Nemacheilus anguilla spawn

[random2]

I have been keeping Nemacheilus anguilla since April 2009 (caught during a collection trip). Males usually used to get quite colorful after water changes. Unusual thing was, this time it was nearly a week since water change. But the temperature had dropped to 21C in the tank and I saw this happen on 12/11/2010

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Flvx0zDEqmA

I have taken videos as it was much easier. I could never get good snaps in macro mode.

They wouldnt move ahead unless I took off the camera. So had to stop. Saw them swimming up along the glass while what looked like spawning.

But there was one issue. I have these guys in a 3 footer with Barilius sp, Schistura semiarmatus and couple of Botia almorhae. So that seals the fate of any eggs dropping down to the substrate. Was thinking about saving the eggs and a thing flashed over my head. I remembered that they were near the filter inlet while spawning (or what looked like).

The next morning I thought of cleaning the filter (A Eheim 2217). I just disconnected both ends of the double tap valves and collected the water after taking out the filter pads. Just kept the water with the muck that had collected in a bucket.

I kept peeking into the bucket every morning to check if there was anything interesting. Around 6-7days saw some small movement and this increased by around 8th day. But these were too small and I suspected it to be daphnia. I have seen fry of rosy barbs and otocinclus, but these were too small.

Thought it was time to get opinion from senior IAH member Nayak. Without any snaps and with whatever I could explain over phone, Nayak was skeptical. But he asked me to start feeding them and make small water changes.

Being a lazy guy, I could not maintain live food culture. Having killed a complete batch of otocinclus fry in the beginning of the year, I had done my homework and got rotifiers right in time. Started feeding them small amounts twice a day.

Day 10-11
http://youtube.com/watch?v=quJ3IwtYyek

Day 15-16
http://youtube.com/watch?v=X8ndjkz-E-I

After 15days, increased feeding to thrice a day and also wc to ~30% per day

Day 20 -
http://youtube.com/watch?v=m6zOdYYO1jM

Day 25 -
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3xtSV67QQsw

Day 32 -
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gB28LVC6EBo

I have started to siphon off the muck slowly. The muck from the filter and increasing bioload might create problems.

Sorry for the bad audio. I didnt have time to edit. The place is not that noisy, but seems that way in the video.

PS:
Just have 2 things about water parameters.
PH - 7.2 (Water supply is river water, so fortunate about that)
Temp - 20.8 - 21C when they spawned (Think this might have been the trigger. Temperature dropped drastically due to a cyclone that time)

[NancyD]

Wow! Congrats! Very nice videos. How many would you guess there are? I counted maybe 12 in the last, easier to see now they're coloring up.

[starsplitter7]

Absolutely fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

[Jim Powers]

Amazing!!

[plaalye]

Great stuff random! Thanks for sharing. Good luck growing them out.

[random2]

Thanks all.

Nancy,

I have somewhere between 15-20 of them. Till date have been able to count till 17. As they grow, it becomes hard to figure numbers as they are more active. Will be shifting them to a 2footer in next 10days. So will have a better count in the process

[Matt]

Fantastic work and the adult male in breeding colours is a cracker!

[Mad Duff]

Excellent stuff Deepak

Cant wait to see more pics as they grow

[random2]

Thanks Matt and Mark.

Mark,

Just saw your sig. 11 species

Would definitely like to know/read more about it.