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My p.filamentosus just spawned last night and i have a mystery snail with them. Will the snail eat the eggs? Its inside the pvc piping with the eggs right now?
Snails are of course not a good thing to have around eggs, – they will probably eat these. However, its rather difficult to have a tank without snails, – I certainly have these from time to time.
But if you can – try to get it out – I think that would be my advice. However it might not be so easy, and its a balance between getting the snail out, and not disturbing the fish.I’ve moved the snail but had to pickup the pvc pipe. I tried my best to not cause any eggs to drop. Currently the male is moving back and forth between my pvc pipes but he seems to be active around the one with eggs. Just not staying in it as long as before, hopefully its just for the time being.
How long does it take the eggs to hatch? Whats a typical timeframe from spawning hatching fry free swimming, taking baby brine shrimp/microworms to adulthood? I’ve also been trying to procure vinegar eels but its to cold to ship any right now. There’s quite a few specialized betta shops here so hopefully they carry some but most only carry brine shrimp eggs, microworms, blackworms and currently glassworms.
Thanks for the response on the snail. I usually keep mystery snails in tanks i breed but those were either mouthbrooders or very prolific spawners so i didn’t care about survival rate as much.
How many fish is in the tank ?
In fact, I think, if the paro male has accepted one cave, it could confuse him if theres more. There is no need to have several options – as long as he does seem to have picked one out.
About hatching and so …
Plus – minus – the eggs will hatch in about 2 days, – and the larvae will develop for about a week more, hanging in the nest. The larvae will stay in the cave after free swimming stage for a few days .. depending on individuals, or on the cave. After this the male will loose interest.
Its really difficult to say much about feeding – at least I am unable to – once the free swimming fry has left the cave I am totally unable to spot them for weeks, – maybe others have experience with intensive breeding where they follow the fry more closely, – but in my tanks, – they dissappear.
I feed – a little bit randomly – in the beginning with paramecium, – infusoria – or in fact, if the breeding takes place in tanks which are ‘old’ and settled, and where by itself small organisms are available, I might not feed the fry really. Quite often I dont know if theres any fry present, so I dont feed, – but they find food anyway. Until suddenly they appear feeding alongside the adult fish when I feed artemias.But if I know theres fry, – I will feed the paramecium for some time, – at the same time as there are adult in the tank, so also feeding artemis. I will maybe after a week feed a few times with microworms, – or vineager eels are a good alternative.
But its hard to say precisely, – I cannot, – maybe someone else can. And it really is difficult because you don’t know for quite a while whether any fry has survived or not. They are simply too small and so good at hiding in the smallest bit of dust or gravel.No fries yet! Give me a few days or weeks to see if i can get some to survive!
As for how many i have, just the pair and i have moved snails and the lone ghost shrimp out. I had three pvc pipes in there, the thinking behind it was to provide options. But maybe I’ll stick to just one after this batch.
Anyways seems like the male transferred most the eggs to one of the other pvc pipes. Will be interesting if he moves them all or not. And if not to see if both locations hatch.
If there is one pair in a small tank, then one cave is enough. Especially the slim species ornaticauda and parvulus are prepared to move eggs from the cave in which the spawning took place to another, if there is another one.
The cave should be placed in such a way that you could look easily into it with a torch. If you have seen the eggs, the light young larvae, the darkening of the larvae some days later, still hanging on the ceiling of the cave, and finally their dashing around with the male trying to catch them and bring them back, everything still within the cave: then perhaps a week after spawning the larvae will leave the cave and you will not see them, especially if the floor of the tank is covered with leaves of oak or beech.
Only weeks later you will find one, two, three and finally more very small young mostly beneath the surface. But you have to feed whole the time tiny amounts of Rotatoriae, Paramecium and finally freshly hatched (!) very small Artemia naupliae.
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