Spotted Congo Puffer First Fry

[TheSwissAquarist]

They’re so tiny compared to the BBS! Are they in some kind of breeder box? 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

@TheSwissAquarist they are sort of. Its a german breeding ring floating in an unstocked 60 breeder. Essentially the flow of the hang on tank box, with an intakr a sponge filter, a clear acrylic ring, a sieve mesh base, and a foam top so it floats in tank. The white tube has an airline just above the bottom elbow that pulls water through the sponge and up into the ring. There is an overflow with a coarse sponge plug just in case it ever gets too full

The idea was to raise puffer fry and other smaller fry in different sized tanks where the water level wouldnt need to be full and it would just float in tank. Still learning them but so far its pretty nice

[jwcarlson]

@mountaintoppufferkeeper Did you make that breeding ring yourself or purchase it somewhere?  I'd be interested in either the plans or the source.

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 4/4/2023 at 11:18 AM, jwcarlson said:

@mountaintoppufferkeeper Did you make that breeding ring yourself or purchase it somewhere?  I'd be interested in either the plans or the source.

I can assure you I am not that talented of a fabricator  :). I believe they are relatively easy to find in a few spots. I like the idea of the floating ring for my projects and setups

Edited April 5, 2023 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[Preston John]

@mountaintoppufferkeeper I updated this image to include Moina. I'd love for a little peer review after you raise a few spawns. 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

@Preston John Will do. They are a whole different and rewarding kind of puffer challenge. This batch has been really enjoyable to learn from. 

Day 14 7 April 2023

 

Edited April 7, 2023 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[bnaturally]

Nice! I have a subadult schoutedeni from someone who bred them locally and raised many of them successfully a couple of times and I love them. Best of luck!

[helepolis]

That's awesome! Can I ask what your tank parameters for breeding these guys?

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 4/7/2023 at 6:34 PM, helepolis said:

That's awesome! Can I ask what your tank parameters for breeding these guys?

Sure 77-79⁰ temp range, 300 kh, 40 gh, 6.8ph, 9,100' altitude, and tons of snails and earthworms

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Necessity being the mother of invention.....

My spotted congo fry came just before when the family vacation in a few weeks. A vacation right in the middle of puffer growing season does not end with puffers for me.

I decided to attempt to automate the feedings using a bigger paramecium culture a wifi timer and a topoff doser.

This is version 3 of the automated paramecium feeder (and possibly a moina feeder). The cloudy 20 high to the right of the 60 breeder fry tank is a paramecium culture using wheat berries and yeast filled half way should be ready by then but for now the half gallon mason jar is good for approximately 30 one minute 50ml feedings. 

The polyfilter cube seen in the german breeding ring is a visual indicator of water quality for me. Its just a little insurance against any organic buildup. The ring is floating in a 60 breeder with a sicce pro 900 for filtration and the sponge filter on the ring.

You can see a puffer fry eating a paramecium at the end

day 14 7 april 2023....this is the still figuring out the process. Im not finalized on the layout yet so the coop tubing is long enough to adjust and not fully set in place. The concept seems to work so far

 

 

[helepolis]

On 4/7/2023 at 6:29 PM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:

Sure 77-79⁰ temp range, 300 kh, 40 gh, 6.8ph, 9,100' altitude, and tons of snails and earthworms

Thanks, interestingly enough I've never considered altitude as a parameter! I'd assume a little less O2 than sea level but otherwise not much different?

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 4/7/2023 at 11:04 PM, helepolis said:

Thanks, interestingly enough I've never considered altitude as a parameter! I'd assume a little less O2 than sea level but otherwise not much different?

I have no idea how or if really but my general theory is that some fish are triggered to spawn based of barometric pressure drops related to storms, temperature, etc. 

I have 33% lower barometric pressure vs sea level, on average. At this altitude the percentage of oxygen vs air volume is 14.8% vs 20.9% at sealevel.

Those parameters might be something that keeps the barometric trigger for spawning "on" all the time and help my efforts by already having that trigger checked off. 

I do run liveplants and air driven filters to maximize the dissolved oxygen day and night

Edited April 8, 2023 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[helepolis]

That's cool, I've heard of barometric pressure drop being a trigger for South American fish, it would make sense for Africa too.

 

Try Cross River next! haha.

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Day 15 April 8 2023 

Either I missed one spawning or this colony is on a 15 day schedule

Male looking for female who is behind subwassertang forest and bottom left

a few of the eggs 

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 4/8/2023 at 9:49 PM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:

have no idea how or if really but my general theory is that some fish are triggered to spawn based of barometric pressure drops related to storms, temperature, etc.

I live at 4900 feet and second that opinion.
My angels and stuff tend to get frisky around when decent storms hit, both lighting and rain storms. I’m wondering if it’s just simply another mechanism which makes fish spawn during the rainy season in the wild? 

[DaveO]

On 4/8/2023 at 9:46 PM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:

Day 15 April 8 2023 

Either I missed one spawning or this colony is on a 15 day schedule

Male looking for female who is behind subwassertang forest and bottom left

a few of the eggs 

 

I have been super curious how the fry are doing. Do you have an update you can share?

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Absolutely...BLUF is they didnt make it past day 20. But they are why the next group will be more successful so a good learning experience. 

I believe the combo of loosing power for 10 hours in that first week and the lack of enough paramecium probably turned batch one to an excelleng learning experience same as the first few palustris fry batches were in getting my process for my conditions and group down.

Right around day 18 the puffer fry started to be harder to see seemed to go off food and vanished shortly after. 

I do have plenty of paramecium going now along with some infusoria in a 5 gallon bucket using java moss and the standard cultures for other fry : baby brine, grindal worms, and whiteworms. 

Here is the adult group this morning. Eggs should be next harvestable tomorrow. 

To one end opposite the filter is a "spawning container" of subwassertang so the male can dive in there and i can just pull container out to collect most eggs

The F1 palustris are pretty regularly spawning but on top of a clay pot cave seems like poor planning. i am about to pull that one and leave them with one cave to use. Male left female right both in spawning coloration

[DaveO]

Thanks for the reply. Learning is hard sometimes. Can't wait to see more on this. I'm sure you'll crack the code.

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 4/29/2023 at 12:41 PM, DaveO said:

Thanks for the reply. Learning is hard sometimes. Can't wait to see more on this. I'm sure you'll crack the code.

Yeah no worries all part of the enjoyment. The learning process makes the end reault that much more rewarding for me when i get there. 

Edited April 30, 2023 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Most recent experiment with egg collection.....

She doesnt seem to be too bothered by the grab considering the eating here

The current process is this container holding all the subwassertand etc. In the tank which i can then remove and replace with new subwassertang. The idea being to try and limit disruption to the colony when getting eggs out. 

i do have another idea to semi automate the egg retrival amd make this more of a hands off process beginning next month. 

Dropped the water and plants in a container to hopefully hatch eggs and learn some more up here.  

[Lennie]

On 6/12/2023 at 4:22 PM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:

Most recent experiment with egg collection.....

She doesnt seem to be too bothered by the grab considering the eating here

The current process is this container holding all the subwassertand etc. In the tank which i can then remove and replace with new subwassertang. The idea being to try and limit disruption to the colony when getting eggs out. 

i do have another idea to semi automate the egg retrival amd make this more of a hands off process beginning next month. 

Dropped the water and plants in a container to hopefully hatch eggs and learn some more up here.  

This is so exciting dude.

 

Best of luck!

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 6/12/2023 at 7:23 AM, Lennie said:

This is so exciting dude.

 

Best of luck!

Thanks kindly. Im bit better of a paramecium rancher at this point and the worm cultures are in full production with the slightly nicer weather up here now. Hoping for no snow caused power losses from this month but still a chance up here. 

[Lennie]

On 6/12/2023 at 4:29 PM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:

Thanks kindly. Im bit better of a paramecium rancher at this point and the worm cultures are in full production with the slightly nicer weather up here now. Hoping for no snow caused power losses from this month but still a chance up here. 

Fingers crossed, I hope you and your little friends face no issues.

 

This inspires me to try breeding spotter puffers one day. They always look at me with their cute silly faces and It is always a struggle to not impulse buy. There is so much for me to learn through your experience here.

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

@Lennie much appreciated. Im learning slowly and sharing the adventure on these for sure. @Preston John is who I follow for spotted congo puffer keeping feeding breeding and raising.  They are a really fun group up here I look forward to breaking the code on raising them up from eggs. 

Missed a few eggs it seems 🙂

im fairly confident I got plently of eggs in my collection container /plants based of the clean up along the outside seen above. 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Ive added 2 new cultures to the fishroom to use along side the 2 quart mason jar cultures of paramecium. The goal is to get the puffer fry to bbs size and move to worms and snails eventually. 

First add:

20H tank room temperature with a few hours of direct sunlight depending on season. This is for sure seed shrimp and copepods of at least one type. There might be rotifers and moina in here as well. 

 

2nd add

Calyciforus pallas is be attempted in multiple 5 gallon buckets, and large mason jars to see which is best. Foods are the chlorella powder and other algaes while i figire out the best method for my setups. 

 

The cultures might fail spectacularly at aome point but im enjoying figuring out what is best for my fry up here in the mean time.