Benitochromis nigrodorsalis spawn!

chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
FINALLY these two figured it out even though they've been flirting ever since I got them from Sam. Every now and then they'll take a break for a few days, but otherwise they're constantly shimmying for each other and nudging each other in the gills. The constant nudging got so persistent that they both even ended up with a very nasty case of columnaris on that spot where they nudge each other's operculum. That was treated once I realized it was truly fungal and not bacterial. They had been moved to a 15 so that I could quarantine and treat them easier and I had left them there since. Now that they're feeling better, the courting has continued so I put some of their decorations back in (driftwood and moss). I forgot about a month and a half ago to plug the heaters for those tanks in after a waterchange but the fish didn't really seem to mind so I left them off to give everyone a break for a bit and test the effect on the electric bill. Then I got busy and went almost three weeks :eek: without a waterchange. I finally got around to these tanks this past Sunday. The two of them have been really up at the front of the tank a lot, and begging for food when I walk by, which is unusual for them. I also noticed the female plumping up a bit.

Then, this evening I noticed that the female has a mouthful of eggs, so I guess they finally figured things out.
 
Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
jonclark96 said:
Sweet! And you got them to breed before Tony.


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Click to expand...

It's the grand-uber-mega-breeder Christine. Are you surprised? :p

(It's a feat in itself that my fish are even still alive.)

Congrats on the spawn, Chris. Good to know that even if mine never do anything, this super rare fish will remain in the club.

:happy0180:
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
Well, I didn't see either parent holding eggs last night, and today they're acting like I haven't fed them in a million years so I'm going to guess that this first attempt is a bust. BUT I'm hoping they'll spawn again soon!

Here's a pic from the other day when the female was holding....both male and female turned a really dark olive drab color when she was holding.

nigrodorsalis with eggs-1012.jpg
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
*sigh*

Ok, so they held for about two days and that's it. Very disappointed, but hey.....at least they're spawning and it was the first time I've seen them do it, so there's hope for more.

Well, after doing some waterchanges last week, they spawned again a few days ago! Yay, right? I was feeding blackworms this evening and tossed a few in for the non-holding parent. Well, both went to town on the blackworms and the one holding ended up spitting the eggs out in favor of the blackworms! Then everybody was eating blackworms and picking up the scattered eggs as well. I waited to see if they'd pick the rest of the eggs up and hold again, but then I saw bits of egg floating out of their gills and decided to grab the rest. So I have whatever eggs I could save (maybe 6 or so) in a tumbler right now.

So, lesson learned.....no blackworms in that tank when the Benitochromis are holding.....
 
Becca

Becca

Members
Sorry your fish were just "making breakfast," but it's a start! They'll do better next time :).

Good luck with the ones you've got in the tumbler!
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
Aaaaand they're holding again! They've been trading off for the past 3 days, which is a record for them. fingers crossed!

In other news: the eggs in the tumbler were a bust. Given how fas they all went bad, I wonder if they were even fertilized.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
Hmmm and they're gone again. At least we made it to the "several days" category this time. They're back to courting now.
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
caught them in the act of spawning this evening. Both parents are sharing the batch of eggs between the two of them even as they are spawning.

benitochromis-1433.jpg
 
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