Peacock Gudgeon

[ashley55]

i got a pair of these during boxing week at Big Als. I wasn't sure if I had a pair or not because they looked pretty much the same, except one had black edging over all fins and one only had it on the anal fin- the male as I now know. The male has also quickly developed his head 'bump' and looks pretty funny!
Anyways, sunday night I noticed that neither was to be seen in the tank. I lifted up the fake rock cave and found them along the roof spawning! The male is still guarding his eggs, however he now comes out to find food and chase the female. I'm not sure when to expect fry as I have read a lot of different opinions on hatching times. Some say 48hrs and some say as long as 7 days. Only time will tell I guess.

The tank:
-5gallons
-air corner filter
-temp 70degress
-hardness 12KH
-pH 8

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v429/ontariobetta/other/fish090.jpg

[CACAdmin]

Really cool. I'm looking forward to hearing more about this pair and how many wee ones you get out of this spawning.

[vince0]

Cool project, I kinda want to try this species one of these days so ill be following your thread closely! Best of luck!

[Dan_G_Calgary]

awesome! I have bought 4 of them so far. 2 at natures corner in edmonton, but they have turned out to be the same sex. Then I picked 2 more up at a store in Calgary that shall remain nameless. They were sickly and never made it out of the quarantine tank. :mad:

Good luck with them! Looking forward to reading about your success on them!

[ashley55]

Well all the eggs are gone today :mad:

I notcied the male was out exploring the tank and the female was under the cave. The female has a large yellow belly again so I think she is wanting to spawn again. Next time I am going to remove the female once they spawn, I think it may have been her munching on the eggs

[CACAdmin]

Sorry to hear the eggs are gone but we learn through these experiences and trial and error. Hopefully, they'll spawn again soon.

[ashley55]

They are looking like they are going to spawn again soon, the male is displaying at the female a lot. So this time around I am going to seperate the female once they spawn and see if that helps.

Managed to snap some pics of them courting
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v429/ontariobetta/other/fish126.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v429/ontariobetta/other/fish127.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v429/ontariobetta/other/fish130.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v429/ontariobetta/other/fish131.jpg

[vince0]

Cool pix! How do you tell the males from the females?

[ashley55]

The males have a 'hump' head, where the females are more streamline. The females also have a yellow belly and black edging along there fins

[CACAdmin]

Great pics! They sure are pretty.

[ashley55]

Well they spawned again last week. This time they spawned under the corner filter, I dont even know how they both managed to fit under there, the male barely can get under it! I have a sand substrate and after a few days it seemed that the males constant fanning of the eggs has managed to bury them under the sand. So he gave up and left his little cave. I took a turkey baster and managed to dig up a few, they look pretty close to hatching. I can see little eyes on some of them! Now just wait and see!

[GaryofMontreal]

I tried so hard to eggs eggs from those beautiful fish, at least three times. You lucky so and so! :yes:

[CACAdmin]

Congrats, Ashley. ::D:

[bae3]

I tried so hard to eggs eggs from those beautiful fish, at least three times. You lucky so and so! :yes:

I still remember an anecdote in one of your TFH columns about the meter reader (or some similar functionary) boggling when your peacock gudgeons swam out from their maze of java moss. (I have no idea why I remember things like this and not the important stuff.)

[ashley55]

I have fry! They started hatching yesterday. I think there is maybe 10 of them, its hard to tell they move so fast! They are quite small, about the size of week old betta fry. Ive started feeding them microworms. There are still 3 eggs that haven't hatched yet but they look very close to it.

[GaryofMontreal]

:notworthy:

[ashley55]

I just checked on them and the adults are spawning again! I have a feeling I am going to be over run soon :yes:

[moose113]

congrats on the spawn!

[bae3]

Congrats! They are such amazingly beautiful fish, I'm sure you won't have any trouble having too many on your hands.

[Dan_G_Calgary]

nice. They are very pretty and sounds like very prolific. I have been buying these to try and get a pair, so far I have ended up with 2 females surviving...

I doubt you will be overrun! pretty fish like that will sell quick on here or to your LFS, or your local club.

[ashley55]

So there were about 12 fry that hatched out. They are pretty active and always darting around the tank. I tried to take some pics but they are too small and fast. I am feeding them bbs and microworms, they prefer the bbs though it sees. Its pretty funny to watch them trying to catch bbs, they dart so fast that they end up going right by the bbs lol.
The eggs from the next spawn have dissapeard, I didn't remove the female because I wanted to see how it went with this batch first. I might try and raise the next one though. I'll get pics once they get a bit bigger

[Dan_G_Calgary]

That is awesome Ashley! grats!

I really like these little guys. It's a breeding project definetely that I would like to do some day.

[CACAdmin]

Congrats, Ashley. Looking forward to pictures.

[ashley55]

Just an update:
The 12 fry are doing great! Still too fast for me to get a good pic. They are starting to get colour now, so far just a black dot by the tail.
The parents have spawned again. This time they eggs hatched and there are fry in the tank! There are at least 4, its hard to see. I havn't been feeding them anything but they are growing fast, looks like the duckweek is providing enough buggies for them to eat. The parents just spawned again a few days ago to. :Smile:

[moose113]

Wow! Looks like they are really happy with your set up. Looking forward to seeing pics