Fundulopanchax Nigerianus "Jos Plateau" Red

[vince0]

Hi Folks,

Last year, a fellow fish keeper some of you may know brought me back 2 bags of eggs from arizona. I have been raising these since november, and finally got them up to a good enough size to breed them. Last week, I noticed one of the female was getting a little beat up from the male, so I decided to remove her from the species tank in order to give her some rest. I also figured that this would let her eat as much as she wanted and start building up some eggs.

Last night, when I was going around to feed my fishroom (saying it never gets old!) I noticed that this female was getting quite full. I figured it was as good a time as any to put her back in with the male, and give the other female a well needed break.

This morning, I decided to check the mops, and was pleased to see the largest number of eggs ever removed from the mops. It must be noted that I have been pulling eggs from the mops in this tank for month, but I never have had viable eggs before. When all the mops were remove this morning, I noticed the female was still quite full looking, and the moment a mop was added back to the tank, the pair was back in spawning mode. I will be checking for more eggs tonight!

I'm hoping that by conditioning the female, I will be getting actual results rather than more dissapointments. This is the second killy I have been working on for almost a year, and my other project may or may not be a fail...

More To Come

Edit: I thought I would link the previous thread on this topic in case anyone had questions in regards to their care.

http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/forum/showthread.php?p=102244#post102244

[CACAdmin]

Glad to hear they're spawning for you. Best of luck, Vince.

[Dan_G_Calgary]

You made me laugh with the fishroom comment Vince. It never gets old for me either! :laugh:


Good info on how you conditioned the female to lay so many eggs. I may try that with a couple of difficult/uncooperative species!

[GaryofMontreal]

I find a well-conditioned pair of nigerianus will spawn for a few days - you might get 25 plus eggs the first day, and then drop by 5 or so for the days following.
You have to condition the male too - each egg is individually fertilized and the animal invests huge resources in sperm production. Feed them very well and if that Calgary water doesn't mess things up, you should get tons of quick growing fry.
A mistake I made in the past was rotating two females with one male - conditioning each female apart but always having one with the male. I found if I gave him a break too, fertility went way up.

[vince0]

I thought about that too Gary, so I pulled the female last night, once I felt she had laid enough eggs. The male is now by himself, and the females are in their own tank. I will try again in a few days and see what kind of results I get.

[vince0]

i have semi given up on these. I moved the trio over to a 10 gallon tank and it seems to have given them enough room so that the females don't get roughed up too bad. Im still collecting eggs, but have yet to have any fertile eggs.

I should probably get another tds meter so that I can drop the TDS in the tank safely and see if that changes anything.,