Loaches Online Forum

I have what I believe are either Gastromyzon ctenocephalus or scitulus loaches as well as a lone G. zebrinus (they were sold to me under the generalised name 'borneo sucker', typical lfs)

However, just over 24 hours ago I discovered eggs in my aquarium which weren't there yesterday morning when I fed the fish before going to work for the day.

There is a range of tropical fish in this tank, but I don't believe that these eggs belong to any of those. I believe they are from the G. Ctenocephalus/G. Scitulus.

I have been searching the internet trying to gather any information I could on this, and have found very little, except that these breeds are widely known "not to breed in aquaria".

I found Martin Thoene's articles on Loaches Online very interesting & actually messaged him about this occurrence earlier this evening. He replied very quickly and very interested in it & actually commented that I should make a post here.

So here I am... I will post the pics i've managed to take so far (you will have to excuse the quality)..

Any thoughts and advice will be greatfully accepted as I never ever expected these little guys to breed, and if it is true and they are the parents then I dearly want to give the eggs the best possible chances of hatching & the fry the best possible chances of survival. Especially considering what other tank mates they will have to contend with.


Pics of the eggs.... Note: These eggs are on the rear right hand side of the aquarium right in the path of the inflow of the water from the filter.








This pic is of two of the 'borneos' in the community tank (not necessarily the parents of the above pictured eggs)



And this is a close-up of another one in a different tank but he looks the same as the others in the community tank.





Any thoughts, suggestions and opinions would be greatly appreciated... thankyou...

Hi there and welcome to Loaches Online.

Congratulations on the eggs! Can you tell us what other fish share this aquarium with the Gastromyzons?

Emma

Yup, it's a 250 Litre aquarium with the following:

8 Red Blue Columbian Tetra's
10 Coloured Widows (rescued not brought)
3 Madagascan Rainbows
8 or 9 Black Neon Tetras
1 Paradise fish (although he's definately not happy in the tank & am looking to move him elsewhere)
7 guppies (males & females) any future fry can be eaten as I have a separate guppy breeding tank with way way tooo many babies..
4 Longfin Gold Leopard Danio's
4 Zebra Danio's
1 Leopard Danio
5 Greater Scissortail's (looking to move them onto another home)
3 Albino Cory's
10 Khuli Loaches

And of course the Gastromyzons

Congratulations!

Are any of the fish attempting to eat the eggs? What type of behavior did you observe that led you to think the eggs belonged to the gastros? How many 'borneo suckers' are in the tank with the eggs? Any idea who may have been paired off?

Very cool find. Hope that you can keep them healthy and we can watch the developments.

No, none of the other fish have shown any interest what-so-ever in the eggs... the only ones that hang out around the eggs is a Gastromyzon or two.. It looks like they kind of patrol the eggs.

I never saw any spawning behaviour, although I had noticed that two of the Gastromyzons where always together, while the others where elsewhere in the tank scouring over the driftwood, aquarium glass, rocks etc...

I have also not noticed any pairing of any of my other fish at all.

Oh.... Thankyou for the Congratulations... too

Seeing as it is now 1.42am here where I live & how i've got a meeting to attend to at 9am, I am going to go & get some much needed sleep.

I will check back in tomorrow (or is that today ) for any more comments...

Thanks again for your input

Hope your meeting goes well.

So your tank is about 65 US gallons...
When you have time tomorrow (or is that today?) can you give us your water parameters? (pH, KH, temp, ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte)
What filtration do you use? Do you have a powerhead in there or a bubble wand? What do you feed them? Lighting schedule? Plants/decor?

You know...tell us everything.

Could it be cory eggs? Don't they usually lay on the glass?

They look a bit small for cory eggs to me, and don't they usually lay in groups of 5 or so in various places, rather than in one area only?

shari2 wrote:They look a bit small for cory eggs to me, and don't they usually lay in groups of 5 or so in various places, rather than in one area only?

I don't really know to be honest. I just heard that they like to lay on the glass.

Congratulations!


Am I blind or this image from above



shows a Cheni? Or is it an Ocellatus? Certainly not G. Ctenocephalus/G. Scitulus.

That might be a G. zebrinus in the forground, mikev.

Congratulations, Sthn75!!
If these are gasto eggs, it would certainly be yet another variation on hillstream egglaying from what we have seen.
First of all, there seems to be a huge number of eggs. A larger number than I have seen from P. cheni or L. disparis.
Secondly, those species bury their eggs while Sewellia scatter them to the current. Perhaps in nature, gastros are cave spawners.
Keep us posted on this as you know we will be very interested.

Congratulations on the eggs

It would be excellent if they are Gastro eggs, however I have had both Albino and Sterbai Corydoras lay eggs in large clusters like that

This is exciting! Can't wait to see how it all turns out.