fishboi Posted September 14, 2006 Report Share Posted September 14, 2006 now i've never come across this or have ever read or heard of such thing happening. now this is the set up 2 large male and 2 female GBA in a 2 foot tank and they have been breeding in their for a while now with no problem as one male was always physically a lot bigger than the other. now over the past couple of weeks the smaller male has grown to the same size if not a bit larger than the original dominate male and have been fighting which i just let them at it thinking they will eventually sort it out but a week later the fighting was starting to get really bad and no sign of stopping and both female dieing to breed with huge stomachs, so much so the females will dive in to the middle of the fight trying to breed with them. now this is the amazing part last nite i found them stopped fighting but instead they dug a second entrance to the "cave" they were fighting over and now they're head to head both fanning and to my surprise they're both fanning the same huge clutch of eggs which i suspect are two clutch together. and they take turn on been physically been on top of the eggs. now if u do manage to read though all that here is some shots of them at it. this pic shows the close up on where he clutch of egg is under the wood. look closely u can just see the bristles of the other male. u can see the head of one male and the tail of the other. this pic the male on the left has his head directly over the eggs. now on this pic u can see the male on the left has backed off a little and now the male on the right has his head directly over the eggs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcon021 Posted September 14, 2006 Report Share Posted September 14, 2006 first of all nice picz bud. 8) Its very interesting that this has happened. Thought that males wont breed that close to each other. well anything is possible I have found my males to be very territorial. I had 2 groups at the start one trio and then another with 2m & 3f. The bigger group was spawning more often, compared to the other group. Initially the bigger group didn't spawn. I never saw them fight but they just didn't breed then all of a sudden they started breeding and i always have one of the males from the group fanning away at a given time. So my argument being that once they have sorted out their hierarchy they will settle down and breed.. more males increased competition i guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted September 14, 2006 Report Share Posted September 14, 2006 my lips are sealed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRSkz Posted September 14, 2006 Report Share Posted September 14, 2006 wicked!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meesheelly Posted September 14, 2006 Report Share Posted September 14, 2006 I love GBAs! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboi Posted September 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2006 thanks guys, my thoughts exactly its pretty unreal. it wasn't two clutch of eggs after all but one huge one cuz this morning the other female added to that clutch of eggs :bounce: this is the pic from one end and this clutch runs for a good 2 inch not really sure how many eggs but judging by the size and the size of eggs i use to get its around the 200 mark easy :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcon021 Posted September 15, 2006 Report Share Posted September 15, 2006 200 ay...hmmmmm Dont say it out loud .. Last batch that i had from my female was well over 150+ cos i couldn't be bothered counting above that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboi Posted September 15, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2006 200 ay...hmmmmm Dont say it out loud .. Last batch that i had from my female was well over 150+ cos i couldn't be bothered counting above that dont worry i am slowly getting there :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboi Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 just a few more pics to finish up this post. at one stage about a 1/3 of the eggs fell out so i put it in a breeding trap with an air stone. this is the clutch that got separated from the rest. estimation at the time was around 50. this clutch hatched earlier than the rest of the egg the males was fanning. reason unknown but was concerned for the rest of the eggs at this stage. for ppl unfamiliar with breeding plecos the brown stuff at the back are empty egg shells. under estimated the clutch of eggs now thinking maybe 100+ also the lot with the fathers hatched the day later, but now one male has left it for the other to look after by himself. the pictures above are still just from that 1/3 of a clutch. now at a quick count [as accurate as i can with them wiggling around] well in the 200 mark. try and have a go counting them from the pic lost over 10 after hatching due to maybe bad water condition but have since then no problems. they have all now absorb their egg yoke so all removed from the dad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim r Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 impressive pics :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanuts Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 wonderful pic's - brilliant :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilknieval69 Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 I gave up counting from that last pic at 11..... :lol: Well done man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiuh Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 ouch...really amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 brilliant pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboi Posted September 25, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 thanks guys pics are actually better than they look here as i had to reduce the quality for easy posting. great experience and stuff like this really keep the hobby going Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ktttk Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 thats awesome fishboi!! Good luck with raising all of them dude!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 Unreal!! Keep us posted with more pics Fishboi, really cool to see fishies spawning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboi Posted October 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 up date on these little beauties its exactly 3 weeks today and they're mostly around 1cm since i've got so much from these two spawn decided to do a little experiment with them. half of them i released back in to the parents tank 2 foot tank around 200 around 50 is in a 2 foot grow out tank all by themselves around 60 is in a 3 foot grow out tank with other fancy pleco and around 30 in a breeding trap on a totally different diet. this is just to see if tank size makes a different in growth rate or diet is more important. on another note they've done it again!!! :bounce: :bounce: 3 weeks later i've now got another clutch of eggs and the other female is doin the dance too. picture above are of the previous bunch at 3 weeks. this is the latest clutch of eggs and yes its an coke bottle :lol: its an little trick i learned while breeding bettas just cut the top off an coke bottle and float it in water of cause with bettas u will need to poke holes in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRSkz Posted October 5, 2006 Report Share Posted October 5, 2006 wow you've really got you're hands full there. congrats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted October 5, 2006 Report Share Posted October 5, 2006 my lips are sealed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboi Posted October 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2006 yep quit a handful mite sell of a trio at this rate that's the size batch i use to get just keep up with good diet and clean water and the clutches will get bigger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboi Posted October 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2006 well just a bit over a month now and they all grow at pretty much the same rate with the only different of the ones in the 2 and 3 foots have more runts and a few really fast growing ones already over 2 cm well most of them average 1.5 - 2cm with runts still around 1cm the ones in breeding traps however has 0 runts which i believe is due to more concentrated feeding so everyone gets their share of food. in breeding traps there're still fast growing ones as well but not quit the size of the ones in bigger tanks. so my conclusion is the best thing to do is have them in a decent size grow out tank and plenty of food to get best results which is what most ppl do anyway :lol: got heaps for sale PM if intrested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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