Success hatching sjoestedi in Singapore

[bennyong19]

Anyone has sjoestedti in Singapore? Well I have 8 sjoestedti fry(aquarium strain) in my tank in Singapore, they are about 3 week old. Sex ratio equal.
For those not from Singapore, just let you know sjoestedti eggs very hard to survive here. In June, I bid in Aquabid for 50 sjoestedti eggs. The breeder was from Canada. One week later, the eggs in peat arrived, wrapped in aluminium foul and bubble wrap. It was written “collected 1st july 2008, wet 1st sep 2008”. On 8th of august 2008, I put the peat in water.( about 40 days ), within 1 hours I can see fry in the water . Total count I have 25 fry. 8 died on the first 3 days of hatch, 5 died a week later, antoher 4 died down the road.
The breeder Mr Kerry told me if i waited longer incubation period, the hatch and survival rate will be higher.

Sjoestedti is sexable at 2 weeks. Male has a big head, swallow v shpae body and aggresive. They started biting each other tail if kept in small tank and few died because of that. When fry are young, it will be good if can have light bulb-25w (not flourescent light please) shining few hours every day. It help them stay healthy and grow fast.
I think very soon, there will be many sjoestedti in Singapore. :P

[CM Media]

Hatching them here is not an issue. The challenge is to get them into breeding mood. Let's wait for your good news.

[mozaqua]

Hey, I have some Fp. sjoestedti 'Blue Gularis' eggs I am planning to hatch next week. I hope they do better than my A. australe did (only about 50% hatched). I am in Bangkok, not Singapore, but the weather is about the same here I think, I have only been to SG once though on business.
As far as the hatching times estimated by the guy in Canada, it always takes less time in a warmer climate. The difficulty is when you get eggs that are halfway developed, you should check them every two weeks to see how they are doing. I just hatched some N. eggersi (new location) from a guy in Bulgaria who had them labeled to hatch around January '09, so far 21 out of 30eggs hatched! I hatch eggs when most if not all visible eggs have developed( you can clearly see the eyes, tail ect. and the eyes will move toward the light).
Good luck with your stain, if we are both successful with them maybe we could arrange a trade.

[RonWill]

Hi 'Cobalt99' and welcome to the forum. Most of us here sign off in our names. We're a friendly lot and we don't bite, so do let us know how to address you.

For SJOs, my last attempt was also eggs from Canada but I suspect that the package was sitting in sun for too long. Due to personal commitments and a lack of time, I handled the eggs over to another forumer here to take charge of the wetting. He's not a newbie to fishkeeping but the experience frustrated him to no end. Of the 60 eggs I bought, not a single hatchling survived past the second day... ouch!!

One of our 'mistakes' was wetting once fully eyed up and I suspect that if we waited just a week longer or so, something might have survived. I realized also that SJO eggs are unlike annuals eggs, eg. Notho, where the peat can be safely re-wetted. Try that with the SJOs and you're likely to see eggs 'spoil' and disintegrate!

Hope you and Benny (welcome too!) will have better luck with them. Regardless whether the SJOs are aquarium strain or a definite population, they are still very grand and beautiful.

[mozaqua]

Thanks for the welcome Ron,
I was not trying to imply anyone here is an armature, just I have heard different hatching methods used for the semi annuals like Fp. sp. I hatched some Fp. gardneri after they were clearly eyed up and I am pretty sure 100% hatched. The first gardneri stain I hatched I did not wait until they were developed, just tossed them in the water right away like the guy told me to do, and only about 50% or so hatched! So from this I concluded to wait a bit longer to hatch the Fp sjoestedti. I am not sure exactly if I will get better results from the sjoestedti eggs with the above method, but its worth a shot I think.

-Mosiah

[bennyong19]

hi Ronnie, understand you all had a hard time hatching sjoestedti, want to try again?
The canadia breeder, kerry williams(bethdal) from aquabid sent me another 50 sjoe eggs free of charge. He ask me to try hatching them full 2 months incubation. Wet "6 dec 2008". Meantime my sjoestedti coming 3 monts old. I would like to hatch a small portion, but not all because i wont have rooms(tank) for all of them. Can pass you round 30 eggs, no condition attached, just let me know how many hatch so i can "report" to Mr Kerry. This is a die hard species, I am sure you can get 50-90 % hatch rate.
I saw sjoestedti mating in my tank few times, dont think they have a problem reproducing here. (remember put more plants, they love plants and shade when mating). I never collect the eggs becase they are still young will not produce many i think.
Hi cobalt99, thanks for your message. I am not keeping rachovii anymore, my interest now moving to sjoestedti and simpsonichthys puntulatus.

[RonWill]

Benny,
I gave my last egg purchase to my backup keeper and he was quite disappointed with the results. Can't blame him really, because judging from what I can see (in the peat), I couldn't have done any better.

Appreciate your offer for the eggs but since I'm quite tight on work schedules nowadays, it is ok with you if I propose giving my backup a second chance with the SJOs? I'm sure he'd be delighted.

I may have missed something but are you saying that your 3month old SJOs are spawning?? Can't be, right? Most non-annuals mature between 6~9 months and early spawns are either infertile or very small brood.

[bennyong19]

hi Ron, i can pass sjoes to your "backup" or friend. Know the few of you had a hard time hatching sjoes. My surroundig friends dont appreciate killies, they will feed to their arrowna.
You only need to pour age water onto the peat for the eggs to hatch.(Forget about putting in a bottle in pocket and shake it to hatch)
Do email me at [email protected] to arrange for collection. Good luck.

[mozaqua]

Update,

Out of my "50 eggs" probably from the same guy in Canada. Only 2 hatched, grown now but both Female.
I was really hoping to see the male.

Regards,