[jh82]

Hi, I have 46 gallon bow front with 4 black calvus that are roughly about 2 1/2 to 3 inches long. I thought that I had all males because the biggest one was pretty intolerant of the other 3 and would constantly force them to hiding in the rocks. Apparently at least 1 is a female. I recently noticed the largest calvus being really friendly with one of the other ones over a barnacle cluster. Now the smaller calvus has been staying inside one of the barnacle cells for the last two days. She's still alive because she is pretty much constantly moving. The male sometimes hangs around the cell and looks in but doesn't bother her or attempt to chase anybody off either.

If they are spawning, what would be the best way to save the fry? Should I just remove the barnacle cluster with the female inside and put it in another tank? If so, would a 5 gallon container with a sponge filter and heater be good enough? Or would waiting until they are free swimming and removing them then be a better option?

This tank also has 5 juli ornatus and 4 occies. The occies are 1m/3f and breeding like rabbits but the fry never last more than a week or two after they start venturing out of their mothers shell so I know the calvus fry won't last long if I just leave them in the tank. Thanks

 

[finz]

Cycle an extra filter on the main tank to get a good population of bacteria going in it. Fill a 10 gallon tank with water from the one the fish are in and use the extra filter for it. After the eggs hatch, move the barnacle cluster to the new ten gallon.

 

[gedtranter]

Here is what I did with my A.Comps so that you don't have to run a separate tank - at least for a little while yet.

Get a rectangular plastic food container (takeaway food) and cut a large rectangular hole in both ends (short ends). Cut up a fish net and silicone the netting over the holes. Use cable ties to tie a batton of some kind (bamboo garden cane) across the top of the container so that the batton extends some way beyond the edge of the container. The batton then sits across the top of the tank, the container being held in the top of the water - a couple of inches deep max. The net allows free flow of water through the container, fry cant escape, adults cant get in.

Empty the fry into this and feed them baby brine shrimp in here and crushed flake / pellet. As the water is only a couple of inches deep the bb shrimp are easy to find for the fry. Its easy to ensure they all get fed as they are in a small container and the water quality is always as good as that of your main tank, which they are sitting in. You'll need to siphon out any uneaten food still. You'll be able to grow them on for some time in this. They are easy to see, cleaning is easy and water quality will be good. The whole thing will cost 10 mins and a dollar or two to make.

Once they get bigger you can give them a tank of their own but by then they'll be eating no problems, finding food in their tank wont be difficult for them. I hardly lost any fry using this method.

 

[jh82]

Cycle an extra filter on the main tank to get a good population of bacteria going in it. Fill a 10 gallon tank with water from the one the fish are in and use the extra filter for it. After the eggs hatch, move the barnacle cluster to the new ten gallon.

Thanks for the response finz. There are definitely eggs in there and the female is still staying inside most of the time guarding or fanning them or whatever. How long does it take for them to hatch? I do plan on moving them out. I just wasn't sure when the best time would be. I assume I leave the mother behind in the main tank?

 

[jh82]

Here is what I did with my A.Comps so that you don't have to run a separate tank - at least for a little while yet.

Get a rectangular plastic food container (takeaway food) and cut a large rectangular hole in both ends (short ends). Cut up a fish net and silicone the netting over the holes. Use cable ties to tie a batton of some kind (bamboo garden cane) across the top of the container so that the batton extends some way beyond the edge of the container. The batton then sits across the top of the tank, the container being held in the top of the water - a couple of inches deep max. The net allows free flow of water through the container, fry cant escape, adults cant get in.

Empty the fry into this and feed them baby brine shrimp in here and crushed flake / pellet. As the water is only a couple of inches deep the bb shrimp are easy to find for the fry. Its easy to ensure they all get fed as they are in a small container and the water quality is always as good as that of your main tank, which they are sitting in. You'll need to siphon out any uneaten food still. You'll be able to grow them on for some time in this. They are easy to see, cleaning is easy and water quality will be good. The whole thing will cost 10 mins and a dollar or two to make.

Once they get bigger you can give them a tank of their own but by then they'll be eating no problems, finding food in their tank wont be difficult for them. I hardly lost any fry using this method.

Thanks for the suggestion, gedtranter. Sounds like a great idea. Is there anyway you can post a picture of this?

 

[gedtranter]

Yeah, it works really well and means the water quality is always good (assuming your main tank is good to start with) without the need for frequent changes on an extra tank.

I did a quick search and can't find how to post photos. I've seen the 'how to post' link loads of times but can't find it now. Any tips?

 

[DJRansome]

Put your photo on a site like photobucket.com. Under the picture there are a variety of links, choose the "img" one. Click on it, the word "copied" will flash by. Place your cursor in the Cichlid-forum post where you want the picture to appear. Paste in the link. Look at preview to be sure it worked, and then submit.

 

[gedtranter]

Ok so here are a few pics for anyone whos interested.

One shows it in the top left of my tank, you can see a piece of wood fastened to the top of the container. Add another on the other side and it can rest on the side tank wall and spreader bar in the middle or add an extra long piece of wood so it reaches to the other side if you dont have a bar.

Using this you get good flow through and the fry are well easy to feed and clean. In the last pic you can see some newly hatched A.Comp fry in the shell.

Give it a go.

 

[gedtranter]

I forgot to add, some of you may be thinking why not just use one of those $5 breeding net traps? They have holes in the base so any food such as bb shrimp will fall straight through the bottom and its hard to clean. With a stiff plastic base the food stays on the bottom and its easy to syphon clean.

 

[SUPERBEE]

Thats a great idea gedtranter. I am going to try that once my White Calvus breed and see how it works. 8)

 

[finz]

Cycle an extra filter on the main tank to get a good population of bacteria going in it. Fill a 10 gallon tank with water from the one the fish are in and use the extra filter for it. After the eggs hatch, move the barnacle cluster to the new ten gallon.

Thanks for the response finz. There are definitely eggs in there and the female is still staying inside most of the time guarding or fanning them or whatever. How long does it take for them to hatch? I do plan on moving them out. I just wasn't sure when the best time would be. I assume I leave the mother behind in the main tank?

Sometimes the female won't come out so you may have to move her too at first. If your barnacle thing has multiple openings, put a bowl in the main tank(deep enough so the barnacle doesn't stick out the top)- put the barnacle in it, then take the whole bowl out and move it to the new tank.

 

[jh82]

I forgot to add, some of you may be thinking why not just use one of those $5 breeding net traps? They have holes in the base so any food such as bb shrimp will fall straight through the bottom and its hard to clean. With a stiff plastic base the food stays on the bottom and its easy to syphon clean.

Thanks for the pics. Thats definitely better than a breeding trap. I'm going to to make one of those for the next time! :thumb:

 

[jh82]

Cycle an extra filter on the main tank to get a good population of bacteria going in it. Fill a 10 gallon tank with water from the one the fish are in and use the extra filter for it. After the eggs hatch, move the barnacle cluster to the new ten gallon.

Thanks for the response finz. There are definitely eggs in there and the female is still staying inside most of the time guarding or fanning them or whatever. How long does it take for them to hatch? I do plan on moving them out. I just wasn't sure when the best time would be. I assume I leave the mother behind in the main tank?

Sometimes the female won't come out so you may have to move her too at first. If your barnacle thing has multiple openings, put a bowl in the main tank(deep enough so the barnacle doesn't stick out the top)- put the barnacle in it, then take the whole bowl out and move it to the new tank.

Well, it's been about a week and parents are still guarding the eggs. Or at least they still look like eggs. They could be wigglers, I can't get a good enough look to tell for sure. My temp is a little on the cool side at about 77 deg so that may be slowing development. Thus far they have been better parents than I expected. I think that I'm going to go ahead and remove the barnacle cluster today. I was just wondering will that cause any stress or effect their breeding in the future by removing fry that their still caring for?

 

[jh82]

Well, I removed the barnacle cluster and these guys are no where near free swimming yet. Maybe I should have waited longer. They are moving which is good but they still have pretty good size yolk sacks on them. Is this normal development at 8-9 days since the spawn? do I need to try and tumble them or something?

The parents didn't take the loss of their babies too well. They swam around the area looking for the fry for a while and then the male started beating the **** out of the female. I went ahead and did my weekly water change at this time. That usually puts them into hiding during and for some time after. They were back at the spawning site looking for the fry right after I finished, however. I turned of the lights and went to bed and left the tank lights off for another day or so.

Things are starting to return to normal today. He chases her into hiding whenever he sees her which isn't much different than their behavior before they spawned.

 

[jh82]

Update......

Thanks for the help, everyone. The babies are doing great and eating like pigs. It was a small spawn. Only about 40 or so and I have to find homes for most of them sometime soon. Some of my comps have spawned too, which is cool.

Sorry about the quality of the pic. I only have a cheap point and shoot camera and the tank is full of diatoms and some uneaten food.