Lake Tanganyika Species • Kitumba Spawning Log

[ben_cichlid]

Congrats and best of luck Charles....hope to see some Kitumba babies soon...

[Charles]

July / 18

After the filter died last night, I have to take it all out and clean it. All the dirt and junks and craps spilled into the main tank. I am not sure this will affect the eggs but it sure seems that way tonight.

As of today

Tumbler #1 went from 9 to 6 /15 eggs
Tumbler #2 went from 13 to 8 / 15 eggs

Total 8 bad eggs in a day. And all of those were looking good before the filter died.

Tumbler #3 is still 8 / 8 eggs and they are pretty fresh... I guess too soon to know. However, 3 out of 8 eggs developed a hole in the middle of the egg.

Not a good day in my tank today..

[senorh]

sorry to hear about your loss.

Senorh

[suppadabest]

sorry to hear that... :cry:

[Charles]

July / 19

Now I can tell the different between unfertile egg and fungus attack. With 10 bad eggs per tumbler, some were attacked by fungus, some were just unfertile, it will be more clear on the next time. Anyway, here is the report at day 4.


Tumbler #1 5 /15 eggs
Tumbler #2 5 / 15 eggs
Tumbler #3 7 / 8 eggs

At the very least, this little spawning can provide us some information about the 3 tumblers I am using. They all seem good for tumbling eggs...

[Charles]

July 20 2005

Tumbler #1 starts with 15 eggs on July/15/2005, and now it has 4 eggs remain. All were doing good except that one egg already showing tail and head has a small fungus growing at the other side of the egg. To ensure it won't spread, I took the remaining 3 eggs out and put them in tumbler #2. I thought this fungus will spread and kill the egg. But that little one is a figther. I can see that its tail is still moving and fungus changing from big to small to midium size now. My hope is not high for it though.

Tumbler #2 starts with 15 eggs on July/15/2005, and now it has 5 eggs remain. Some are showing tail. Some are showing the stage before the tail appears. The egg will start to change shape; started with an egg shape and slowly deforming into like a corn shape with a line in the middle. Then one end usually the smaller end will change color with black dots appearing. Then it starts to show the blood line. And then the tail and head will appear.

Here are a couple pictures.





Tumbler #3 starts with 8 eggs on July/17/2005- it has 3 eggs remain. I can see 2 of the eggs are having the deform shape or stage. 1 still remains egg shape. Usually, this mean it is a bad eggs.

[Fin]

Congratulations Charles looks like your on your way to raising some F1 Kitumba fry .Remember that i have some F1 Moba that we can do an exchange

[Gandalfslair]

Charles,

Do you feel that by stripping early you reduced your success rate or do you think it would have been worse, let's say, if you added a week before stripping...I know you don't know for sure, but what does your gut tell you?

(Good information for those who haven't stripped a Zaire yet)

Still crossing those fingers for the remainder....

[Charles]

To tell you the truth, I would still strip on the first day.

Remember, this is only true about my fish. I am not saying every fish is the same...
Reason, my fish lost eggs anywhere from 2-10days before in 6 spawns. I striped about 30 eggs from 1 female day 1, and 8 eggs from the other female in day 2. So far, it looks like I lost 22 eggs from the first female, and 7 eggs from the second. Most of the eggs I lost is deal to unfertile. I can tell now since I watch them grow every morning and night.

The unfertile eggs actually desolve in water even with a very very soft touch. I believe this is how a female can tell if the egg is unfertile in her mouth. A gentle rolling in her mouth will cause the eggs to break. So, what about fungus, will that also spread easily with the limited room in the female's mouth. I would think so. I divided all the eggs with 3 tumblers and this seem to have very little fungus problem. So far, I can clearly tell that only 5 eggs death was deal to fungus.

By striping later, you are getting the end result of those bad eggs already been taken out by the female. I would not think with my case this time will make that much of the different. Perhaps worest cause I might get my remainer 8 eggs to break or swallow accidentally by the female.

I know that most people strip after 5 days. I can tell you that after 5 days, most unfertile eggs are gone by then. So, you will most likely get a 90% survival rate. So, it is really up to you. I would continue to strip if I want fry. If not, I will let the female to hold.

[ben_cichlid]

Congrats Charles, looks like finally you are getting some Kitumba fries

[Manus]

Awesome pics and writing Charles. Thanks!...

My females must of been reading over my should as I talked about them because one of them spawned 26 eggs! I broke one 8(

I'm tumbling them hopefully I'll get good results.

Good luck with your remaining eggs!!!

[Charles]

July 24 2005

Time for another update. I have combine all 3 tumblers eggs together. I have total 8 left. On July 22 2005, I can tell the stomach is forming. I can see the silver dot in between the baby fish and the egg sack. And today, I can swear I see blue color on their little eyes and heads. So far so good. Only thing I can pick wrong is one of the egg looks to me developing very slowly compare to others. It still has the bright red blood dot at the end of the egg sack.

Here is another mistake you can learn from me I paid so much attendion at these babies, I forgot I had 5 sandies fry, few sandies eggs in another tumbler in another tank, and 2 holding female sandies. Well, I only have 1 sandis fry left... Both mom not holding, tumbler eggs when all died, everyone but one of the fry went dead by hunger and poor water quality.

I will get some picture up later on tonight.

[Charles]

July 24 2005

Update pictures

[chris4984]

Beautiful sight to behold. I can't wait to see the whole development.

[Charles]

July 24 2005
Only thing I can pick wrong is one of the egg looks to me developing very slowly compare to others. It still has the bright red blood dot at the end of the egg sack.

July 25 2005

Just as I suspected, the slow develop egg with the blood dot starting to get fungus right at that red dot. I am not sure what to do about this. I know the chance for this fry to survive is low if I dont do anything. If I add meth blue, I am not sure if it will affect the other.

I already separated that egg in another tumbler.