Snatching nests

[Gianne Souza]

Hello~

I’m sorry if this topic has come up before (I’m sure it has – I remember reading it somewhere…) but I can’t find on the forum how to either snatch nests or move parents. I recently moved and had to put fish on the back burner for a while, but my P. linkei have been spawning every 2 weeks but no fry, probably due to predation, since I can see the fry develop to hanging but no free-swimming fry.

Since they are spawning in film canisters, it would be very easy to snatch the nest and put it into a different tank. When I’ve done this with Betta burdigala, I had almost 100% survival when I floated them in a shallow container and added a little fungicide. Can this technique be used with licorice gouramies as well?

Thank you!
Gianne

[Pavel Chaloupka]

Hello Gianne,
removing the nest, I would suggest to wait for the larvae to turn black. Once they do, you can simply remove the film canister and place it in to the container. If you have the water right, you should not need any fungicide at that stage anymore. I use the exact same way as one would removing a betta nest. Put some water from the parental tank in to the container and gently scoop the film canister with it or use the other hand to place it in to the container depending on conditions. In case some of the larvae get out from the cave, no need to worry, they develope just as well.

[Peter Finke]

[quote=”Gianne00″ post=5615]Hello (…) I’m sorry (…) but my P. linkei have been spawning every 2 weeks but no fry, probably due to predation, since I can see the fry develop to hanging but no free-swimming fry.[/quote]

Be patient. That’s quite normal. Young Paros don’t swim freely around just after leaving the cave. They hide (for instance in leaves at the bottom) and eat microorganisms (which are there if it’s an older set up). If you feed the adults with freshly hatched brine shrimp the young will get their share. You will probably see young fishes free swimming in four or six or eight weeks time. Not earlier. It’s always like this.

[Jolanda Wisseborn]

Hello Gianne,

What Peter Finke says will happen if you have enough hiding spaces, beechleave or oakleeves will help them also, I leave these in until they are totally gone. Next to Javamos or peat, that will also work. I have 3 pairs and they spawn regularly, I also tried the snatch Methode but found out that they wouldn’t breed anymore. Linkei Larve wil not get black, but will stay light like bettafry 🙂
Hope this helps. 😉

[Gianne Souza]

Hi all!

I am so incredibly happy! I still have yet to get fry to survive from my linkei, even though they have spawned and had several clutches since my original posting (I suspect one of the parents must be a fry eater 🙁 ). However…I found fry from my tweediei this morning!! This was so surprising since I’ve never seen a nest and these were received as fry from Lawrence in January! 🙂 They colored up as adults after the move and they are clearly active!!

I fed paramecium this morning since I did not have any freshly hatched brine shrimp available. There are also a lot of microorganisms with the Indian Almond Leaves I think. I’ll start up the hatchery after work 🙂

I was wondering how long I could leave the fry in with the parents. They are currently in a 22 litre aquarium with lots of Indian Almond Leaves and packed with java moss. Will the parents continue to spawn with young juveniles in the tank? Or will the juveniles eat successive generations?

I also only found fry in my tank with a single pair. My tank with a trio of tweediei have not had any fry show up yet. Is this normal for trios?

Thanks everyone for helping me along my paro journey. I really appreciate it!

Cheers
Gianne

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