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Kitumba Spawning Log

97K views 179 replies 44 participants last post by  GJx 
#1 ·
I just measured my fish. I always thought my largest female was 4-5". I was wrong. She is measured from nose to tail at 6.5"... Now the alpha male is at least 2" more than her so he is about 8.5-9"

Well, the reason why I pull them out is that there were spawning going on. She dropped her tube 2 days ago. And this afternoon, she did lay her eggs. Here is a picture of her holding.


This is almost exactly a year after I bought the group from Steve Perryman. She has total including this time 5 spawns. The earlier 4 spawns were not full term. She split her eggs from 2-10days. So after a 5 minutes debate inside my head, I decided to strip her. Here is a picture of her eggs.


I crushed a few eggs cause my female jumped out from my hand while I was striping her and damage a few eggs. And some eggs appear to have some white stuffs on them. They are not fungus. They are actually some string like stuffs attaching the eggs while she lays them. They do come over after a gentle rocking back and fore in the water.

Well, I still have to take the damaged eggs out but I don't want to bother the fish anymore tonight. I will take them out first thing in the morning. What an exciting night.

Wish me Luck, I will keep updating this thread.
 
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#27 ·
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 frys, 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 frys went dead by hunger and poor water quality.

I will get some picture up later on tonight.
 
#30 ·
Charles said:
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.
 
#34 ·
July 28 2005

The bad egg is still there. The fungus has grow smaller, but it is still there. The egg sack was having 2 craters closer to the fungus. I thought it for sure will die in the morning. But today, the craters disappear and it still is swimming.

All the other eggs are doing fine. It started to show some stripes in the body today. And they have blue eyes.

Can
 
#36 ·
Today, the one fry that I separated with the rest which has a small fungus grow on the opposite side of the egg died. It was interesting cause I notice and practice and gain some experience on it.

3 days ago, the fungus growth size was only like a needle point big. So it is very small. It is very hard to notice but it is there. 2 days ago, over night, the fungus grew to 1/4 inch long hanging from the egg. The egg sack was definitely smaller and I assume the fungus is taking what it needs from the egg. I was afraid the fish is not going to make it. So, I took it out and carefully remove the fungus as close to the egg as possible but not completely remove it. Then I put it back to the tumbler. I did this in the afternoon. By the way, the fungus dissolve and break very easily. Cutting tool is not required. I did look at it at night before I turn off the light and sleep. In the morning when I checked on the frys, the fungus grew almost back to the orginal size. Then I know the fish is not going to make it. I went out and got some meth blue and still no help. Well, it is dead today.

I wish I have some picture of it but I was too worry and also busy... But my description is pretty accurate of what happen.

The other 7 frys in the main tank is doing good. The stripes are showing nicely now. They are swimming up and down the tumbler. The york sack is still there so i give it another few days before I take them out and start feeding.

Pictures will come later.
 
#37 ·
hows the fry doin? congrats btw, not easy raising fry from egg in a tumbler.

i threw all my tumblers away and now use a mason jar or specimen container floating in the tank with an airline. my hatch rate has exponentially increased. may be worth practicing on your other species to fine tune the technique before trying it on your kitumbas tho.

your little tumba's look great charles!

keep us "posted" :lol:

geek
 
#41 ·
http://wiscichlidforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=957

here is a post by silversurfer employing my container floating technique for raising his eureeka red fry. he used a gladware container with a air stone, there are many different possibilities to this method, for example, using a lift tube (a piece of clear rigid tubing just like that used on your tumbler) drill a hole to fit an airline inside the tube. a company named lustar that went out of business a few years back makes a specimen container that is about the size of a coffee can made out of clear plastic, it has two 'handles' that hang on the side of the tank. these are normally used for moving fish from one tank to another and observing those fish inside it. some places still may have a few left even though they went out of business. stock up.

basically what i do is take that specimen container. fill it almost to the top with water (about 1 inch from the top) and float the container inside the tank. floating in the tank keeps the temperature stable. i take a 4-6 inch piece of rigid tubing 1 inch in diameter and drill a hole in the side to put the airline through. i place the tube with the airline into the specimen container at a diagonal angle. as the air bubbles raise out of the tube, water is pulled along up the tube with it. the result is that the water will be slowly spurting out the top of the 1 inch lift tube. this gives you a perfect tumbler where your fish can sit on a solid plastic bottom (of the specimen container) without the risk of developing fungus by being exposed to tank water consistently.

while the eggs are still eggs, and do not show visible signs of heads and tails. chlorinated water (yes straight from the tap no water conditioner) can be used to perform partial water changes twice a day. the chlorine in the water will stifle fungus growth. once the heads and tails are visible you are going to want to stop using the dechlorinated water as it will at that point pose a risk of burning the gills of the fry.

before the gills have developed the chlorine does not pose a risk to anything but fungus development..

i'll attempt to upload a picture of the specimen container/ lift tube contraption, if i succeed it will be my first picture posted on cf, i seem to be cursed with anti photo posting syndrome.

HTH,

geek
 
#42 ·
Aug 22 2005

Frys are doing well even after a 4 days vacation... (got a good friend that comes and feeds fish) They are eating and swimming nicely. They are already trying to show who is the boss at this age. I put them in a 10 gallon on Aug 10. They still had a little egg sack but I want to start feed before the egg sack is gone. By the way, they lost their egg sack altogether at Aug 15 2005 exactly a month after they are born.

To re-cap... Here is a shot of mother and father.



Here are a few pictures of the swimming frys. Pictures are taken on Aug 22 2005.


 
#45 ·
looks great charles, congrats on the successful spawn, always nice to see what we all put so much time into these beautiful fish for.

keep us posted on future spawns, this type of thread is definately a treat for any whom have put time into fronts without success and need a little help along the way.

great thread, and nice fry

geek
 
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