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Geophagus sp. "orange head" fry


fishyNZ

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Well it was no fun at all.  I noticed yesterday that the number of free-swimming fry has gotten smaller since the video was taken.

So with a fine mesh net, I waited until the father spats out the fry again and scooped as many as I could.  The father initially scampered but when I pulled-up the net he went back to retrieve the rest.  I got about a dozen or so fry and put them in a plastic breeder box.

This afternoon, just about half remains. I'm moving them to a separate tank and hopefully I could get some luck raising them.

Meanwhile, the parents will have their own tank.  This is their second spawning in about 3-4 weeks, so I got some time to prep.

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On 1/29/2017 at 7:52 AM, livingart said:

Well done.

I used to wait until fry were fairly big and male was having trouble holding them all, left a big net in the tank each day beforehand so they got used to it being there.

Thanks. Were there any other fish in the tank? I think the fry could have gotten bigger as the male spats them out at least once or twice per hour.

9 hours ago, Ira said:

Nice.  Hey, once you've grown them up to a good size, let me know.  I'll buy a fewoff you. :)

No worries, you are first on the list.

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2 hours ago, Fruju said:

Nice looking fish, didn't realise red head Tapajos were in the country. I too would be interested in some if you have success rearing them. Where did you get them from?

Advertised at Redwoods' Facebook page as "Brilliant Earth Eater - Red Head" (c.2015). After seeing the photos, I had a gut feeling and initially bought 3. And then bought another 3 soon after.  Of the 6, I lost 1 whilst 4 paired-up (2 couples).  Both couples actually spawned (in separate tanks) though I haven't seen any fry off the other pair.

I counted about a dozen on the advertised photos so I'm sure there are other keepers.  There's someone here in the forum I believe, based on his signature.

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Yeah I believe Hovmoller had a small group of these guys too, but his were not mature and did not display such vibrant colours.

I think it would definitely be worth establishing these guys in NZ, I think they are the nicest looking eartheater. You have some excellent looking stock FishyNZ! Jealous.

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Great to see your video fishyNZ.

Yes I still have 7 of these (also from Redwood) and they now look similar to the ones in your video so hoping for some paring up soon.

Did you see the spawning take place? What did they lay their eggs on and did they take the eggs into the mouth immediately?

Cheers

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9 hours ago, hovmoller said:

Great to see your video fishyNZ.

Yes I still have 7 of these (also from Redwood) and they now look similar to the ones in your video so hoping for some paring up soon.

Did you see the spawning take place? What did they lay their eggs on and did they take the eggs into the mouth immediately?

Cheers

I have only seen the eggs lying on the bottom glass.  The pair in the video above sifted a lot of sand which made the bottom bare, at least on the spawning site.  The other pair is in a bare bottom tank.

I believe the eggs “disappeared” between 24-48 hours after being seen.  I don’t know who picked up the eggs initially but it was the male that I noticed holding (mouth closed, not eating or going for food), at least after a week or so.  Free-swimming fry were seen a short while after that.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Pic below taken a week after video above.  Managed to save about half a dozen fry and put into a 60L tank, with sponge filter.

20170209_182658.jpg

 

Pic below taken today.  After several weeks, the initial few fry I've managed to save have now grown to slightly more than a centimeter.

scene00026.jpg

 

Also, their parents have managed to spawn and successfully hatched another batch.  But as I've not been able to separate them out into another tank, sadly those fry just became food.

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I fed baby brine shrimp for the first 2 weeks, at least once a day.

After that, I fed them a slightly soft NLS-Repashy mix cut into about 1cm block cubes.  1 cube is dropped in the evening, which normally lasts 24 hours.  Lately, I also drop a pinch of finely-grounded NLS pellets (less than 1mm) in the morning.

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1 hour ago, fishyNZ said:

Pic below taken a week after video above.  Managed to save about half a dozen fry and put into a 60L tank, with sponge filter.

20170209_182658.jpg

 

Pic below taken today.  After several weeks, the initial few fry I've managed to save have now grown to slightly more than a centimeter.

scene00026.jpg

 

Also, their parents have managed to spawn and successfully hatched another batch.  But as I've not been able to separate them out into another tank, sadly those fry just became food.

 

That's sad.  They sound pretty rare, would be worth setting them up their own tank.

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Wow, bit late to the party but awesome to see these being bred here!!! I'm incredibly disappointed I didn't grab some from Redwoods when I had the chance, but it looks like the species in safe hands with at least two good sized groups being kept by people willing and capable of breeding them.

 

@Fruju you must have missed that great article in the last edition of Aquarium World magazine if you didn't know they were in the country! :P

https://aquariumworld.nz/magazine/8-September2016

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On 3/16/2017 at 7:27 PM, David R said:

Wow, bit late to the party but awesome to see these being bred here!!! I'm incredibly disappointed I didn't grab some from Redwoods when I had the chance, but it looks like the species in safe hands with at least two good sized groups being kept by people willing and capable of breeding them.

 

@Fruju you must have missed that great article in the last edition of Aquarium World magazine if you didn't know they were in the country! :P

https://aquariumworld.nz/magazine/8-September2016

Haha. I did not know that the magazine was uploaded to the website. Hmm. Nice article btw.

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