My A australe tank

[timebomb]

Hi, folks,

I thought I should show Francesco a picture of my Aphyosemion australe tank to convince him that if he does not remove the eggs or the parents, he will never see fry.



As you can see, the tank is heavily planted. I have something like 20 pairs of Chocolate australes inside. It's been at least 2 months since they were in the tank. I see them mating all the time but till today, I've yet to see a single fry.

Loh K L

[dageti]

Kwek Leong,

I only just saw this. and I kept posting in the other thread. here is what I had written:

thanks Loh for your reminder, I am going to move the trio to a dedicated tank with spawning mops or live plants (or both), I'll check daily for eggs, collect and incubate them separately to ensure the highest possible hatching/survival rate. the person who gave me the AUS never bothers to collect the eggs or remove the parents and still gets a few survivors, but I'd rather raise as many fry as I can.

it's a nice pic you posted, lovely group of 'chocolate' AUS (wish I could find some here) but I can well believe that with 20 of them inside no fry ever survived! most definitely convincing

a word of explanation: the community tank where my AUS are now has white clouds and threadfin rainbowfishes in it. the killies are getting along well with their tankmates. I only need a half day off, and the trio will have a 20 lt tank all for themselves, where I can breed them properly and collect eggs for separate hatching and raising.

I was considering using either live plants such as java moss and Najas, or mops as a spawning medium. I've been thinking about the pros and cons of both. in your experience, which one would you recommend?

also, a fellow fishkeeper friend came up with an interesting idea about using the commonly available, finely crushed volcanic rock (lapillo) as a bottom medium for unfiltered tanks. he's been using it with good results. it's only a bit dusty and needs rinsing off in water for a while. being porous, it should not go anoxic and should provide support for bacterial colonies. it looks like this:



I'd like to know what you think. any further advice on setting up my AUS tank is welcome!

regards,

francesco

[stormhawk]

Hi Francesco, I use lava rock in all of my canister filters. Ehfilav from Eheim. Works very well with my current setup.

[dageti]

Jianyang,

this is very interesting. I'd never heard about volcanic rock in canister filters before, I don't think Ehfilav is available here (no wait, it is...just found out). glad to hear that it works fine. what my friend was actually suggesting though, is that the lapillo be spread out on the tank bottom just like any other gravel or sand. the tank would have no filter and the lava rock bottom should act as support for the nitrifying bacteria. it may also supply beneficial minerals to the plants, but we have no evidence of this. it is mainly Na, K, and Al silicates..I'm hopeless in chemistry anyay.

regards,

francesco

[timebomb]

Francesco,

It's best to use a green spawning mop. If you use mosses, you will find it's very difficult to find the eggs later. The best method to incubate the eggs would be to put them on top of moist peat moss. Take a look at this thread to find out how Esther does it.

As for the volcanic soil you're using, do you know whether it's ph neutral?

Loh K L

[dageti]

Thanks Kwek Leong,
I'll go buy some green acrylic wool then. I always love a nice clump of moss or a bunch of Najas in a tank with live fish, but if that makes collection of the eggs difficult, I'd better drop in a few mops instead.

Esther's method is very interesting but I'm not sure if I got it right. are the eggs incubated on damp peat until eyed-up and then put into water for hatching, or is there water above the peat and the eggs hatch directly in it?

As for the volcanic soil you're using, do you know whether it's ph neutral?

I haven't used it yet, I thought I'd ask what you folks think of it first, so quite honestly, I have no data on how it may affect the pH. I'll try putting a handful of rock in a given amount of water with known pH and test it after 24 hours. not very scientific, plus it wouldn't tell us anything about the long-term effects, but may give us an idea.

regards,

francesco

[timebomb]

Esther's method is very interesting but I'm not sure if I got it right. are the eggs incubated on damp peat until eyed-up and then put into water for hatching, or is there water above the peat and the eggs hatch directly in it?

Sorry I took so long to answer your question, Francesco. I wanted to but forgot all about it.

The eggs are incubated on top of damp peat. The peat is just slightly moist so there's not enough water for the fry to survive. You have to keep an eye on the eggs. When they are near to hatching time, pour the peat together with the eggs into a container of water and wait for them to hatch. At our temperatures, it takes about 8 days for australe eggs to hatch. Esther is so good with this method she can time the hatching of the eggs down to the nearest hour. The last time she came to my house with a container of eggs, she asked me to wet them immediately. And sure enough, half an hour after I poured the eggs into water, they hatched.

Loh K L

[dageti]

thank you Kwek Leong,
I'll try both water incubation and Esther's method as soon as I collect my first batch of eggs. I am not sure how long it takes for eggs to hatch in our climate. would it be a good idea to keep the container with the water and the eggs afloat in a heated tank, under the lights, at about 27°?

I hope I can tell when the eggs are ready to hatch, I have no experience...I'm impressed anyway. Esther certainly has 'the touch'. I'd be happy if I had half her skill. I'll be posting pics of my AUS setup as soon as it's done.

regards,

francesco

[Kiccoro]

Hi dageti.. how's everything with your AUS setup? I had a great time and a most wonderful experience with my australes, and I guess I was just super duper lucky that everything turned out to be smooth sailing, esp with the breeding.... though all my fishes have advanced to the rainbow bridge in tubifex heaven now [-o< . KL always compliments me on the way I breed the australes, but I have to keep reminding him that I learnt every single thing from HIS killifish website and through HIS personal guidance. What am I without KL?

As the Chinese saying goes, Never forget the source of the water you are drinking.....

[timebomb]

As the Chinese saying goes, Never forget the source of the water you are drinking.....

There's also a Chinese proverb that says, "The next wave pushes the last one", meaning "There's always a new person who will eventually be far better than you are, in whatever you're doing".

You would have been fine without me, Esther. Killies.com gave you a start but as far as breeding australes is concerned, you were by far, much more successful than me.

Loh K L

[wcknight]

Speaking about spawning Australes...

Is there some magical secret to getting them started. I've had a trio since May in a 70 liter aquarium (20 gallon long) with Java moss and I have yet to see a single egg.

The water is slightly alkaline (7.2) with moderate hardness (about . Will they only spawn in soft acid water. I recently (about 2 weeks ago) out in a bowl with preboiled peat moss.

Should I consider getting an RO unit or rain water to get the softness a lot lower ?

They are eating well with grindal worms and BBS. but so far, no eggs... They were about 1 and 1/2 inch when I got them. They are only slightly larger now almost 6 monthe later.

Wes

[dageti]

Esther,
thanks very much for your interest, I hadn't read the forum in a few days, sorry I took this long to reply.

I'm afraid I am doing very badly with my australe. since I moved the trio to a dedicated tank with lots of java moss and two green mops, they looked pretty inactive, though still healthy, and generally not so happy as they were in the community tank. I collected very few eggs, half of which fungused. on top of that, the fish got whitespot and although I cured it in no time, I lost the male to some form of respiratory failure. now I'm left with two females that don't look too well, half a dozen eggs incubating and one single fry. brilliant, huh?

I feel ashamed of this disaster and I can't help thinking that I shouldn't have moved the fish to another tank in the first place, since they looked so healthy and happy in the community tank. the new setup was just meant to be the ideal home for AUS, but somehow I got it wrong. hopefully I will be able to raise some fry and keep the females alive, then I may get a new male and try again. the guy who gave me the fish doesn't know about the loss yet, and he may not be too pleased with the news.

as for Wes's question, I'm pretty obviously not qualified to give anybody any help breeding AUS right now. I do wish him good luck and trust that he'll succeed with your advice. thanks all for your interest and help, a special acknowledgement to Jianyang for providing great online company over the last few days. er, nights.

best regards,

Francesco

[keehoe]

Speaking about spawning Australes...

Is there some magical secret to getting them started. I've had a trio since May in a 70 liter aquarium (20 gallon long) with Java moss and I have yet to see a single egg.

The water is slightly alkaline (7.2) with moderate hardness (about . Will they only spawn in soft acid water. I recently (about 2 weeks ago) out in a bowl with preboiled peat moss.

Should I consider getting an RO unit or rain water to get the softness a lot lower ?

They are eating well with grindal worms and BBS. but so far, no eggs... They were about 1 and 1/2 inch when I got them. They are only slightly larger now almost 6 monthe later.

Wes

Hi Wes, I am keeping some AUS aquarium strain. They do quite well in PH 6.8-7.2 (dirty peat water - water from tap through filter). You might have to separate them to fuel the disire.

[selena]

Hi Wes,

Is there some magical secret to getting them started. I've had a trio since May in a 70 liter aquarium (20 gallon long) with Java moss and I have yet to see a single egg.

The australes trio was the first killie a gift from KL 10 months ago. I never give them much attention, except frequent water change and twice daily tubiflex worms. Once a week I will scrub the tank and do a 100% water change. To aid spawning I treat them a dose of my secret wicked brew. The trio had given me so many babies that at one period I had 70 swimming in a 2 footer. My life finally went back to norm only after I pull out the mop. You know how tired you can get if you have to pick eggs night after night, water incubated them, check for any fry hatched and transfered to grow-up tank. And not forgetting hatching of BBS for the fry!!

Wait till you get eggs then you will start moaning like me


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Selena.