How long should I wait after sewellia lineolata breed

[shuwae]

How long should I wait for the eggs to hatch? Tonight, they were breeding and I have the powerhead off. I only have my Eheim canister filter on right now. I hope when the eggs hatch, the fry will stay near the bottom of the tank and not the top where the powerhead is located. Should I just leave the powerhead off? I know that the powerhead will probably kill half or most of the fry but I am ok with a couple of survivors.

Their eggs are tiny too

[plaalye]

I'd leave the powerhead on. I wouldn't think it would bother them. Do you have any predators in the tank? As far as hatch time I don't know??

[shuwae]

I only have red cherry shrimps in with the loaches. I'll probably turn it on as they've stopped breeding since I turned it off.

[Jim Powers]

I wouldnt worry about the powerhead either. In the wild they would have to deal with that. Some of the eggs may get drawn into the cannister filter so you might want to check on it sometime to see if you have fry. This has happened to many who have had this fish spawn. Hatch time should be just a few days after which the fry will hide in the gravel until they are larger. Unfortunately, the shrimp will eat any eggs and fry they come upon.

[shuwae]

Yea, I didn't think the loaches would breed when I added the shrimps. I'll have to check my filter in a week or so. I just hope some survive, even if it's just two or three.

[Jim Powers]

I know what you mean about the shrimp. I have shrimp in a tank that has housed breeding Sewellia and Formosania lacustre and it was difficult to get any eggs to last long enough to hatch. The filter may be a safe haven for them. I would continuously be checking the filter out since sewellia are very tiny when they hatch and might easily be missed until they grow out a bit.

[shuwae]

How long should I wait to look in the filter? Also, I found about three or so eggs stuck on some hair algae. Should I take them out and put them into a separate tank with an airstone or leave them in their parent's tank?

[Jim Powers]

I am not sure how long you should wait to look in the filter. Many people have found fry that are large enough to have been in the filter for some time, so I don't think you need to rush. Besides, it would be easier to see them if they have grown a bit. I tried moving hillstream eggs before and they must have been too delicate to be safely moved so keep that in mind.

[shuwae]

Yea, I decided to leave the eggs. I think I see a few with yolk sack and tail swimming on the glass. They're very tiny if it is the sewellia fry. At first, I thought they were bugs then I saw that they had tails. I'm thinking of skipping a water change next week so that the fry can grow a little more for me to see them so I do not dump them out. Either that or do not gravel vac and try my best to look for any fry in the bucket.

What do I feed them? I feed my adults Repashy food in glass dishes. Once in awhile (probably once every 2 weeks), I feed them frozen bloodworms, mysis shrimp, or brine shrimp and occasional zucchini. I'm use to feeding live foods (BBS, microworms) to fry but these look way too small to eat live foods.

Here's a video of the male and female breeding (sorry for the bad quality and algae covered glass but you can still see them ):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6g8C8HcQs4

[Jim Powers]

Cool video! Its interesting to watch their "dance".
I never worried about feeding the fry since they grazed around the tank as the adults do and later began eating the pelleted foods. That Repashy food may be a good food for them too.

[shuwae]

Thank you for all the information:). I did find a fry in the Repashy dish as I was changing the food. Put it back into the tank using a dropper.

[Jim Powers]

They will probably be fine provided the shrimp don't get to them.
Good luck and keep us posted!

[NancyD]

Sho, those latest pics are so cool! Good luck with the fry! I want say I got my stiphodon & gastromyzon are from Sho & they were already eating Repashey Soilent Green...They all seem to be doing well on it! Thanks!

[shuwae]

Thanks Nancy! I hope they are doing great in your tank. Have the stiphodons turned colors yet? The males usually turn blue or yellow when they're the only male in the tank, from my experience.

I'll try to update when I spot fry in the tank or clean out my filter .

[shuwae]

Thought I update on the fry.
Well today while opening the lights, I saw something on the zuccini I was feeding the adults. At first I thought it was a shrimp but it turned out to be a fry. Well a fry that's almost .5cm. Also, the parents were breeding again yesterday night. That's 3 times in a month. The fry I found looked to be older so I'm going to check my canister tomorrow or Tuesday to see if any fry are in there. Here is a very bad quality of the one fry I found (sorry, that's the best I could get of it):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nJ0Q-zq ... e=youtu.be

I'll have to get a new tank for the fry as I do not want the kids to breed with the parents once they are breeding age. I still have a couple months to get it as I'm going to wait for the Petco $1 gallon sale.