher survival rate. You might want to consider hikari sinking carni tablets as well. When you release them back into main tank, you will need a drift wood that has a cave like interior for them to hide together, try to find a spot out of the current. Looking forward to update of their progress.

I think also that you have proven that a 2 Male:1 Female is a viable ratio for a Hypancistrus breeding project. A great reference.

[eeeeemo]

wq they all have nice blue eyes! =)
they have definitely grown quite a bit since you removed the sole kick out fry.

next week i go your house see see okay?
i not using my hp .. its spoilt. so just pm me on msn.

[Savant]

Hey... congratulations on the spawn....

Is this a species tank?

Do keep us updated with the developments

[genes]

Congrats! The fries are looking good. How did you remove the fries? Net them out 1 by 1?

[cyclops]

Congrats! How many fries are there? Keep us posted on the survival rate okay and good luck!

[weiquan]

i did a final count just after my dinner. this pair total produced 24 eggs which i have 22 left now. 1 egg fungused and died as shown in the above pictures and 1 was accidentally killed.

actually i have a 1.5 feet tank on standby already cycling. Im still deciding wherther i would move the babies over in the near future or let them roam around with their parents.

Gecko thanks for your suggestion.

The babies have started to show more of thier spots and they are very much active in the breeder trap. Shall take some pictures maybe tomorrow.

Bro Calvin its a species tank. 2 male 1 female.

Genes i used a small syringe. By pushing water against the wigglers to force them to flow into my breeder trap. I recalled that they were quite stubborn actually. Using a net or fingers risk breaking their egg sac, keep that in mind when its your turn.

JY please buy a new phone soon. you are welcome anytime

[Pantera]

Amazing walkthrough and congratulation! Lovely fries there and really an eye opener and motivation for newbie like me to look up to

[weiquan]

Appreciate the comment. im not too exprienced myself. Still learning the ropes actually.

But i started out reading threads like you.

Cheers.

[weiquan]

i took some pictures after dinner today.

I seem to have caught the attention of one of the wigglers lol. can you spot it?




here is a solo picture.



and here are the peeps lining up for the camera!




Does anyone have any idea roughly how long it takes for them to finish up their egg sac. Or i just have to wait and find out myself ?

[johannes]

congrats bro... nice adults and cute fries!!!

[weiquan]

thanks bro johannes. This is nothing compared to your wild bettas.

[weiquan]

some updates on the juveniles.