Caecomastacembelus plagiostomus

[cyatide]

Hi all,

a friend of mine has given me 5 Caecomastacembelus plagiostomus,
I've only found something about them on the very interesting book of the Kyoto University about Tanganyikan Cichlids.

Is there anyone who has any experience in keeping and breeding those guys?

At the moment mine are ina 70 gal tank with a few sandsifters.

Thanks, Paolo

[Thomas Andersen]

Hi Paolo

I don´t know if this could be any help, but Eric Genevelle has written a very good article on the Mastacembelidae - it´s not especially on C. plagiostomus, but on Mastacembelidae in general

http://tanganyika-cichlids.com/mastacem.htm

Thomas

[Thomas Andersen]

Hi again Paolo,

I was just browsing through some old Ciklidbladet magazines (member-magazine of the NCS, the Nordic Cichlid Society) and found two interesting articles from 1996 on breeding C. plagiostomus

You can see the articles on the NCS website:

http://www.ciklid.se/ciklidbladet_artik ... 03&LOPNR=2

http://www.ciklid.se/ciklidbladet_artik ... 07&LOPNR=3

The articles on the website are without pictures, but if you are interested I can scan them from the magazine and email them to you

The articles are written in Swedish, but maybe you can find a translation service on the net, that can translate from Swedish to either Italian or English - if you can´t find one, I could translate the main parts of the articles and send them to you - I think I owe you one for all the beautiful photos you have sent me

Thomas

[MatsP]

The articles are indeed amusing and interesting reading, but unfortunately very sparse in details on how to make them breed. There's no details on anything, not even temperature, very little about feeding them, or any other "special" treatment to make them spawn.

It does describe the spawning and egg-care nicely.

I was a bit disappointed with the lack of details, but intereting indeed.

--
Mats

[cyatide]

Thank you very much Thomas and MatsP,

I'll check the old copies of the Cicklid bldet, I've lots of them (I've been a subscriber of your association for a few years even if I don't know a word of Swedish
There were plenty of beautiful pics in particular when the magazine was in A5 format!)

Anyway I'll wait for further reply of this forum members.

Paolo

[toddnbecka]

I have a female plagiostoma that laid around 100 eggs last November. I have a male arriving tomorrow, in hopes that the next spawn will be fertile. She is fed frozen bloodworms daily, and frozen brine shrimp once a week. Ph is 8.2, temp 78, water changes every 10-14 days. If you have any luck with breeding yours, please let me know.

[cyatide]

Thank you Toddnbecka for your reply!

Where have spawned your female?
Have she taken any cares of them?

I think I shoud feed mine on frozen food more frequently ... till now no breeding activity.

Paolo

[toddnbecka]

I have had my female in a 29 set up for her for about a year now,( completely closed top) and just got a male yesterday. He is in quarantine, the female looks to be gravid again. I was cleaning the tank in November, and found around 100 eggs that had been deposited in the gravel, and under a resin rock ornament. The eggs were very adhesive, and there was also a fair amount of "glue" holding the gravel together where they had been laid.

I had been feeding live ghost shrimp oocaisinally too, but the last ones all died before they were eaten. I had been keeping several transcriptus in the tank, so it may have been them, not the eel, that was eating the ghost shrimp. She is fed frozen bloodworms daily, and frozen brine shripm at least once a week. I recently changed from brine to mysis shrimp, since they are supposed to be more nutritious. She seems to prefer the bloodworms, and had been eating flakes when I got her, but is now spoiled from the frozen food.

Several people have had the elipsifer eels looking gravid, then be thin again a day later, but no eggs or fry have been found. I suspect that I happened to find the eggs very soon after they were laid, because they took several days to a week to fungus. Seems a long time, considering none were fertile. I plan to move the paracyprichromis out of the 29, put in the male after he's cleared quarantine, and cross my fingers. Once they spawn, I will move them both to a 55, leaving the eggs in the 29 to hatch.

I found an article published on spawning the peacock eels, they lay eggs in plants, but the tang eels do not. Otherwise, I would expect the information to be close to what to expect from the plagiostoma eggs. They hatch after several days, the fry are tiny, feeding on infusuria, probably for about a week. I'm hoping by then, they will be able to eat baby brine shrimp. Given the published hatch/survival rate, it seems unlikely that more than 25-30 will survive the first couple weeks. The fry look like most other fish fry, developing into eels as they grow. The good news is that they do grow rather quickly, compared to african cichlids.

I figure an established aquarium with a couple of sponge filters should support the fry well enough until they are big enough for baby brine. I have N. gracilis cichlids in a 38, they produced around 100 fry, none starved to death before they were large enough to eat food larger than microscopic stuff. I just hope the female doesn't deposit eggs again before I get the male into the tank with her. In the lake, the spawning season for eels is November-March. I asked an aquarist who has a group of elipsifers about multiple spawns during the season, and he confirmed that the females do become gravid more than once. At the rate my female is going, I think she may produce at least one more spawn this season; it's been almost two months since the eggs, and she looks very fat again.

I read somewhere that one species of tang eel does take care of the eggs, fanning them, but it wasn't a plagiostoma. Obviously, the elipsifer's don't care for their eggs, neither do the peacock eels. I believe the best bet for raising any would be to remove the adults as soon after they spawn as possible. It may also be better to separate the sexes for conditioning, many other tropical fish are handled that way. Elipsifer's are sociable among their own species, but they seem to be the exception.

[Colby Dixon]

Hi Toddnbecka! Good to "see" you here! I thought I might compliment your excellent write on your breeding efforts with a picture or two of this really fun, exciting fish, as well as ask a few questions myself. I think the average Cichlid enthusiast will find these "eels" an excellent addition to most Tanganyikan "community" tanks...







A few notes on my experience over the last year or so with this fish:
My specimen took to pellet/flake food quite readily, not a finicky eater but I believe the diet should be heavily supplemented with frozen/live food as much as possible.

My specimen seems to be mostly nocturnal, although is not shy about coming out in the light when food is present. It mosty stays in/around the rocks during the day, but at night cruises the entire length of the tank at mid-tank, darting in and out of the rock formations and cruising the sand...

***These fish are excellent egg theives. I have seen mine steal eggs from full grown (5 inch male, 3+ inch females) calvus, adult N. leleupi and I suspect it of stealing eggs from the mouth of a sleeping Cyprichromis! The skin on these fish is quite tough, as I have observed it feeding on the eggs with it's mouth while the female (and sometimes male) Cichlids attack unmercifully at it's tail/body. Besides some minor splitting in the edges of it's tail, it escapes these encounters unschathed. The nasal tubercles(spelling?), eyes and pectoral fins/gill area seem to be the only vulnerable spots they have. This behavior in the aquarium leads me to think that this fish has co-evolved with the substrate and shell spawning Cichlids in the lake to feed on their broods...

A couple of questions for the experts:
-What is the currently accepted name for this fish? I have seen it classified in several different genera and am wondering about the history of it's description.
-What is the maximum size for this fish in captivity? I have heard conflicting reports...

[toddnbecka]

What is the currently accepted name for this fish?

Aethiomastacembelus plagiostoma

As for maximum size, that remains to be seen, but they don't grow as large as most of the tang eels.

[mermaid]

Hi! This fish is also known as Mastacembelus plagiostoma. I've got two of them recently and they live in a community tank as one is an adult male of 8" and another is juvenile of 5" so breeding is not on agenda at present. I am planning to get some more of them to make a nice pairing for a breeding attempt.

This thread is rather old, I hope some of the participants are still around to share their recent experience.

Cheers!