Fundulopanchax gardneri nigeranius 'Misaje'

[nonamethefish]

Now that the weather is warming up I need to convince this pair to breed. Also have a smaller male from a different bloodline which appears to show more profuse red on the body. Note that the flash washed out the blue sheen.

[nonamethefish]

The pair is now putting out lots of eggs(in my view...I've collected 30 viable ones in less than a week). They'd better, as I've been feeding them like royalty...some live adult brine shrimp, lots of daphnia, mosquito larvae, blackworms, cut up redworms...and the rare flakes. Since they are part of a SMP not all will be mine to play with but I will also be getting some new stock in soon from someone else. If things go really well I plan to take a few males to one of the LFS here so they can have some "real" killies to show and maybe interest someone else in killies...

As for the eggs, I am currently playing with a method one guy mentioned for australe on killitalk...keeping the eggs in chlorinated(tap)water and changing often.


Female flaring at reflection in the mirror. This is her after dumping her eggs.




The current breeding male. This guy shows more red and yellow than the one pictured above.

[Piscesgirl]

Good looking fish -- chlorinated water to fight fungus?

[whuntley]

It kills bacteria.

Fungus never appears on live eggs, but infertile or bacterially infected dead eggs eventually fungus. In this situation, unlike between your toes, fungus is the clean-up crew just removing the dead tissue. It gets blamed a lot, because we cannot see the bacteria or lack of fertilization.

A rinse in chlorinated water just after collecting seems to work for Lee Harper and others who have had problem species. It is weak, maybe 1-2 ppm, just like in city tap water.

The exposure is brief, and does no damage to the chorion, apparently. Chlorine, Hydrogen Peroxide, Ammonia and other powerful oxidizers do most damage to delicate gill and skin tissue. The egg is often pretty tough.

Wright

[nonamethefish]

I'm not so sure about fungus only attacking bad eggs. When I tried storing these eggs on peat all but 1 quickly turned white and fungused. In tap water a few go bad but most look viable. Or could I be simply keeping dead eggs from getting cleaned up?

Anyway, the breeding males(I've got a reverse trio) switched places today. I couldn't resist letting them have at it for a while...


The challenger. 1st shot off the camera boy I was surprised.




Home court advantage for this guy? For those who've watched these and other killies he is currently doing that shimmying move which seems to demonstrate the fish's strength.






So far everyone is playing by the rules which makes for lots of nice photos...






Then frustration sets in...despite being rather uneven neither fish is willing to back down. Seeing the photo oppurtunities are over I get the net ready to remove the smaller guy so the bigger one can has his turn in the breeding tank.


Ok guys get over it!


I think the order of operations in a male Fp. gardneri mind goes like this.

1. Females 2. eliminating other males 3. food

They've got their priorities straight!

[whuntley]

I'm not so sure about fungus only attacking bad eggs. When I tried storing these eggs on peat all but 1 quickly turned white and fungused. In tap water a few go bad but most look viable. Or could I be simply keeping dead eggs from getting cleaned up?

Did the clear ones in water eventually get eyes and hatch?

Eggs that turn white right away are invariably unfertilized, IME. Good when it happens, so they can be picked out and trashed.

Yes, I have used dyes, like acriflavin and methylene blue to keep totally unfertilized eggs clear for weeks. Unfortunately, they never actually developed and hatched, but I sure kept them from fungusing with those strong antibacterials. It does happen.

Wright

[whuntley]

PS. How was your peat handled? It is easy to kill eggs if the peat is not adequately boiled and rinsed before use. This is particularly true if it contained fertilizer or insecticides (most don't).

Wright

[nonamethefish]

You brought up a good point there. I did not boil this batch of peat. However, the peat doesn't contain to the best of my knowledge fertilizer or insecticides(I've used it to grow a few carnivorous plants so if it had fertilizer it would be obvious by now).

Its only been a week or so so no hatching yet. Most of the eggs are clear with what appears to be some cells inside of them. A few are slightly opaque so I'll be removing them.

[nonamethefish]

This method works(at least for me ) eggs are eyeing up. Hoping they will hatch now...moved to seperate container with tank water.

Edit: 3 fry now