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Nothobranchius kafuensis

  • Thread starter Nflytrap
  • Start date
  • #41
Ok...its about time(maybe even a little overdue) to bag up the peat that the fish have been spawning in again. Hopefully I see at least a few of those eggs that they've been dropping into it.

Edit: Well sure enough I found a few definite eggs while bagging the peat. Looks like this was a good spawning.

Photos will be up shortly.
 
  • #42
Ok here's pictures of the peat I've collected. I think it is maybe 3-4 on the Langton scale.(peat may still yield some water if squeezed). Its not very fluffy though as you can see from the photos.
DSCN1466.jpg


DSCN1467.jpg

Believe it or not I didn't see the hatch date error until I looked at this through Paint!

They've been put into fishbags and then into a Zip-loc bag

DSCN1469.jpg


And the male himself.
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and a little male
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  • #43
Ok some updates.

The fish are now wallowing in the peat from the third bag. I decided to mix the old peat that they came from with some of mine as when I rewetted it recently I got one bellyslider fry...so I don't think their are any more eggs in it. If their are then they'll have a chance to hatch sometime later...hehehe
 
  • #44
He is Beautiful! I wish they came in larger a larger size haha ;)
 
  • #45
Hi N,


Looks good. Reusing old peat is ok but if you fed over it you might want to re-boil it to kill bacteria. I prefer freshly boiled peat for this reason. Is the peat in storage clumpy? It should be moist but easily fluffed and separated like loose dirt. The eggs need oxygen to deveop properly and moist but fluffable peat lets O2 get to them even in moist dirt -- think the cracks that form in the dirt in dried up ponds. Check your peat once every week for moisture. 4-5 months incubation depending on the temperature -- cooler longer.

The fish look exceptional. I hope you get lots of peats stored away. A styrofoam box as a storage container helps keep the temperature constant. Heat rises so a high shelf will help in winter. Notho eggs do not like it too cool -- below 72F -- or too hot -- above 80F.

How are the monties? My cross between the spotted and unspotted is looking great. They resemble that first photo Marlin used on aquabid to sell the spotted monties and which the actual fish never resembled. I wonder if that photo showed a crossed fish -- interesting! I think the last batch of babies will give me alot more of the crossed fish in the colony. I really like this fish.

All the zonatus from CVolumbia turned out to be males! A friend hatched 25 Finca population so if he raises them that location is not lost.

Bobby
 
  • #46
Hello Boibby,

Yes...as per the photo the peat is mostly in chunks. Should I allow it to dry more...manually break the chunks? I broke up the big ones when preparing the peat for storage and found that the eggs were often inside of them.

I remember you mentioning somewhere that Nothos didn't respond to mirrors. Apparently the male N. kafuensis didn't read that! I was curious so decided to give him a chance and he flared up for the mirror with just as much fire as any betta. Got a few photos but they probably arent very good ones.

My monties have not been doing very much now. I have some juveniles growing up...a few new males, but no new fry. One of the females looks like she may be ready to birth soon so I'm hopefully I'll get some more action. Still need to get the water tested also.

Sorry to hear about the zonatus being all males...seems to happen pretty often. You know that the fish you bought were collected in the same general area as the Finca zonatus?

I've been considering your idea of trying SAA in the pond in the winter and it is quite tempting. Based on advice from some others nigripinnis would overall be the best choice as it won't mind temps to 75 or so while some of the other species might not tolerate that(if I miss anyone and they get left in the pond for the summer). A few other species such as those from Southern Brazil they claim may not be able to tolerate the winters(whitei, constanciae, etc.) I'd like to hear your input on this. Aphanius were also mentioned but though they are pretty I heard they can be aggressive.

~Joseph
 
  • #47
Hi N,

Gently and carefully break up the chunks and see then how moist the now fluffed peat feels. You should just be able to squeeze a drop of water from a bit between you finger tips. It might need more drying. You can just open the storage bag for that checking it every couple of hours.

It wasn't me with the mirrors. Never heard of that.

The Finca zonatus come from Venezuela and these are teh very green Columbia ones.

I'd go with the nigripinnis but find a pretty strain. You might talk to the Argentina guys on the SAA list which is the Cynolebias club on Yahoo. I saw a great strain of nigripinnis pictured on aquabid from a breeder in Romania or such. The males had good black color and lots of dots. Good luck. I'd order a batch of eggs, hatch and start with those. Bob Morenski raises alot of cold water Austrolebias.

I finally sent Dustin his fish.

Bobby
 
  • #48
Hello Bobby,

Tried your suggestion of breaking up the peat. Seems to have worked well. I found a few eggs while doing so also and have one in view that I can observe.

Forgot to ask a question on your monty cross. When you say it looked like the photo Marlin was using on aquabid are you saying that this means that the cross worked as you had hoped(fish have the unspotted montie's dorsal and the ivory mottled's spots)?

Do you know if being kept cold would slow down the growth of the SAA kept outside over the winter? Perhaps make it so that if you popped juvies into the pond in fall you could remove adults by next spring? Raising in small tubs would be possible but they would experience much lower temperatures than those in the pond.

I will get up some photos
~Joseph
 
  • #49
Here are some photos of the big male KAF showing off for his imaginary rival.

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  • #50
Hi N,

Glad the peat worked. Just be ready for a lot of fry when you hatch!

I did a stupid thing last night. I was tired and doing water changes and forgot to add de-chlorinator and wiped out one tank of kykesis and my tank of monty x helleri. Bummer. I just thought I had put it in there. I haven't made that mistake in decades. I'm glad Armando has the cross too and I have more kykesis.

The monty x monty cross has the body shape, body coloring, black spots and big size I wanted. They are just getting their swords and the dorsal has yet to develop its color so we shall see. They are going to be nice though -- better looking than either parent I think.

The cold water Austrolebias I am told grow and breed in the cool temperatures. I think it has to get really cool for them to slow down. That said, I bet they live longer raised cool than if they are raised hot. My friend Martin Tversted in Denmark works with cool water species. He posts on Killitalk and Cynolebias Yahoo Group. You might contact him. He is a biology teacher in Denmark. We trade fish. He has the velifera and kykesis to distribute in Europe.

Bobby
 
  • #51
Hello Bobby,

Sorry to hear about that accident! Good to know that someone else also has the monty x helleri cross so that you guys can continue to experiment. I did something similar in the pond outside maybe 3 years ago...left the hose running overnight and by the next evening all but one of the fish in the pond had died despite efforts to save them. Odd thing was that it seemed that the eggs they laid earlier survived the incident and before long many little goldfish were growing up in the pond.

Keep me updated on the monty cross.

I just bagged up yet some more peat of the kafuensis(that makes 3 now)...saw several eggs during bagging and at least 3 are visible when you move the peat around. I guess by now I've come in a full circle with these fish! I don't know if I plan to keep these particular spawns as they are due to hatch in around January-I'd much prefer some which would be due to hatch when its a bit warmer(Feb-March). How long should I expect to get eggs from these fish?

Do you know Lee Van Hyfte by any chance? He's been a great source of info on SAA's in general. Also I may be getting some GAR 'Misaje' from Doug Ebeling and joining that species maintenance group.

Have yoy by any chance kept Jordanella floridae? Dustin and I are keeping some from the same location and we have both gotten eggs.

Here's a photo of the male before he went to the spawning container.
Dscn1593.jpg



~Joseph
 
  • #52
Hi Joe,

I'd keep those eggs until you are sure you can hatch another generation. I had an incubator a friend built out of a 3 foot square wooden box. He cut a hole in one side and mounted a computer fan and mounted an incandescent light fixure inside the box with both attached to a temperature gauge used for reptiles. The bulb used was just a 40 watt bulb. I had a thermometer in the box. The fan and light bulb would come on when the temperature dropped below 80F (for zonatus). It worked great and just used the 40 watt bulb and a little power for the small computer fan. Even a good styro box in a warm area of the house will hold a solid temperature. I'd make something and keep the eggs. You can also heat a larger tank and float a hatching container in it to hatch the eggs. You can do the same with brine shrimp hatchers especially if you use glass ones like I do. Heat water in a half filled 10 and stand the bs hatchers in that water for warmth.

I know Lee he is very nice and very knowledgable. Doug lives near me and is a friend. He has my kaufensis Mambova available this month -- if you wanted that fish again!

I've never kept flagfish but a guy here breeds them year round in his pond.

Looks like a few monty x helleri survived, maybe even one hi fin. Hope springs eternal.

All of Dustin's fish from me made it and he is happy. He got monties, nezzies, Phalloceros, calabarica and velifera. I also sent him some great floating water fern. Do you want some of that? It needs soft slightly acid water to grow well but it is like a big thick floating water sprite. It only floats too. It does not do well in harder water unless you have CO2 injection.
I ordered a new Beginner's Guide and the Epiplatys book -- which I already had in german.

Bobby

Bobby
 
  • #53
You can say that again, I am very happy!!! ;) I just hope I dont scew up the Scriptoaphyosemion liberiensis (calabarica) - making a new post with pics of them now.

Bobby your #1 With Us!!

Thanks Again!
 
  • #54
Just an update


Now onto the 4th peat for the kafuensis. The female appears to have grown a bit more as she is still larger than the male! The other males are growing too.

Doug Ebeling plans to send over some GAR within a few weeks. HE also offered me some fish as a thanks for participating in the SMP. Among some of the fish he keeps(he mentioned the calabrica from you) would be Austrolebias nigripinnis 'Villa Soriano' and Cynopoecilius melanotaenia! I'm definetly going to give nigripinnis a run. Cynopoecilius are cute little fish but they aren't particularly colorful. I bet they would do very well outside also as they can take very cold temps.

Might as well keep it in one topic but I just realized something which I find rather amusing. I mentioned in the the earlier SPL topic that I thought I had maybe 2 or 3 juvies in the tank. The thing I found odd was that these juvies though were of two distinct sizes sometimes appeared bigger or smaller(I thought it depended on how much sleep I got). Eventually the big one got a yellow filament on its dorsal fin marking it as a male. Rather dissapointing as I was hoping it would be a female. Then some time later I spotted the "same fish" without the filament. Curious I added some BBS to the front of the tank and maybe 6 juvenile SPL of 2 seperate sizes came up to feed! I have what looks like a young pair growing out. Also have one which is growing outside which so far looks like a female. Today while rummaging in the tank I found a few fry also.


The flagfish are doing incredibly well right now. I have counted over 100 eggs from several days of spawning and must have a similar number of fry. Some damselfly larvae managed to sneak into one of the spawns so I lost some of them. Got maybe 20 or so grain of rice size, a batch of maybe 70 hatched a few days ago and now some more hatching. I think these are the most prolific fish I've dealt with so far(but that isn't saying much).

~Joseph
 
  • #55
Hi Joe,

Good news on the kafuensis. It looks like you will soon be swamped with them. A tank full of Nothos is very pretty. Great news on the SPL. I bet there are even more fry in that tank. Plant spawning killies make life very easy on you when they are happy. The calabarica over-populate their 30. My friend has some zonatus Finca sexing out and he may be the last guy with them. He has pairs. I'm going to get a pair to work with before I move. I want that fish established. I do have 5 gorgeous Columbian zonatus males. Some males have orange anals and some have creamy white anals. The bodies are electric blue/green. This is always an impressive fish. I'm down to 7 tanks. The two locations of velifera and kykesis are now in two tanks instead of 6. One for each species. The symoensi started dropping from old age but I have eggs (I hope!). My gularis fry sexed out to be 3 pair! The F. arnoldi Calabar fry are all sexing out and look good. I had better isolate a few males if I want the long long caudal filaments they can get. The remaining helleri x monty hybrids are females and are now in the hi fin helleri tank. I weeded out all but the female spotted monties, the unspotted female monties and the 3 (spotted x unspotted) males that have developed. Two of these males are fantastic. They are heavy bodied and robust and they carry a yellow color in the body and dorsal fin. I'm still unsure on the dorsal spots as they are the last to develop but they are still better looking than either location. I am worried that they may be the one thing I didn't get in the cross. Most of the new fry in the tank (30) are hybrid fry which makes me happy. All the orange P. picta are sexing out and there are a bunch of the solid orange males. I'm waiting on my Beginner's Guide. Glad Doug is getting you the gardneri. I had his population of nigripinnis and it is not a very colorful one. I'd look around for a nicer one. They are out there.

Bobby
 
  • #56
Hi Bobby,

I sure hope so on the kafuensis! I definetly agree on the plant spawners though I have yet to try the traditional "mop method". Hope you guys have much success keeping those zonatus going. Great news on those gularis! Do you plan to breed them? Looking at photos I think that F. arnoldi is definetly one of the more showy fundulopanchax. I hope that those hybrid monties come out looking better than you expected. Are they showing "hybrid vigour"?

On the nigripinnis, do you happen to know anyone who has a particularly nice strain? I heard that 'Maschwitz'(sp.) and Ibicuisito are considered the most beautiful locations. The nigripinnis in the beginners guide is probably what you are looking for. Picture is rather fuzzy but you can see a very black fish with generous, large, spots. Most photos I've seen online show purply fish with small spots. How much different will SAA be for Nothos?


~Joseph
 
  • #57
Hi Joseph,

Arnoldi are fine looking. The caudal fin is extremely wide so when it is spread it makes an incredible image. The males do damage that fin when kept together and then the caudal pinches in. Did you see where someone in Venezuela is offering a new collection of zonatus -- interesting. I'm going to hatch my eggs today and see what happens. I don't feel lucky but we will see.

One of the hybrid male monties is developing the dorsal spots!!! There is much hybrid vigor. The bodies of the males are twice as thick as those of either the pure spotted or unspotted males. The males are also longer. They are developing this neat yellow body color and the dorsal fin has a yellow base color. The fry are big enough now to see that alot of them are the hybrids so this could get real interesting. The unspotted female is gravid again so that's a good sigh.

No, I'm going to let others here breed the gularis.

Yeah, that's the good looking nigripinnis.

SAA's are easier than Nothos as they are not so sensitive and the males are not so hard on the females. The rest is the same although many SAA's do better in slightly soft acid water. Some Simpsonichthys are from slightly hard alkaline water so you have to check species by species. Plus SAA's are often peat divers rather than ploughers (like gularis and Nothos). Zonatus bury themselves completely in the peat so their peat must be 5-6 inches DEEP!



Bobby
 
  • #58
Hi Bobby,

Bad news and perhaps an end to activity with this threads namesake for some time.
The kafuensis female was found dead today. I'm pretty clueless as to why but I did note that she was not feeding quite as ravenously this last week or so but wasn't too concerned as she otherwise seemed healthy on the outside. I now have around 6 males with no mates despite looking around for several months. However I do have the eggs which this female has laid. I think I should have enough eggs to get back to this same number of fish next year and hopefully have better success with females. The young males look like they have lots of time ahead of them.

Grreat news on those monties! How can you tell you are now getting hybrid fry?

Have you kept Cynopoecilius melanotaenia by any chance? I remember you kept Maratecoara lacortei a short time ago(not clear on whether you are still keeping them). They seem a bit similar. According to Doug they are doing well for him but are difficult to sex and perhaps aren't quite a tough as the nigripinnis waterwise(but they can stand very cold temps I am told).

At least 2 male and 2 female SPL are sexing out. The Jordanella are still spawning and I probably have 50 or so fry now. THe fry are hardy and easy to raise but damselfly larvae managed to hitch hike into the fry containers on plants. I think I've removed them but not before they ate a considerable number of fry. Guess I've got the fittest ones left to continue with. These fry are interesting in that for the first few weeks they hug the bottom rather than venture into the wate column. Now they will swim up for BBS but quickly dart back down when disturbed. Probably keeps them hidden in the wild but I think makes them more vulnerable to damselfly larvae aswell.

I have not mentioned the sunfish on here for a long time but after trying I think I will finally be able to raise a second generation of bluespotted sunfish. Put them out in a small pond and within a few weeks fry appeared. I checked today and found a fry about the size of a male H. formosa. The young Elassoma evergladei have sexed out and I have both sexes...including a dominant male who is gorgeous! Jet black body and fins and a sprinkling of blue glitter on his sides. I think that keeping these pygmy sunfish is pretty similar to keeping small aphyosemions or Epiplatys.


~Joseph
 
  • #59
Hi N,

Well that is too bad on the female. Spawning takes it toll on the females as does the rich diet. That's why you need multiple girls and periods of rich conditioning alternating with periods of just enough food to stay healthy -- think dieting. I'd write to Bob Morenski or to Floyd Souza in Hawaii. They have the fish and I bet they have a girl or 2. But those eggs with any luck should give you many fry -- so stay positive. You may end up with 100's.

It's easy to tell the hybrid fry at about 3/4th's of an inch. They have an entirely different body color, spotting and girth -- thicker. The body has a lighter pattern and a yellowish color. The chest area is thick and the tail end has a nice tapering. The spotting is less but more artisitcally spread over the body. I am tickled pink as this cross worked and made a nicer looking fish than either parent. The males reaching adulthood are the 2 best monties I have ever had -- out of 1000's.

I have lacortei eggs put away. I kept melanotaenia decades ago and it is really a plain brown shy little fish. Stick to the Austrolebias or even Pterolebias longipinnis. You will be happier.

Great news on all your sunfish. Sounds like you have mastered their tricks. You should be proud. I've never done those. The flaggies sound funny. Bet you don't have an algae problem. Sounds like your set-up is growing. How are the parents coping? Your science teachers must love you. Annual killies are a natural for science fair or special biology assignments.

Bobby
 
  • #60
Hello Bobby:

I'll see to contacting Bob Morenski and/or Floyd. Is sending fish from Hawaii any different? I'd think they'd be more strict about stuff coming in and out of that particular state. I'm assuming that it wouldn't be necessary to purchase eggs.

What kind of food do you feed during the dieting stage? Frozen brine shrimp or something with more shell to it? I think perhaps I overdid the amount of worms as opposed to less rich foods for this female. The worm bin has been a remarkable success and I pull around 10 or so worms a day and could probably remove many more. Would be great if I could grow another less nutritious food for dieting stages efficiently at home.

Interesting on the hybrid traits. Less spotting...yellowish color. None of the parents have the second trait? I wonder what size these guys will attain?

Here is that male KAF as of today. Still the largest male but some of the smaller ones are now catching up enough that he isn't the undisputed ruler of the all male tank anymore.
DSCN2113.jpg


The setup is growing but it is mainly utilizing the original space more efficiently...fewer empty containers sitting around and almost everything on the rack has some purpose. Folks haven't expressed much dislike providing I take care of school stuff first. Do you know of any actual cases of killies being used in science fair of similar?

~Joseph
 
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