Finally a spawning

[crjennin]

I was looking around in the tank tonight after the lights went out and much to my surprise there was a large clutch under a portion of my RBTA. My Allardi pair finally spawned!!! They have been together for a year an a half... I thought a spawn might be happening soon as both fish were franticly cleaning the LR under their RBTA most of the afternoon.

As this is their first spawning I don't plan to raise this clutch... But depending on her schedule, we'll see next time....

I'll post some pix tomorrow.

Any one have any luck raising these guys to juvies?

Calvin

 

[clord]

Nice job man

 

[crjennin]

Calvin

 

[dantodd]

beautiful pic.

 

[MarinaP]

Cool

Congrats!

 

[Juck]

That's a huge first spawn, 500+ eggs I reckon. Congrats!

 

[h2joe]

pics of the parents? please haha

 

[crjennin]

Here are some more pics....


Here's a better one of the clutch.

Dad hard at work...

Family photo...

Mom after a long night...

 

[dantodd]

Is that a melnopus hangin' with the allardi?

 

[crjennin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7890611#post7890611 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dantodd
Is that a melanopus hangin' with the allardi?

Yep... All three are pals... He's only allowed in the rbta during the day. At night he's booted and sleeps under rbta...

Calvin

 

[ricordiaking]

Very nice, second allardi spawning this year.

 

[Jovreefer]

WOW congrats grandpa!

Are you positive thats the first spawn though? that clutch looks huge and all fertile!

 

[crjennin]

I'm quite certain it is thier first spawn. Their rbta is at the end of the tank. We have an excellant view of all their activities.

Let me ask this... What would a first spawn generally look like? Fewer number of eggs, less color??

The female is very large if that has anything to do with it...

Calvin

 

[dantodd]

eggs should be the same color. the nest is usually smaller and much sparser. smaller because she isn't used to making eggs yet and sparser because he isn't good at fertilizing the eggs yet. In fertile eggs are usually culled by the fish.

 

[crjennin]

Looks like she is on a 14 day cycle... Caught them in the "act" yesterday...

Calvin

 

[dantodd]

very cool. My clarkii take a break whenever they catch me watching...

So, how many days does it take for the eggs to hatch?

What are your plans for raising fry?

Reed-Mariculture at www.rotifer.com is a great place to work with.

 

[crjennin]

I snuck the camera up close to the tank and stayed behind the couch to watch the action

They hatched last time in about 9 days... No plans for this clutch as I will be out of town on hatching day.

Now that they have a favorite spot, I will try to attach a tile and hope they spawn on the tile.

Thanks for the link... They will be hatched in a 10g nursery that I have set up.

Calvin

 

[dantodd]

good luck with the tile. When I tried that with my clarkii she just tired to wriggle between the tile and wall. I eventually hadto remove the tile to get them to keep spawning. It's not too hard to pull the fry when they hatch, I use a bowl and I've been pretty successful when I have my wife with me to hold the flashlight. Less successful when I have to hold the light myself. Wilkerson's fry snagger would work great if I took the time to build one.

 

[55semireef]

Those are some cool pictures.

 

[mark97r6]

well done.
They look like old pros from those clutch pics.

As they have just started spawning it may be better to try and catch the larvae than disturb them, they may be reluctant to start again if you play with tiles.
My Toms, after laying for about 5wks stopped spawning for 6 months just because a rock was moved. It had some zoo's on that i traded it was about 8"s away from there spawning site.

Maybe try a nest this way first. The larval snaggers work very well if you can sort a good light source. I favour LED's very direct and batterys will last the night on them as mine release quite late.

HTH and let us know how you get on
Mark