Hemichromis Guinea II spawn

chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
Ok, wow. these guys spawned!

I was warned that they take a while to settle in and then take a while to mature enough to spawn.

Well, I've been feeding them blackworms and cutting their water with RO.
When our last speaker (Steve) was here, he looked at the tank and noticed that two had paired off and were defending the back corner of the tank. so, I thought...cool, going in the right direction. I picked up some additional wood while at Rachel's last weekend and rearranged their tank the other day to add some new pieces of wood to increase the sight breaks.

Last night, I noticed an increase in aggression from the "pair" toward their other tankmates and saw that one had really plumped up. Today I checked on them after work and they'd spawned on the glass in the back of the tank! Looks like quite a few eggs are either infertile or fungused, but hopefully there'll be a few that make it.

Tank setup is a 40B. Ammonia and Nitrites are 0, Nitrate is 10 or less. pH is 6.8 and water is "soft." Lighting is pretty dim.

Hemichromis guinea II-1461.jpg
 
dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
Wow - that's really awesome, Christine. I think only a couple of folks have bred them successfully!

RO + the tannins from the new driftwood seemed to be the trigger. What was the temp?

A cold front also came through last night.

Keep taking pics :)

Matt
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
Temp in the tank was 77 yesterday eve. Matt, I had the same thought about the weather front, too.

I see at least two other fish in the group that have also plumped up in the same way that the female of the spawning pair did, but they don't seem to have formed a bond with another in the tank yet. Or maybe I just don't see it since the dominant pair is messing with everyone else's space.

I'm also wondering if I've got the pH and hardness low enough for them. I've heard that these fish like it low and soft. So, even if they are successful, the remaining hardness may have interfered with egg fertilization, or hatching, and who knows if my gender ratios are going to be way off. Or they could be like most other jewels and not be bothered by all that!
 
dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
The addition of the tannin-rich driftwood definitely helped (as did the live food) put them in the mood.

I'd bet that the cold front helped trigger things.

I seem to remember (back in Sacramento) that storms would trigger lots of tail wagging, etc. Water wasn't tannin-y though (a drawback of auto-water changing, by the way). I had these guys for many years and they grew huge. Definitely had a pair. They'd go through the motions... just no babies.

They're still young and working out spawning mechanics. I'm stoked to see if any hatch. If not, they'll do it again!

I'd bet the other ones won't spawn but will serve the purpose of keeping the pair vigilant.

Good luck!

Matt
 
mchambers

mchambers

Former CCA member
Good luck with the spawn. I've read these Hemichromis are not as aggressive as most. I take it that is true, at least thus far?
 
chriscoli

chriscoli

Administrator
The aggression in these is definitely different than the other jewels I'm used to. I've left the others in the tank with the spawning pair for now to see how they do. There's no physical damage (yet) that I can see, just a clearly defined "do not cross" zone around the parents and some occasional chasing. There's also a pair of P. Sacrimontis in with them and they seem well-matched on aggression right now.

That being said, I'm monitoring the tank and will remove anyone that gets their butt kicked.
 
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