Herichthys Bartoni Spawn Pics

[TheFishGuy]

They've been colored up for a while now, this is their first spawn. They're small but threw a decent amount of fry.

Tank is a 50 breeder, 36"x18"x16" tall and been established for quite some time.
They (7 bartoni) were moved in a month or so ago from a 15 gallon.
The other five are still in the tank with them.
I have pulled about 1/3 of their spawn and have placed them in a 5 1/2 gallon.

Enjoy. Questions and comments are always welcome.

Fry:


Mom and fry:








Dad:

[Piotr Koba]

One of my favorite CA (or: NA?) Cichlids when it comes to the coloration of the breeding dress, well done.

You keep the breeding pair together with conspecifics, did I understand correctly? Don't parents pose some danger to the others?

[TheFishGuy]

Thank you! I think this will be one of those fish that's going to be in my fishroom for a long time! I'm really enjoying keeping them.

Yes, the conspecifics are still in with the pair. I think the tank has enough area and the fish are small enough that things will be fine. When the pair went into breeding dress I didn't want to stick my hands in the tank and possibly mess up something that might be taking place. Plus I figured this being their first time there'd be no way they would succeed. I was wrong! I might pull the cast offs this weekend, the problem is I'm really going to disturb the tank and probably lose the fry in the process... I'd almost rather just let them be and see what happens...

[Piotr Koba]

Thanks for your reply. Good luck then, and I hope your breeding pair won't change their mind towards tankmates

[dogofwar]

What triggered their spawn?

I have a pair that goes through the motions after big water changes...but hasn't bred in awhile...

Matt

[TheFishGuy]

I had got a group of 14 from a friend a couple of months ago, I had split the 14 up according to size, I put five of the smallest ones into a ten gallon for holding and the other 9 in a 20H. We're talking 1-2 inch fish here... Then a fellow OCA board member was interested in them so we decided to split the group in half. I kept seven and gave him seven. When I split the group I gave each of us a large one, then a medium one and so on and so on so we essentially had the same thing to work with. The next day after splitting up the group I moved my seven to a now open 50 breeder and it was about a week later when the two largest started to color up. I did a 50% water change and let them go. I didn't do anything special aside from not doing the next schedualed water change because they were doing an awfull lot of dancing around with each other and guarding a big fake root. I thought, oh how cute, they think they're spawning... I was thinking they were way to small and way to immature to succeed. I was wrong... I'll try and upload a video I had shot about a week ago of them in their tank. The pictures really don't show them justice as to how small they really are...

[smitty]

Great spawn from another rare sighting.

[TheFishGuy]

Shot a short video. This was from yesterday, the one I wanted to post from a week or so ago isn't cooperating...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7MAhR0N ... ature=plcp

[Jombi21]

CONGRATS JONATHAN!!!! WOW

[TheFishGuy]

Thanks Jombi

[tankmates]

Well done Jonathan!

Unfortunately, even though there was spawning behavior, my group was whittled down to a pair and then to one.

Gary

[TheFishGuy]

Well, against my better judgement I pulled the conspesifics out and the parents promptly ate the fry I had left in with them. Then dad started to pick on mom so I put a pair of nanoluteus and a few small pink convicts for him to chase around. She is no longer in breeding dress. Good news is I've saved quite a few fry.

[Bas Pels]

nanoluteus are much too sensitive for this treatment.

They are amongst the most sensitive (in the area of agression) species form CA. Compare them with Thorichthys helleri or so

please pull them out

[Paulo José Alves]

Hi

How about the water caracteristics ?

[TheFishGuy]

nanoluteus are much too sensitive for this treatment.

They are amongst the most sensitive (in the area of agression) species form CA. Compare them with Thorichthys helleri or so

please pull them out

My nanoluteus are expendaable. I have hundreds of them, same goes for the convicts. The pair of nanos I put in there are larger than the pair of bartoni and there's three obvious territories. Thus far there's been zero issues. On a side not I never should have pulled the conspecifics out, they were doing just fine...

Hi

How about the water caracteristics ?

I am a HUGE fan of the K.I.S.S. method. "Keep It Simple Stupid". That being said all I can tell you is three years ago for some silly reason I tested the ph of the water out of my tap, and it's 8. The only other thing I can say is the temp of the water is 82*.

In my opinion cichlids that are tank raised need not have anything special done to their water. Consistency is the key. If an aquarist starts messing with and constantly adjusting the water conditions it doesn't give the cichlid the opportunity to adapt. As we all know, cichlids are the most adaptable species on the planet, so much so that only preserved wild specimines are studied simply because cichlids that are thrown into an aquarium from the wild start to change instantly. Generations beyond have changed drasticly.

All that being said, I personally see absolutely no reason to do anything but changes in water temperature to induce a spawn...

ok, off my soap box now.... LOL

[Bas Pels]

As the fish are central (or better, North) American, the only interesting water paremeter is how fresh the water is

For fish from other continents, softness and so on is quite important

[Jombi21]

If there is a line for fry... put me at the end of it.

[TheFishGuy]

As the fish are central (or better, North) American, the only interesting water paremeter is how fresh the water is

For fish from other continents, softness and so on is quite important

I keep cichlids from all over the world and have spawned quite a few with minimal effort. I do regular water changes, typically 1/3 weekly...

If there is a line for fry... put me at the end of it.

Why at the end? You're the first to be interested.

[Ichy]

I'd want to be on the fry list too ...if i had space. Always wanted to try keeping bartoni , but I hear they are another big aggressive fish similar to Cubans. I jsut don't have tank space to dedicate to big mean fish.....yet
Best of luck to ya , hopefully you can keep this species circulating around the OCA
Thanks
Tim

[TheFishGuy]

Thanks Tim, I'm probably going to keep atleast half the fry from this spawn along with all the very young adults I have... We'll see how many make it to an inch, so far so good, they're eating well and thier 5 1/2 is kept very clean.