Breeding the Epiplatys (Pseudepiplatys) annulatus

[TyroneGenade]

What are you feeding the adults? Baby brine shrimps? Crushed flake? What you feed the adults may be just as important as what the fry eat---which is why I'm asking.

The small fry will certainly feed on the infusorians in the tank but the bigger fry would need bigger food. I know from past experiance with other fish that unless one puts bbs into the parents tank the fry don't appear like in tanks where bbs is being fed to the adults.

regards

[andrewtyr]

Thanks a lot for the quick replies. It's really nice to hear from the experts themselves.

My Anns' staple food are Rainbow's Dried bloodworm, Tetra's fish flakes and once every 2 weeks, daphnia that Ian of Kingfisher sells (actually after seeing the residue of BBS, I thought this daphnia is just BBS!) and that's about it.

I read some of the older threads last night and it mentioned about shrimps feeding on the eggs, eggs being not fertilized and stuff. It seems that the odds are against the survivial of the fries. As mentioned, I have a big patch of floating plants but I constantly scape my background and so disturb the plants, which I believe lowers hatching of eggs.

i do observes the Anns and most of the time, the pair don't swim together, with the male chasing the female most of the time. But they do swim together sometimes, so is courtship over? or has it started?

[Al Baldwin]

I have a ten gallon tank with the surface covered with water sprite. There were 6 pairs placed in the tank and they have been feed BBS and Tim Addis's food. The fry are very small but usually can been seen hanging just under the surface. ANN are slow to colour up but if you watch the fry you will see signs of bars appearig on their sides. The alpha male rules the tank but I have not seen signs of true aggression only the usual display tactics between the other males. I feed the Addis food in the morning and then BBS in late afternoon. They line up to feed and you can immediately note the fry with swollen orange bellies. The adult ANN have very strong coloured blue eyes that almost shine.

[andrewtyr]

hi

I still remembered this old thread of breeding ANNs and has successfully bred some 9 little clowns. The breeding male has long died and I thought all was gone. Until I spotted some little fries and they were really small. That was about 2 months ago stuff and now they are about half an inch long and are very nosy creatures. I may have 9 sisters because there isn't any coloration at their back fins.

It's very exciting and I would like to try other killies when I setup a new tank. A killie planted tank.

[RonWill]

Andrew,
No problem digging up an old thread, so long it's relevant.

At half inch, the bandings on the little ANNs should be very distinct and males should have some caudal coloration.

Keep us updated whether you have an all girls team and let me know if I can help with some mates. (I love ANNs, btw)

It's very exciting and I would like to try other killies when I setup a new tank. A killie planted tank.

It's both exciting and addicting. Send us news when you've rigged up the killie setup.

[andrewtyr]

Yes, I think I may have a all-girls team. I have uploaded some shots of them. They are at different sizes at present. I think the eggs hatched at different periods. They are the few lucky ones because, I never knew my pair was mating and I cleared much of of the frogbits, salvina away. The males are more colourful.

ANNs are very shrimp friendly creatures and I like any fish that goes well with shrimp breeding. (There aren't many out there!) I am not sure if there is predation in the shrimp tank but I like the ANN brood custer together. Too bad, killies don't school. What a sight if they did!

[whuntley]

Many killies school, Andrew.

Have you seen any Lampeyes?

Wright

[andrewtyr]

This is a good thread about ANN , so I will try to keep things ANN-relevant.
Lampeyes are killies? heh, then it must be a non-annual one. I have never noticed my young ANNs school.

It could be due to either

1. They are non-schooling fishes. It is their heritary characteristic.
2. The environment is not hostile to them, reason being they are the only fishes around.
3. The environment is not hostile to them, reason being it's their breeding ground, where they have been familiar all their lives.

I have seen broods of ANNs in fish shops and they do not school.
They breed pretty readily too.

[Shae]

I understand, a couple of years ago a man here had great success with Epiplatys Annulatus, if i am correct he just did two simple things:

Seperated his male and females, put his females into a small heavily planted tank, with coarse gravel, feed the females up for a week, until there bellies were bulging with eggs, he then put the male in, before he knew it they were spawning, he left them in there for a week, then removed them, came back a week later, what do you know 100+ fry, feed them up for a week, then removed them into a bare bottom tank for heavy feeding.

Since then all that is ever seen here are male epiplatys annulatus, i have been after some for a long time know, i have never been in the right place at the right to time to even purchase males

Shae

[shortman]

Ronnie,

What your collection code of your Pseudepiplatys annulatus ?
From the image can't tell the different?

Can anyone identify the species?

Thanks

[stormhawk]

Hi Kho, I believe Ron's fishes are uncoded.

The current batch of fry growing up at his place are probably the latest offspring from crosses between the European sourced males imported by a fish farm mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, and females from the usual Asian farm-bred stocks, probably Indonesian in origin.

[keehoe]

Hi, Is there a red variation of annulatus?

[stormhawk]

Yes Kee Hoe there is. There's a strain with red pectoral fins. I think its called Monrovia Red. It is a very rare to uncommon strain in the hobby. Seldom offered for sale.

If I recall correctly the Dutch breeders may still have it.

[keehoe]

Thanks YangYang. I put that in my wanted list.

[RonWill]

Hi, Is there a red variation of annulatus?

Kee Hoe,
If you backtrack to earlier postings in this thread, you'll see that I'm also drooling for the 'red pect' ANNs (red pectoral fins). Now, if only I can get my hands on them...

Meanwhile, I'll experiment with ANN-E males and ANN-A females, selectively breeding them for the reds...

I made a bad mistake with my 1st ANN-E/A brood of 62 fry, by having them growout with some SPLs and P. signifer. All were harassed and/or eaten, since ANNs grow much slower.

This 2nd brood was raised with 'safe' companions; ramhorns, cory fry and cherry shrimps. Quite a crude looking tray but it works


The caudal bands are coloring up and these fellas deserves a spot in a larger tank [and I can better see them too!]

[cminghan]

just wan to share with you all,lampeyes is using the same way to breed...nice fish there

[RonWill]

Folks,
I've transferred the juvenile from the 2nd spawn, to a permanent setup, furnished with mostly java moss and Anubias. They've settled down rather quickly and for tankmates, there are Corydoras oiapoquensis, C. pygmaeus, C. hastatus and cherry shrimps.

The largest of the juvs is a 2cm male, from mouth to tip of caudal extension, and I detect red coloration at the anal fin.

You'll hear me holler if I see red pectorals!

[stormhawk]

That must have been the fella you were showing me last night.

By the way, it's looking more like the ones from Maboshi.

Refer to the ANN page on Tim Addis's website. The photo is by Alf Persson.

[RonWill]

just wan to share with you all,lampeyes is using the same way to breed...nice fish there

ANNs are my favourite, despite being less colorful than some Aphyosemion or Nothobranchius and yes, most lampeyes will also spawn like ANNs, including the larger Procatopus species.

However, lampeye eggs are huge, when compared to the annulatus.

BTW, "cminghan", I trust you're also aware of forum rules and look like it's time to edit your profile and signature.

[cminghan]

sorry i didnt notice that,anyway i am a new member for this forum....i was searching for this fish for so long in malaysia...only have it for few days.....and its about 5-6 yrs ago....from an aqua exibition over malaysia.
the farm is from johor and they will never sell out any female....even with thier killies....as i got this information from the counter from the farm.
was hoping so much to get this fish...but ....just keep dreaming....can never get a female killie in the market anyway....