Lake Malawi Species • Who spawned in your tank today ?!!!!

[wryan]

Julidochromis transcriptus "Zambia" ... saw two free swimming and there are more under the rock.

Pseudotropheus sp. "acei" (Yellow Tail) ... one female holding.

[wryan]

I cleaned out the 10 juvies in the 10G tank that my original pair of Julidochromis transcriptus were in and took them in to a LFS last week.

Also changed out about 50% of the water and suctioned off the top layer of gravel which was covered with brown diatomaceous algae.

Tonight I was rewarded with this:

Looking at the full res image I count 31 eggs.

[wryan]

As of yesterday morning the Bushynosed Plecos in the 20G Long had spawned.

The eggs are in a mass on the floor of the aquarium at a back corner, right at the end of one of the spawning caves I built out of ABS pipe.

This is the pair's third spawn, hopefully some of the fry will make it. If so, they will the first that have.

The J. transcriptus eggs mentioned in the previous post apparently were eaten - possibly by a BNP I put in that tank to clean up the brown diatomaceous algae.

[wryan]

The J. transcriptus eggs mentioned in the previous post apparently were eaten - possibly by a BNP I put in that tank to clean up the brown diatomaceous algae.

Correction:

Apparently they have hatched ...

The fry are so tiny they are very hard to see ... maybe about the size of the head of a pin length-wise or smaller.

Happened to be looking in the tank tonight and noticed several moving around on top of the lava rock right next to where the eggs were laid on the glass.

[wryan]

Bushynosed plecos have hatched ...

Some have managed to make it back into the cave, a few are hanging on the tank walls, and the male has the rest of them corralled into a back lower corner of the tank.

[ironspider]

Bushynosed plecos have hatched ...

Some have managed to make it back into the cave, a few are hanging on the tank walls, and the male has the rest of them corralled into a back lower corner of the tank.

Can you get a pic? Would love to see them in the infant stages.

[wryan]

Bushynosed plecos have hatched ...

Some have managed to make it back into the cave, a few are hanging on the tank walls, and the male has the rest of them corralled into a back lower corner of the tank.

Can you get a pic? Would love to see them in the infant stages.

I'll try and get some pics of the hatchlings here in a bit. All I have is the camera in my phone though.

In the meantime, here are a couple pictures of the spawns:

First one, from about a year ago:

Most recent spawn:

[wryan]

Afraid the pics aren't all that great ...

In the cave (on the roof at the back):

In the corner:

BNP Hatchlings Corner.jpg (26.38 KiB) Viewed 1276 times

[ironspider]

[quote="wryan"]Afraid the pics aren't all that great ...

Can't see them. Oh well.

Nobody ate the eggs?

[DJRansome]

New BN look like a spine with a suggestion of a head. Maybe 1/8" long.

[wryan]

New BN look like a spine with a suggestion of a head. Maybe 1/8" long.

Yup ... and orange-colored, like the eggs ...

[wryan]

Afraid the pics aren't all that great ...

Can't see them. Oh well.

Nobody ate the eggs?

Nope, no one ate the eggs.

If I had to guess, there were probably at least 40 - 60 of them in this batch ... just based on counting the ones I could see in the egg cluster.

[wryan]

Looks like all of the BNP fry have moved back into the cave at this point. They're starting to look a little more like fish at this point.

And the original pair of J. transcriptus that spawned back on January 11th have spawned yet again ...

[wryan]

And ... the Julidochromis ornatus have spawned as well and the fry are free-swimming ...

[wryan]

Bushynosed plecos have hatched ...

Some have managed to make it back into the cave, a few are hanging on the tank walls, and the male has the rest of them corralled into a back lower corner of the tank.

Can you get a pic? Would love to see them in the infant stages.

Click to see larger images.

Baby BNP grazing on a piece of Mopani wood:

Daddy, lookin' out the pipe, a young male on top, and 3 babies ... which are down on the clear silicone holding the black ABS pipe to the tile: