Gastromyzon Ocellatus in <3 ? (incl. pictures)

[Iris76]

Hi all, my first topic, but not my first entry

Since a day or 5, both Ocellatus are located at the end of my waterfall.
I assume they are Ocellatus, but i'm no Loach guru. Please correct me if i'm wrong.
They hustle behind a pebble, which is the first pebble that is touching the waterfall. Between the waterfall and the pebble is where they are hiding.
I don't think they have done the sexy sexy thing already, i see no eggs, nor fry. I know the fry can be extremely small (i also have Tateurdina Ocellicauda & fry in 2 other tanks ) but i have never seen Gastromyzon fry before. And from the side of the tank, i can only see the back of the flagstone plaque and i can't see them from the front, trying to look between the pebble and the flagstone. I can only see them ninja's moving in and out of the place but not in their actual hiding place.
They are there together since a few days. I noticed the male got from brownish colour and flaw freckles, to a green gold'ish back and a spot on his head shows the same colouring. The colouring seems iridescent and his freckles show more contrast overall than before. The female became more plump. And i mean, us women can get heavy when we are pregnant but - and i see this in proportian- she is getting broad! compared to how she was hardly a week ago.
At first i was afraid she might be sick. Afterall, she is swelling up pretty fast.
But her colours are more vivid and her patterns are also in much contrast. No iridescence on the female, btw.
She looks to good to be sick, i.m.o. But, that is my perspective and i might be wrong

I really have no idea what behaviour it is that i need to see, because i have never read an article about breeding Ocellatus. I have read a few about Sewellia and Gastromyzon Cheni. I haven't see them do the sexy angeldance like Sewellia's do, nor did i see the male dig a hole with his tail because they are between the flagstone and the pebble, which is 5 to 6 cm from the bottom. (appr. 2.5 inch)

- Why bother picking a place where they can hide very well together, if they are freespawners?
- Could they be cavebreeders?
- Could they have sticky eggs?
- How does the nest look like? (if there is one)

Female is always with her nose in the flow of the waterfall.
When the powerhead switches on, she turns in that direction.
She likes her nose up in the stream. It seems like the flow is massaging her and is providing her oxygen. No heavily breathing, she's chill.
When the male and female are both on the upper side of the pebble, the male jumps on the flagstone, female on the pebble and they face eachother. They do not look they are ready to charge and start 'the wall of death' but they look alert and like they are guarding the area.
She has the waterfall to look at, he has the open waters.
They are like that most of the time when they are on the upperside, both grazing their surroundings.
They seem peacefull, grazing like underwater cows.
They do hustle with eachother but only friendly. They are not topping.

I promiss to post my water parameters soon.
I change 25% water per week and 40% once in a month.
I turned up the heat over 3 weeks. It's getting spring again
I left at 18.9 C and i'm now at 20.1 C. (from 66.0 F to 86.2 F)
I try to play with a range from 66.0 F min. to 76.1 F max. along the seasons. (i use a cooler in the summer)
Tank was set up in september 2009.
For other details: http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=3&start=180



I took a bunch of pics today. Enjoy

Female before:


Female now:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg


Male was dark today:


Male earlier this week:


Male, sharing a pellet with a Ctenocephalus? :


Rendez-vous:


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg

Male on top, sitting in the flow of the waterfall-
while the female on the bottom of the pebble (not visible on picture) :


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/ ... -03-10.jpg

Any comment is welcome.

@ Francois van Brederode:
Thank you for recommending me to visit 'The Rifwachter'. That is where i bought these fellows. Good store, great personell.
Did your nephew set-up his rivertank already? I'm curious about the results.

[glenna]

Would LOVE to see a pic of your whole setup!
They are beautiful fish but I am not a hillstreamer yet ( )
so I have n meaningful input other than my interest!

[Iris76]

Hi Glenna, thnx for your reply.
These are pictures of the fresh set-up.
Nowadays the tank has riped, pebbles and slatestone are covered with algae. (as well as my Anubias, they seem to have trouble with that) because they grow too slow to beat the algae. Results are curled leaves inspite of the CO2 i am adding to the tank. I use the Carbonator by Söchting. Anyhow, i shall post recent pictures of the whole set-up soon, but i hope these will do for now.

Enjoy









P.S.
Please ignore the filter outlet. Nowadays it isn't so hideous anymore, mosses are growing over it.
Hopefully it'll be covered overall by it soon.

[clint]

REALLY AWESOME setup, you should be proud.

[Keith Wolcott]

Beautiful!!!

[Martin Thoene]

Fantastic looking tank.....excellent!

Martin.

[Francois van Brederode]

Hoi Iris,

Je hebt toch echt wel een mooi bakkie staan hoor

Nice to hear my advice is sometimes appriciated.

My nephew's tank is looking very nice and ready for hillies.
To bad the algea doesn't seen to want to grow.

He is complaining that his normal community tank was a constant battle against algea, and now he wants them and can't seen to get any

We will probably be stocking his tank lightly with some spotted sewellia by the weekend.

[ch.koenig]

hi Iris
there is something going on
for breeding have a look here
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... highlight=
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php ... highlight=
the only infos available are there. I just finished an article for a magazine and have gone through all archives in reach.
the species are g ctenocephalus (? female size of 8,7 cm) and g monticola
cheers Charles

[ch.koenig]

me agian
forgot this: moluccensis would catch all fry. at least it was the experience with gastromyzon fry by P. Dickmann.
and I'm not quite about ctenocephalus. looks like zebrinus or stellatus . do you have other pics?
cheers charles

[Iris76]

Thnx for all the compliments people, that's a nice welcome ^^
I'm glad my tank is doing so well and the way it is riping. I am just not happy with how my plants look. Removing them won't harm my hillies but it's the contrast that i want to keep and i love Anubias too much to replace them for quicker growing plants. I think of putting some java ferns, Anubias Lanceolata and Anubias Nana on the back (leafs emersed) and try to place my Anubias Gracilis and Hastifolia higher, so that their leafs are emersed also. I want the greens back into my tank
Next week i'm having a few days off, so i have time for some emersed re-decoration. I'm not going to stir the river, too much lovelyness going over there .

@ Charles:
Thank you for the information, that is much appreciated.
Hmm, since i have 4 of those Moluccensis munch monsters, i don't have to expect much. And with 2 Rhinogobius Duospilus lurking around, the lucky few won't last long, i'm afraid. I'm not going to remove the dragons, i prefer some little predators in my tank, as well. Although i have some partypoopers in my tank, i love observing the Ocellatus' behaviour. Their serenity is so lovely, compared to my adhd- Cheni's. I can take good pictures of my Ocellatus but the shutter speed of my camera doen't seem sufficient enough to catch pingpong balls on film.

About the Ctenocephalus:
I think it is one because it's fin looks blue with black markings, to me.
It's just that the hermit has chosen a stone for it's own, hides underneath it and hardly comes out at day. He does not eat from the pellet each time they get those. Only on rare occasions. I promiss when i catch it again, i'll post the pics on the forum.

I shot some video's .
It looks like they are playing tag and i have seen them swim beyond the outlet, and then nozzle under the mosses that grow there
Male follows the female often in the same pattern and sometimes when they face eachother, they touch noses. It happens in a flash but it looks like nozzling to me.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PBv_CmU5qA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPaZw-lFOcA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtwCQurhIOY