Maximus Posted July 11, 2023 Share Posted July 11, 2023 I moved my Sterbai over from a community tank to their own spawning tank about a week ago. I've been trying to condition them for breeding by feeding freeze dried tubifex cubes using the sinking cone trick @Dean’s Fishroom has on youtube, and live baby brine shrimp. They're still fairly young, probably about 6/7 months old at this point (didn't raise them from fry, bought at ACO so not sure on exact age). I was planning on doing cooler water changes to trigger spawning, but guess they didn't have time for all of that. Pulled out about 7 fertilized eggs today, definitely had trouble getting them to stick to my finger rolling them off the glass (lost a couple in the sand). 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBOzzie59 Posted July 11, 2023 Share Posted July 11, 2023 Just a suggestion for when the little ones arrive. I feed frozen baby brine as it sinks right to the bottom where they will be looking for food. I mix with spirulina powder and make ice (shrimp cubes) they gobble it up. If you don't want to hatch and freeze you can purchase frozen baby brine. I also fed the coop fry food with and without spirulina powder, mix the fry food with water first so it goes right to the bottom. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted July 12, 2023 Author Share Posted July 12, 2023 Lots more activity and eggs today (~20), saw them briefly in the T position which was neat, and saw one of the females leave her eggs on the glass. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountaintoppufferkeeper Posted July 14, 2023 Share Posted July 14, 2023 Congrats thats great. They are a pretty awesome species to breed. I guess they are conditioned 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 14, 2023 Share Posted July 14, 2023 On 7/11/2023 at 8:54 AM, Maximus said: Pulled out about 7 fertilized eggs today, definitely had trouble getting them to stick to my finger rolling them off the glass (lost a couple in the sand). It's absolutely not easy! It takes a lot of attempts in my case because those eggs are so stuck on the glass. I would love to have a setup where I can. Just leave the eggs, but currently I don't. Best of luck and congratulations on the fry! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted July 17, 2023 Author Share Posted July 17, 2023 @nabokovfan87 how do you manage multiple spawns and treating with methylene blue? I've had pretty consistent spawning every couple of mornings, but I'm up to my eyeballs in eggs and lots of them are getting fungus. I think it's too crowded in the specimen container. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 17, 2023 Share Posted July 17, 2023 On 7/17/2023 at 8:49 AM, Maximus said: @nabokovfan87 how do you manage multiple spawns and treating with methylene blue? I've had pretty consistent spawning every couple of mornings, but I'm up to my eyeballs in eggs and lots of them are getting fungus. I think it's too crowded in the specimen container. When I had to pull eggs the second time it wasn't great. I hatched them out in the tumbler and went to move them to the specimen container. The result of all of that was that right as I added the next spawn that was a day or so old the older corydoras just ate them. In terms of handling eggs, it would just be methylene blue dips. You move the eggs from the tank to a specimen container or something similar and use that as you vessel for the dip. Add 1-3 drops and wait a certain amount of time. I can't recall off the top of my head but it's something like 15-30 minutes. Then you would change out the water / move those eggs to the container to hatch. Ultimately the issue you're running into is why breeders have 2-3 tanks lined up and ready to go for eggs. Don't feel like you need to pull eggs if you already have too many. If you're struggling and trying to get them to hatch, but fighting fungus then there is a few tips we can look at. 1. Not too much flow, but enough to keep water movement. In a tumbler it's a gentle movement of the egg (like an anemone tendril or something) 2. Spread the eggs and separate the eggs as much as possible. Check constantly for fungus and remove eggs as soon as fungus appears. You can either dip those in the methylene blue again or discard them. 3. Neocaridina shrimp have been reported to clean eggs from fungus. 4. Catappa leaves will also help to aid in antifungal and antibacterial properties. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 I've got a couple specimen containers going now, I figure one can have the med and the other can be clean for moving the eggs to after a wash. I don't have a tumbler, but I do have an air stone in there to help circulate the water with the eggs (and one in the second container now). Still having a hard time rolling them onto another wall surface of the specimen container. I tried scuffing one side a bit, will try it out next spawn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted August 4, 2023 Author Share Posted August 4, 2023 Might need to modify the title of the post to include surprise Sterbai juvenile. I think just one. I've been putting the eggs with fungus into a honey gourami tank, and I must have accidentally put a fry in there at some point, too. There's plenty of mulm but not a lot of cover down there TBH. Anecdotally, roughing spots on the container specimen didn't make it any easier to adhere eggs, but it seems the longer the eggs are in the spawning tank the harder they become to re-adhere. I also switched to using a couple of catappa leaves instead of methylene blue. Significantly less fungus now. Again, anecdotally. Could also be water quality, maturity of the adults, etc but seems things are clicking along pretty well now. I didn't really plan on spawning these so soon, so I'm still not quite fully set up for it. I also have limited mobility right now and can't go around setting up a new grow out tank from scratch. I might just put in sand substrate into the gourami tank and try to get them plenty of cover. A fry system would be nice, but I have too many higher priority projects right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted August 4, 2023 Author Share Posted August 4, 2023 Also managed to get a shot of them in the T position the other week. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rube_Goldfish Posted August 4, 2023 Share Posted August 4, 2023 Congratulations on the juvenile! I have mixed results rolling the eggs off the glass and on to my fingers; I think it's correlated to how long the egg has been on the glass, but I haven't really tracked it that well. Anyway, I accidentally drop a bunch of eggs trying to roll them off, so now I roll them off with my dominant hand and keep a turkey baster in my off hand, ready to suck up any I drop. It works surprisingly well! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBOzzie59 Posted August 5, 2023 Share Posted August 5, 2023 (edited) On 7/17/2023 at 8:49 AM, Maximus said: @nabokovfan87 how do you manage multiple spawns and treating with methylene blue? I've had pretty consistent spawning every couple of mornings, but I'm up to my eyeballs in eggs and lots of them are getting fungus. I think it's too crowded in the specimen container. I use these. Circulates water from the spawning tank, I've never had to use chems to prevent fungus. https://www.amazon.com/Marina-Hang-On-Breeding-Box-Large/dp/B005QRDCP2/ref=asc_df_B005QRDCP2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167116240456&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1076134895838096400&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033402&hvtargid=pla-306918540865&th=1 I also drop in a few cherry shrimp. Edited August 5, 2023 by KBOzzie59 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardedbillygoat1975 Posted August 5, 2023 Share Posted August 5, 2023 I though Blake had a nice method on YouTube best of luck and have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rube_Goldfish Posted August 5, 2023 Share Posted August 5, 2023 I just got a Penn-Plax Net Breeder Box from ACO, but haven't had a spawn since it arrived (of course). So far, though, I've been using coffee filter baskets floating on a ring of airline tubing as a DIY breeder box, and it's been working pretty well. I also don't use any chemical antifungals, reasoning that they're getting the benefit of the whole tank's water, similar to @KBOzzie59 above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rube_Goldfish Posted August 7, 2023 Share Posted August 7, 2023 (edited) On 8/4/2023 at 7:27 PM, Rube_Goldfish said: Anyway, I accidentally drop a bunch of eggs trying to roll them off, so now I roll them off with my dominant hand and keep a turkey baster in my off hand, ready to suck up any I drop. It works surprisingly well! My Corydoras sterbai live and breed in a community, and I've got a pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides breeding in there, too, and at the moment, there are six juveniles about a week away from going to my LFS (they're about 3/4 the length of their mom at the moment). Anyway, I mention it because I was rolling off two cory eggs off the glass today and knocked both of them off my finger and into the water column. I turkey baster'd one up and watched as one of the apisto juvies beat me to the other one and slurped it up. C'est la vie. The troublemaker, looking a little blurry (won't pose for pictures): Edited August 7, 2023 by Rube_Goldfish Typo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted August 18, 2023 Author Share Posted August 18, 2023 I moved the breeder box to a tank with chili rasboras that haven't settled down from glass surfing for ages (went through all of the common issues), and it was like magic. No adjustment period needed and the chilis are all of a sudden calm and confident 🤷♂️ Guess I can never move it now lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted August 18, 2023 Author Share Posted August 18, 2023 @Guppysnail could you move this post to the journal section? It seems to fit there better at this point. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted October 2, 2023 Author Share Posted October 2, 2023 (edited) Anecdotally, I'm seeing spawning behavior triggered immediately following a feeding of freeze dried tubifex. I haven't turned on the powerhead again, yet, which is surprising. I put a SAE in there, so will be watching how it does in there with eggs. Edited October 2, 2023 by Maximus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now