Albino Ancistrus spawn.

If you've got a breeding project on at the moment, (preferably fish related), let us know and you might even get added to the spawn list..whe....hey!

smithrc
Moderator
Posts: 862
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:57 pm
Location: Milton Keynes - UK
Contact:

Post by smithrc »

How's she looking Adam??
Click For Our Plecs
[url=http://www.smithrc.f2s.com/gallery/plecs][img]http://www.smithrc.f2s.com/assorted/PlecSig_sm.jpg[/img][/url]
Adam
Moderator
Posts: 1604
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:50 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by Adam »

Sid, I have two males and two males. It was only the large female that spawned the other female is still full of eggs. Looks like she may spawn soon as she has been hanging around the male's cave. As you say the eggs were spawned in batches and then kicked out of the cave.

Smithrc, bad news I'm afraid I lost all the eggs to fungus. :cry: The large female has been in hiding under a big piece of drift wood since spawning but she seems to be ok, mind you I haven't seen her feeding yet.
smithrc
Moderator
Posts: 862
Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2005 3:57 pm
Location: Milton Keynes - UK
Contact:

Post by smithrc »

gutted :(

wasn't meant to be.

Hope she is ok ;)
Click For Our Plecs
[url=http://www.smithrc.f2s.com/gallery/plecs][img]http://www.smithrc.f2s.com/assorted/PlecSig_sm.jpg[/img][/url]
Adam
Moderator
Posts: 1604
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:50 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by Adam »

I didn't hold out much hope for the spawn as they really needed be to cared for by the male to stand a real chance of survival. I guess it was his first time and he didn't know what to do. Even if he did I don't think he would have been able to cope with a spawn that size.

Fingers crossed the female will be ok, I'm going to try to have a look at her tonight.

Cheers.

Adam
Mindy
Mentally Certified!
Posts: 446
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Bristol UK

Post by Mindy »

... and I'll try to remember to post that picture of my Farlowella with the prolapse... :?
Tom2600
Obsessed!!
Posts: 200
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 1:37 am
Location: East Yorkshire

Post by Tom2600 »

Hi Adam,

Shame you lost all the eggs.

I have reared a number of ancistrus spawns. I found the highest success rate in my community tank was to cordon off a small part of the tank using a plastic tank divider. I just kicked the male out and put the cave (with the eggs in it) into this area. I had well of 70 young grow to over 1 inch before I sold them.

Whenever I have left them with the male I have only ever seen a few grow. When putting them in a breeding trap like I've seen on here a few times, I lost the lot!

Hope your female pulls through, I'm sure shes one for the record books!!

Cheers
Adam
Moderator
Posts: 1604
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:50 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by Adam »

Thanks Tom,

I may have been able to save the spawn but I only managed to get hold of some methylene blue today, unfortunately it was too late. Your suggestion sounds good and more importantly it produces results, I will give it a try for the next spawn. I,ve noticed that the second female is almost bursting at the seams and has visited the male a few times , with any luck she will spawn soon.

I was going to catch the big female today but decided against it, I didn't want to stress her out and make things worse. Her condition hasn't improved but at least it hasn't got any worse, she is still off her food though.

Thanks.

Adam
Mindy
Mentally Certified!
Posts: 446
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:51 pm
Location: Bristol UK

Post by Mindy »

Adam... I FINALLY rememberd to post these pictures of my Farlowella. I didn't have a male in with her, so if this WAS an egg problem, it might have been exasperated by that... I really don't know. I treated the tank with anti-bacterial infection meds, and her belly did go down after a fashion, but it might have done anyway... Whatever the case... she's an ex-farlowella now :cry:
Image

And a close up
Image
Adam
Moderator
Posts: 1604
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:50 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by Adam »

Thanks for postiig the picture Mindy.

Looks like what your farlowella had was different to the problem that my female ancistrus has. Mine has the reddening around the vent area but not the yellow swelling. :?

Ive noticed that she has started feeding again and her behaviour is otherwise normal but the vent problem appears to be the same.

Thanks.

Adam
Dermogenys
Newbie
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:41 pm
Location: Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

Hi Adam

Post by Dermogenys »

You know what, next time when they spawn, put eggs again in that floating breeder but put some waterflow in it too. If you have a external filter let the water falls over the eggs, or put airstone beneth the holes on floating breeder. It might be a good thing to devide that 400+ eggs in four that big breeders, an you should gently try to make a lot of small group of eggs in order to prevent fungus from spreading on other eggs.. There are some 1mm white micro worms that came out from nothing and start destroying the egg shell and therefore inviting a fungus to come on party. But do you now what do I do? I strike back to this m*****f****** and put a 14 days old "big" brother (from previous spawn, I have two females and one male so every 14 days...) and when hi kick in worms are eaten + he can't harm the eggs!

PS. Does anyone have long fined ancistruses that would like to sell?
Adam
Moderator
Posts: 1604
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:50 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by Adam »

Thanks for the advice Dermogenys, :D

Initially I did think about splitting the spawn between a couple of breeder traps, I wish I had gone ahead and done it.

I have three long finned albino/gold ancistrus that I recently bought. I have never seen them for sale before and I couldn't resist. It looks like they may be 2 males and 1 female, hard to say for sure as they are still juveniles. I was wondering what would happen if they crossed with the regular finned albinos and if I should not keep them together?

Adam
nightowl1350
Groupie
Posts: 49
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2005 8:49 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario

Post by nightowl1350 »

It is not uncommon for a female to be red in the vent area after spawning. Hope she recovers. For the eggs you lost...that is so sad. Did you put an air stone in with them? I hatched out one spawn that way, but my male take very good care of his eggs, the spawns were to close together and I had no more tank space, so I took them. A few did fungus over, but most were fine.

I have some long finned albinos as well...not breeding yet, but SOON I hope. I wouldn't keep them together as they likely will spawn with eachother. It would be better to keep your long fin line pure if you can, that way if you sell them you will be able to say they breed true.
User avatar
Barbie
Moderator
Posts: 1146
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2004 9:07 pm
Location: Spokane, WA, US
Contact:

Post by Barbie »

Hi Adam, sorry to come into this thread late.

To be honest, the best care for the eggs will be the male. If you tip the cave back so he doesn't fan the eggs out, he'll show you he's a great dad. Trust me. I've sold more than 1000 of a few different species of ancistrus to stores and wholesalers here in the US. He WILL get it right. If he's in a community set up, just make sure that you take his cave when you can barely see a bit of yolk left. I usually put dad, cave, and everyone else in a box in the condo until the fry have all left the pot. Usually rinsing the cave a couple times with one finger across the door and I can put dad back into the main tank with his women. I've never had to use methylene blue on fertile eggs btw.

Keep an eye on those long fins. They're the most aggressive ancistrus I've ever kept. Even the females take great joy in whipping the stuffin out of each other. Once they get their hierarchy set, they pretty much stick to it though. My male took months to figure out how to fan eggs with those long fins, but he has got the hang of it now. Of course I also set is cave almost vertical as soon as I see he's spawned again, also ;). If you cross the long fins with the albino short fins, you may find you have brown fry. I did anyway. A standard albino female crossed with a long fin male had a batch with about half long fin regular coloration and half short fin. It was the dangedest thing. Obviously they are different species so I didn't repeat the experience!

If you keep the females in condition and make sure that the male doesn't worry so much about his eggs that he won't come out to eat, you can usually keep a group of one male and 2-3 females going pretty regularly. In 2.5 months I had more than 200 fry from my long fin colony with a male and 3 females. He will usually spawn with the females two at a time and one of them manages to condition fast enough to spawn most every time he's able to take on more babies.

Just my experience ;). Hope it helps!

Barbie
[url=http://www.plecos.com][img]http://plecos.com/plecosbanner.gif[/img][/url]
Adam
Moderator
Posts: 1604
Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:50 pm
Location: London, UK

Post by Adam »

Thanks for the advice nightowl and Barbie. :D

It was sad to lose that big spawn, I had an airstone in there and used some MB but it didnt help. :cry: I had no intention of taking the eggs but the male kicked them all out so I had no choice, these days he is a much better dad.

The BNs seem to have got the hang of things now and spawn fairly regularly. The Alpha male has figured out how to care for his young. The smaller females prefer to spawn in the slate caves that I have in the tank for them and the male manages to keep all the eggs in the cave. However when he spawns with the "jumbo" female they do it in a discus cone that I have permanently propped up at an angle. The eggs are prone to getting kicked out if I don't elevate the cone. It's become easy to take the fry from him now, I usually swipe them from him a few days after they have stuck themselves to the ceiling of the cave. It's funny how one day the eggs are on the floor of the cave and then when the fry hatch they prefer to hang off the ceiling. :?

I have managed to lose two of my long fin BNs and only one remains. :cry: I found them mysteriously dead within a few days of one another. They sure are aggressive little buggers, the one that is left is always beating up on the shortfin BNs and regularly kicks the other males out of their caves. It looks like he will be the alpha soon but I dont want him spawning with the shortfins so I'll have to take him out and try to find a mate for him, another tank. :roll:

Cheers guys.

Adam
Post Reply