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I just did my weekly water change in my 55-gallon tank. When I was done, I stepped back, took a look and was surprised to notice that the "alpha" male of my four boesmanis was dark as a stormcloud.

He usually gets that way when he's mad at something, and sure enough, he was chasing the other boesmanis as if he was really cranky. Then, I realized that he was actually just chasing one of the others -- and it was the female. I was surprised, because she's pretty small -- probably about a year and a half old, but not even close to being full grown (although in the past month she has made a quantum leap in size).

Anyway, he chased her around the tank for about 15 minutes, getting dark as ink, although he wasn't flashing his breeding stripe. Then they swam up against one of the pieces of bogwood, pressed together flank to flank and did the quiver-and-shake thing. Seconds later, every fish in the tank converged on that exact spot and went to town, so I'm sure they were eating eggs.

The weirdest thing is that there's another full-grown boesmani male in the tank who I've dubbed Mr. Macho because he's constantly challenging the alpha male for dominance (and always losing). As soon as the alpha male started courting, Mr. Macho quietly went to the upper rear corner of the tank, hid behind some plants, dimmed his colors way down and just hovered there in the water, nose shoved in the corner of the tank, for 15 to 20 minutes.

It wasn't until the alpha male was done courting and had gone back to his normal coloration that Mr. Macho came out of the corner and slowly got his normal color back, too.

It was really wild! Now that I know they're interested a little hanky panky, maybe I'll have to set up a breeding tank and see if I can raise some of the little buggers! Or at least put spawning mops in the tank and see if I can rescue eggs that way.

Those are very beautiful fish.. good luck on breeding them in the future.

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

That is super cool. I have two males in my 55 Gal. and I think I wil be looking into trying to find some females. The only thing is I have yet to see a female Boesmanis.

I am thinking of making my 40 Gal. into a planted, Rainbow and Loach tank.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

They're at it again. The hanky-panky always seems to follow a large water change. And the first sign isn't that the dominant male begins chasing the female -- it's that the subordinate male dims his colors way down and goes and hides in the corner. Then, a few minutes later, the dominant male starts obviously courting the female. It's interesting, because it the dominant male must be releasing some kind of pheromone or something into the water even before he starts chasing the female, because everyone else seems to know what he's up to before he makes it obvious.

Last edited by lmuha at 27-May-2005 10:34

Get used to it. Once they get the hang of it the rountine becomes almost daily. Watch them early morning if you have some morning light coming thru the window, this is their favourite time.

Unfortunately yes they become so predictable in spawning the other fish are waiting to grab the eggs.

I managed to get a couple of wrigglers last week but by the time I got the net to try to get them out the Angel had spotted them. Haven't seen them since

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

The other fish have already caught on, and they're so eager for those eggs that they cluster around the minute the male starts his courtship dance. He has to break things off to chase them away. But the minute he turns back to the female, the others start closing in again, and he has to break things off to drive them away again.

It's kind of funny, but I feel bad for him -- he seems so annoyed!

This is one reason why it is usually difficult to breed egg-scatterers in a community tank- hungry inmates. Not only will tankmates go after the eggs, but the parents themselves often participate and feast on eggs. It was the same way for my lemon tetras.

Last edited by sirbooks at 01-Jun-2005 07:29

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Use a spawning mop, and check it daily, right after light hits the tank or the tank lights come on. Most all rainbows, spawn heaviest, early in the morning. The eggs are large enough to see, and you can remove the spawning mop to a fry tank. The hardest part of spawning rainbows, is not getting them to lay eggs, as they will do this constantly, but raising the fry. The eggs are e to fungus as it takes about a week for them to hatch, depending on the temp of the fry tank. And the newly hatched fry need very small first foods to survive. Personally I use APR. They are so small, that even BBS is too large, and actually the BBS can eat the newly hatched fry. Have very little to no current in the fry tank, as the fry cannot handle a heavy current for a few months after hatching. I usually have my sponge filter set for about 1 bubble each couple of seconds. Just enough to slightly move the surface for aggitation.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your success!

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