Fish-keeping

Graham

Hatching and raising Corydoras paleatus (Pepper cory) by Peter Bennett

Corydoras paleatus
Image via Wikipedia

Author – Peter Bennett

Equipment used

  • 2 litre clip lip tub (5mm hole drilled in lid)
  • Interpet API air pump
  • 30cm length of airline
  • Double airline valve
  • Plastic measuring jug
  • Turkey baster
  • Chopstick
  • Face cloth
  • Stanley knife blade
  • 10 litre container
  • Interpet Liquifry No. 1
  • Interpet Liquifry No.2
  • Tetra Babymin
  • Tetra Tabimin
  • Java moss

Method

This species laid a few eggs on the aquarium glass. I used a clean Stanley knife blade to carefully scrape them off and placed them in a bunch of Java moss in a 2 litre tub three-quarters filled with tank water. I put the tub on top of the fish tank hood with the face cloth under it. I rigged up the airline to the pump and valve then threaded it through the hole in the lid. I then adjust the valve until there was about one bubble every second.

I filled the 10 litre container with clean water and used this for water changes. I changed about a third of the water twice daily – using the turkey baster and chopstick to avoid losing any eggs or fry. The eggs hatched after 5 days and I started to feed the fry after 2 more days. I used just 1 drop of Liquifry No. 1 with each water change to begin with. After about 2 weeks I started to feed Tetra Babymin and crushed Tetra Tabimin.

At the time of writing (some 6 weeks after hatching) the baby corys are 10 – 12mm in length and very healthy. The temperature of the water was 24 – 25oC and the pH about 6.6.

Graham

Aquatic Snails – Fish Channel.com

Melanoides tuberculatus
Image via Wikipedia

Pest aquatic snails are most commonly ramshorn snails, tadpole snails and turret snails. Ramshorn snails (Planorbis spp.) have flat, spiral shells and most are small (less than a quarter-inch across). Tadpole snails or pond snails (Physa and Physella spp.) have bulbous, translucent-brown shells up to a half-inch long. They lay their eggs in distinctive jelly-like clumps. Turret snails or Malayan livebearing snails (Melanoides tuberculata) have conical shells up to an inch long with purple flecks. They are nocturnal and prefer to burrow through sand, but are sometimes active by day.

A decent article on snails from Neale Monks Ph.D.

Read more here – Fish Channel.com

Graham

Corydoras guapore – breeding success

Back in August I reported my Corydoras guapore had spawned and that I was hoping for some fry. I’m happy to report that I was able to raise fry from several different spawnings. In all I have raised around 60 fry and managed to sell some at the Catfish Study Group‘s annual auction last week.

guapore_fry_6weeks
Fry at around 6 weeks

Here is a short video showing some of the fry and a full account will be published on Planet Catfish in due course.

Graham

Word of the week – buccal

Cyphotilapia frontosa with fry in mouth Photo ...
Cichlid with buccal cavity full of fry - Image via Wikipedia

This week’s word is buccal.

Pronounced – BUCK-ill

Meaning – relating to the cheeks or the mouth cavity.

Origin – from the latin word bucca, meaning cheek.

Example usage – mouth-brooding cichlids hold eggs in their buccal cavity.

Trivia – hamsters and chipmunks are famous for stuffing their buccal cavities with food. In humans a cosmetic surgeon can carry out buccal fat removal surgery to cure what is known as “chipmunk cheeks” in well to do women.

Graham

Word of the week – gravid

Pregnant guppy, named Betta, in author's aquarium
Gravid female guppy

This week’s word is gravid.

Pronounced – GRAH-vid

Meaning – carrying developing young or eggs.

Origin – from the latin word gravis, meaning heavy.

Example usage – a gravid female guppy can give birth to many fry.

Trivia – gravid is usually used to refer to livebearing fishes but it can also be used to describe female fish that are full of eggs.

Graham

Limia zonata by John Reid

Common Name: Striped limia
Location: Dominican Republic
Temperature: 72°C – 75°C
Size: Male 4cm, Female 5cm
Food: lettuce, spirulina flake, live white worms, brine shrimp various frozen food and flake

These small limias are live bearers and closely related to guppies and mollies. They are a very active fish, always on the move mid-water. They are a good community fish although they don’t have a lot of colour. As they are so closely related to guppies, mollies & other limias it’s not a good idea to keep them in the same tank as they will cross (or try to). It is however safe to put them in with platies, swordtails or any egg laying species (not that the male L. zonata seems to care who he tries to mate with).

Breeding

I have found that L. zonata have fairly small broods of fry. One of  the reasons for this could be that they will actively eat the fry unless you have supplied plenty of hiding spaces in the form of Java moss, Java fern, Indian fern, floating mops and large pebbles on the bottom. Once you see the fry I always remove the parents as this seems to give them a better start. The fry are large enough to eat fine flake, micro worm, and brine shrimp from day one. They grow quickly and by the time they are eight weeks old they are starting to sex out.

Closing note: if you notice that you have males in the tank, any females will probably be gravid

Graham

Word of the week – piscivore

A northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) caugh...
A piscivorous snake - Image via Wikipedia

This week’s word is piscivore.

Pronounced – PIH-sih-voar (rhymes with kiss her more)

Meaning – a fish-eater.

Origin – from the latin words piscis (fish) and vorare (devour).

Similar words – carnivore (meat-eater), herbivore (plant eater), omnivore (everything eater).

Example usage – A piscivore such as the pike cichlid preys on small fish.

Trivia – piscivore is also used to indicate a person who is fond of fish.

Graham

Word of the week – substrate

This week’s word is substrate.

Pronounced – SUB strait

Meaning – the material or surface layer in which plants grow.

Origin – from the Latin words sub – under and stratum – layer.

Example usage – Many catfish need a fine substrate such as sand rather than a sharp-edged material like some types of gravel.

Trivia – the word was originally “substratum”.

Sandy areas are a favored habitat for the comm...
Stingrays like a sandy substrate
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Graham

New Tank Syndrome

It’s a distressing fact that many fish die at the hands of inexperienced hobbyists (as well as experienced hobbyists who should know better). Often these fish die from what is known as New Tank Syndrome (NTS). In this article I’ll explain what NTS is and how best to avoid it.

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