Albino Ancistrus spawn.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 11:47 pm

I came home from work and found this lot just lying around outside the male's cave.

There is still some spawn left inside the cave.

Mum and dad.

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:13 am

Thats a lot of eggs!

I miss our bristles

At the time i got bored of them at it all the time

Tom2600 · Post by **Tom2600** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:16 am

That is a CRAZY!!!!!

...number of eggs!!! There must be around 300+!!

How big is your female, she looks huge. My pair is the opposite of yours, with the male twice the size of the female. Mine spawned regularly every 3-4 weeks for months but have stopped recently. I think they may have out grown their cave so I've just made a few more. They still wouldn't come anywhere near to matching that spawn though!

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:23 pm

Cheers guys,

I have never managed to breed my ancistrus before. I too was surprised at the sheer number of eggs that the female laid, she must have been literally bursting to let that lot go. I have had her for over five years now, originally she was purchased as a tiny inch and a half specimen. She just grew and grew, the others are no where near her size. The male seems to be fully grown, around the five inch mark is supposed to be their maximum size but the female seems to be quite a bit bigger than that. I'll try measuring her some time.

I'm afraid that she may have done herself an injury laying all those eggs. Her vent area is a bit bloody and there appears to be something white protruding from the area. I hope she hasn't damaged something internally as it would be sad to lose her, she was one of the founder members of my community tank.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Adam

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:28 pm

oh... I've not got any advise I'm affraid - but that is a LOT of eggs... our male was about 5" and or female about 3" and they bread every 4/5 weeks - see how she gets on - it might sort itself out.

If nothing else your going to have your work cut out with water changes in that tank! 200+ little bristles are going to be messy!

Mindy · Post by **Mindy** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:56 pm

I wonder if she's prolapsed something with the effort of all those eggs...

My farlowella recently had something like that. She got huge around the middle, looked VERY gravid, and then this little prolapse of some sort appeared and there was a little streak of blood there too. The swollen belly eventually went down as did the prolapse, but she didn't recover

I still don't know what happened there. I can send you a picture if you want to compare it, but as she never laid any eggs (that I saw), I wouldn't have thought it was the same thing... Thought I'd mention it just in case it was in any way helpful (without trying to worry you unnecessarily!!

).

Incidentally, my farlowella stopped eating and everything. I feel she was sick, nothing to do with breeding.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:24 pm

Smithrc, If even a quarter of those eggs hatch I'll be in trouble. Every bit of tank space I have is taken up by zebras. Oh well I'll have to work something out.

Thanks for the info Mindy. I had thought it might be something like that but wasn't sure of the medical term. Sounds like your problem was a bit different to that of mine but possibly still spawn related. I'm only guessing here but your farlowella may well have been egg bound. Sometimes if a fish has not spawned but has produced eggs and is unable to reabsorb them it can cause internal problems. I had this happen to a couple of koi years ago. They were high value fish so I took them to a specialist vet and he jabbed them with an injection of pituitary gland extract. This caused the eggs to ripen and the fish were "stripped" of their eggs 24 to 36 hours after the injection. It worked on one of the fish but the other one died of complications. Off topic slightly but I thought it may be of interest.

I would be interested in seeing pictures of your farlowella just as a comparison. Sorry to hear that you lost her.

The female ancistrus is still behaving normally although I can't say that I've seen her feeding, mind you after dropping that lot yesterday I wouldn't be surprised if she has gone off her food. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Thanks.

Adam

Shell231 · Post by **Shell231** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:48 pm

Bet you will have a few of them up for grabs soon then! WOW! some spawn she had there!

Mindy · Post by **Mindy** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:02 pm

I must have the "prolapse" picture on my home computer. I'll look later and post it. But this is what she looked like before I noticed the prolapse. Giant belly!!

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:18 pm

Shell, they may not all be fertile as I don't think the male would have been able to keep up. To be honest I'm more worried about the female's condition. I'll have no choice but to give them away if even half of that spawn hatches, I just haven't got the tank space.

Mindy, your farlowella did look a bit too swollen in the belly but I don't really know whether this is normal or not for a gravid female as I have no experience with them. Des would be the man likely to be in the know. I'm still interested in seeing the other picture if you manage to find it.

Regards.

Adam

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:22 pm

Adam wrote:Shell, they may not all be fertile as I don't think the male would have been able to keep up.

The orange ones are fertile - the clear/white ones are infertile

Shell231 · Post by **Shell231** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:38 pm

In that case you are going to have at least 75!!! WOW can you house them?

sid · Post by **sid** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:39 pm

Hi Adam.that sure is a jobbie load of eggs man ......tell me ,is there more than 1 female in the tank?..................its possible that there is more than 1 spawn there.........as i had a trio at it ,and still never got as much eggs as that.....but what the male would do is spawn a female ,kick the eggs out and then spawn another female ,but then keep the eggs in the cave.......just a thought

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:00 pm

Im sad....

there are 250 eggs - this is just what you can see on the surface.... and just the full orange ones !!

Shell231 · Post by **Shell231** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:06 pm

You bothered to count?! wow you must be bored!

:D xx ( love ya really )