Xenophallus umbratilis not breeding

[sebdeserio]

Hello everyone,

I purchased a trio of Xenophallus umbratilis last December and haven't had much success with them. They're in a 20 gal with 6  wabenmusters I'm growing out and I've only gotten 2 spawns from them, within a month of purchasing them. I had an original female jump not long after getting them and now I have a group of 3-4 males and 3-4 females. The tank has a layer of duckweed and is full of guppy grass so they have plenty of shade and cover. Doesn't seem like they're seasonal spawners either from what I can find online and I keep them at 27°C but their temp range seems to be very wide so don't think that's a problem.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Edited September 14, 2023 by sebdeserio

[Fish Folk]

What are all of your water parameters, and your lighting schedule? You said temperature is at 27-C. Have you tried lowering that down 23-24 C for a period of 3x months?

Do adults of this species ever predate on fry? Are fry born with trophotaenia (like Xenotoca doadrioi)? Or are they more similar to common P. reticulata?

The parameters I would attach most closely would be (1) Temperature (2) Water hardness / softness (3) pH (4) Dissolved oxygen.

What is your current diet? You might want to stimulate spawning with live BBS, Daphnia or Grindal worms.

That is a long window to have no fry . . .

[sebdeserio]

On 9/14/2023 at 2:33 PM, Fish Folk said:

What are all of your water parameters, and your lighting schedule? You said temperature is at 27-C. Have you tried lowering that down 23-24 C for a period of 3x months?

Do adults of this species ever predate on fry? Are fry born with trophotaenia (like Xenotoca doadrioi)? Or are they more similar to common P. reticulata?

The parameters I would attach most closely would be (1) Temperature (2) Water hardness / softness (3) pH (4) Dissolved oxygen.

What is your current diet? You might want to stimulate spawning with live BBS, Daphnia or Grindal worms.

That is a long window to have no fry . . .

Nitrate is 80 ppm, nitrite 0.5, KH is ~20, GH is tough to tell on my test strip maybe 300 and pH is ~7 (no ammonia reading with the tetra strips). Lights on at 11:30 am and off at 6:30 pm. Haven't lowered it yet I'll try that now. The first few drops the adults chased the fry for the first 2-3 weeks but the fry were able to hide pretty quickly. They're more similar to guppies males have a gonopodium that either curves left or right and can supposedly affect breeding but I think its unsubstantiated. 

I've been feeding them a varied diet of northfin kelp wafers, north fin bug pro, earthworm and shrimp sticks, repashy (grub pie mixed with super green) and north fin veggie pellets. 

Haven't seen any gravid females either but the males still chase them.

[Fish Folk]

On 9/14/2023 at 3:39 PM, sebdeserio said:

Nitrate is 80 ppm, nitrite 0.5, KH is ~20, GH is tough to tell on my test strip maybe 300 and pH is ~7 (no ammonia reading with the tetra strips). Lights on at 11:30 am and off at 6:30 pm. Haven't lowered it yet I'll try that now. The first few drops the adults chased the fry for the first 2-3 weeks but the fry were able to hide pretty quickly. They're more similar to guppies males have a gonopodium that either curves left or right and can supposedly affect breeding but I think its unsubstantiated. 

I've been feeding them a varied diet of northfin kelp wafers, north fin bug pro, earthworm and shrimp sticks, repashy (grub pie mixed with super green) and north fin veggie pellets. 

Haven't seen any gravid females either but the males still chase them.

Hmm . . . I'm shocked your Nitrate is that high, given all of the plants. What is your KH? That is the water hardness I always go off of. Your feeding plan sounds outstanding, provided food is fresh enough. Maybe water change weekly, 15-20% with cool water to stimulate spawning. Otherwise, the Nitrate reading sounds problematic. If you're using titration drops, those reagent crystals are always sus...

[MN-AQUARIST]

I've had luck before with de-worming my livebearers if breeding doesn't seem to be where it should be.  Sometimes females can look healthy but because of the worms not have enough extra nutrients to grow babies.  Another option could be to increase the frequency(and there by the total) amount of feedings and/or adding frozen food to the mix.  

[sebdeserio]

On 9/14/2023 at 3:45 PM, Fish Folk said:

Hmm . . . I'm shocked your Nitrate is that high, given all of the plants. What is your KH? That is the water hardness I always go off of. Your feeding plan sounds outstanding, provided food is fresh enough. Maybe water change weekly, 15-20% with cool water to stimulate spawning. Otherwise, the Nitrate reading sounds problematic. If you're using titration drops, those reagent crystals are always sus...

KH is 20 ppm but I just realized my test strips expired July 2022. Will do more consistent water changes and see if combined with the temp drop it'll help.

On 9/15/2023 at 10:35 AM, MN-AQUARIST said:

I've had luck before with de-worming my livebearers if breeding doesn't seem to be where it should be.  Sometimes females can look healthy but because of the worms not have enough extra nutrients to grow babies.  Another option could be to increase the frequency(and there by the total) amount of feedings and/or adding frozen food to the mix.  

I'm in Canada so sadly don't have much options for deworming have some deworming flakes I can try but I've had them for a while.