Reprise: MG/Melano Geno

[1fish2fish]

Here's the mid-afternoon update:

Right now Tallahassee has two decent bubblenest going in both front corners of the bin. Currently he seems to be focusing on buiding a nest under the bubblewrap so we'll see which nest he actually uses.

Both he and Myrtle have nips in their anal fins but nothing too serious. Myrtle is hanging out in the back of the tank near the surface, not moving much.

My guess is they'll either spawn this evening or early tomorrow morning which is basically what happened last time.

[1fish2fish]

They started embracing at 9pm exactly. They've been going at it off and on for over 30 minutes now and only have produced 4 eggs. That's the problem with line bred fish like these is they have a harder and harder time getting the hang of it. I'm really hoping to find a decent out cross soon, I may have to bite the bullet and get one from overseas.

[leeb62]

You said your spawn before have alot of eggs. Don't worry about that they will produce alot of eggs lol.

[MrVampire181]

Originally Posted by 1fish2fish

They started embracing at 9pm exactly. They've been going at it off and on for over 30 minutes now and only have produced 4 eggs. That's the problem with line bred fish like these is they have a harder and harder time getting the hang of it. I'm really hoping to find a decent out cross soon, I may have to bite the bullet and get one from overseas.

My last spawn had the same problem and eventually produced a nice spawn.

Getting fish from Thailand is awesome...I'm getting some more soon :)

[1fish2fish]

I'm not worried about that. My problem is it should never take any pair 4 tries just to get 1 embrace, at first yes but they've been actively spawning for an hour and a half now. That is a problem that comes up when you try to breed a sibling pair that is too closely related (ie F5 or F6). This means the resulting fry may have an even harder time breeding. Not to mention if they are that closely related there may be a higher incidence of genetic deformity (although I have not seen that in my current spawn).

[1fish2fish]

Well I'm pretty sure they're done. The male was chasing the female off so I went ahead and removed her.

Let me say I am NOT happy with the results of this spawn. There are at most 50 eggs after two hours of spawning.

We'll see how many fry survive in the next few weeks. Meanwhile after I remove the male both he and the female will be re-conditioned and re-spawned in two weeks and the fry will be mixed together once they're old enough.

If I don't get better results with the next try I won't be spawning this pair again. I'll have to find some new fish to cross them with.

[1fish2fish]

We have tails! Can't get a good count but I'll try to when I get back from work.

[1fish2fish]

The fry started free swimming today :)

I counted at least 17 which is around where I thought we were with this spawn. The fry are itty bitty which leads me to believe the pair wasn't as well conditioned as I thought they were.

Tomorrow I'm going to dump a bunch of live VE in the tank. That and the infusoria created from the snails and java moss should tied them over until I get back on Thursday.

Tallahasse is being a good daddy and doesn't seem to be eating the fry so I'm leaving him in there until Friday just because I'm going to be out of town until then and I want to be able to monitor him closely once I remove him.

[MrVampire181]

It's a good thing VE live a long time in water huh ;P

[1fish2fish]

Well technically they shouldn't need to be fed until Thursday anyways if you follow the wait 3 days before feeding rule but I always like to introduce live foods into the tank as soon as they're free swimming.

Once Tallahassee is out he and Myrtle will be re-conditioned using live white worms. With the live foods and daily water changes they should be ready for a new spawn in a week.