Faran Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Well, after a few weeks of trial and error I finally managed to get a successful spawning of Congos. It seems that a lot of advice on websites out there only give you half the picture and you need to mix and match to get a successful formula. Anyways, here's my "proud poppa with a camera" shots. Mind you that these little buggers are only 4mm including a very transparent tail, so sorry for the graininess from the extreme close-ups. This is a shot of a fully developed zygote still in the egg. Two freshly hatched fry - will lay about for 3-4 days absorbing the yolk sacs. A "group shot" of the youngsters in a floating nursery. There was 40+ in this container and I thought I had all of them.... then more eggs hatched, I gave up and they're all now freely swimming in the tank. So, wish me luck - I hear that these are as hard to raise to sell-able size as they are the get to spawn.... I have about 100 fry right now, so I expect to have about 10 left by the time they grow to adults Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted September 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Oh, and the best advice I found online for breeding them - http://groups.msn.com/Breedingtropicalf ... age20.msnw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Awesome to hear dude, good luck raising them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted September 4, 2005 Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Excellent B&K, I just read that they are big enough at hatching to go straight onto BBS. So theat makes them bigger than I thought they'd be. Also a lot easier to get going. What was your lighting over the spawning and hatching area?? Good effort. Alan 104 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted September 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2005 Lighting - At first I had nice bright lighting, hearing that bright light was key in stimulating spawning.... then one morning we looked in the tank before the lights came on and saw the congos going at it. So that brought me back to the website above that tells you that the eggs and fry are light sensitive. So I did a test - one covered container with eggs floating and one uncovered and exposed to the lights. Suprise suprise - covered container (low light) had a 50% hatch rate with little fungus, uncovered produced a whole 1 fry and had a LOT of problems with fungus. So, my solution is to keep the lights off unless I'm doing maintenance. The tank is exposed to perhaps 2 hours a day of a night/blue bulb while I work on it. Food - Well, they have a nice colony of cyclops in the tank with them and they seem to enjoy chasing them down though I suppose that won't last very long. Additional food is supplied in the form of microworms. The free-swimming fry are approx 5mm and stay pretty low in the water, though I've seen one go all the way to the surface chasing a cyclops. For the most part they scavenge the bottom of the tank for worms and assorted copepods. A friend was kind enough to give me a couple months supply of brine shrimp eggs so I'll start hatching them out today. After hatch care - by the end of the week all eggs should be hatched and most fry free-swimming. At that point I'll be transferring them into a smaller tank for monitored feeding and cleaning. That tank will have a small group of ramshorn snails as a cleanup crew. Once the fry get to 1cm they will all be put back into the 3ft tank they're currently in to grow out. So that's my plan of attack. I saw today that another batch of fry have hatched and are working on yolk sacs. I have a feeling I'll be over-run with bubbas soon and may end up leaving them all in the 3ft tank if there's too many for a fry care tank.... then again, they could always go in with the guppy fry - until they get big enough to start eating them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billaney Posted September 5, 2005 Report Share Posted September 5, 2005 Looking good there mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted September 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 As you can see, the fry have now absorbed the yolk sacs and developed stomachs. The tails and fins aren't really visible in the pic, but they're there! The entire front end of these fry is all business, when they go to eat you really see them open up like pac-man. As they're mid-water feeders, BBS are definitely a better food source, though Kevin (KMAC president) says that putting a bubble stone in the corner of the tank may allow for microworms to be circulated enough to be eaten. Will try a little of both and let you know! P.S. - Only took 57 shots to get this picture! Imagine if we didn't have digital cameras... that would have been a LOT of wasted film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 The stone will force the fish to swim more and use up "growing" energy Are you using a sponge filter, they love picking at that. Alan 104 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted September 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Actually, the tank they're in now is TINY (30x15x15cm) while I nuke the tank they were spawned in. Not even enough room for a sponge filter as well as the heater and thermometer. I have a 30ltr bucket with old water for water changes. Good point on the air stone... BBS it is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livebearer_breeder Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Nice dude, pics looks awsome on my screen. Shae Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 One of Shuis' would be okay in that size tank. Alan 104 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted September 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 /me calls shiuh Thanks Alan. Don't know if it'll keep microworms circulating, but hopefully they'll get in the filter.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Thats what I was aiming for. Baby fish appear to graze Alan 104 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 B&K have a look here http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/compac ... t8588.html Alan 104 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted September 9, 2005 Report Share Posted September 9, 2005 link didn't work for me :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted September 9, 2005 Report Share Posted September 9, 2005 You are right I just tried it It refers to Shuih's setup with the small tanks from the Big Red Shed. You can find that with a little bit of a search Alan 104 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted September 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2005 Nope, couldn't find it. Tried searching for Shiuh's posts as well as "Big Red Shed". No worries though, I know Shiuh pretty well and he's a great guy and been a great help with the little sponge filter and other things I needed in a hurry. The Congos are busy gobbling down some BBS as we speak and they love love LOVE it. Wish I could get a decent pic of that.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HummingBird Posted September 10, 2005 Report Share Posted September 10, 2005 This link should work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted September 10, 2005 Report Share Posted September 10, 2005 Thanks HummingBird, great set up So cheap too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiuh Posted September 10, 2005 Report Share Posted September 10, 2005 BBS is surely a better food source than microworms!! it is a recognised number one food source for breeders worldwide. i only use bbs to feed my fry even adults fish. it is a bit expensive, but its worth all the money!!! speaking of which i am running out on BBS eggs... oh yes...the congo tetras. Get them to eat little amount of BBS in a short timeframe, say 2 hrs, just to get their stomach full, and you can see the pink belly. then feed again in 2 hrs later, this will let the fry eat 6 times a day! instead of one or two Big feeding a day. you can really see them grow this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted September 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2005 Yup, I've seen it in person. Really legendary with a very limited amount of space. I'm selling a tank that has 10 similar sized compartments in one. See http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/tanks- ... t8759.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted September 10, 2005 Report Share Posted September 10, 2005 Thank you Eric, right on the dot. Shuih, I still have some cans available, let me know if you are interested. Alan 104 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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