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on first of july my panamense hatched out - 54 babies! i put dad on his leaf in a breeding trap a day earlier, where he happily settled down to aerating them. removed him straight after hatching, and the bubs are doing great, doubled in size! they have old rotting leaves from the tank, plus i'm pureeing zucchini and green peas for them and adding the 'soup' every couple of days. it's one of those material traps, cotton netting, and all the adults suck the zucchini slime from the outside while the bubs are slurping away on the inside. i know they're tough to rear, apparently at the 2 month stage there'll be a die-off - but even if i get 10% of them through i'll be a very happy chappy!

pictures of dad guarding eggs, mum and aunty, and 2-day-old babies in link - enjoy!

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/jase101/sturisoma/

Awesome, good luck with them! Make sure that the breeding container stays CLEAN, even though it's inside the main tank, because stuff is still liable to just sit in the breeding container. When I first started out with breeding I experienced losses due to a less than clean breeding container, which I didn't think was a problem since I thought it'd just all mix in with the tank.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Really neat. Reminds me of the days my BN plecos were spawning. Babies stuck all over the tank. I hope they do well for you. Keep us posted!

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

hey shini and wings, thanks for the replies - will keep your tips in mind, though i think i've stumbled onto a bit of beginner's luck - it's 15 days, no deaths, the breeding trap is right over an airstone so the water is flowing right through it, and the zucchini puree i'm making for them seems to be working - lot's of fat little bellies and little tiny strings of poo everywhere. mum and dad produced another batch, hatched yesterday, so i now have about 100 babies in there - surprising how much bigger the older brood are when you compare them!

Cool Jase.
They'll bring you some credit at the LFS for sure!

they look like festivum complex fish.

well, it was all going very smoothly... this week i've lost over 60 of the babies, from both the first and second batch... no real clue why, no water parameter shifts, plenty of food... i got some good advice from brengun about a mix she uses, so next time i'll try that. still hoping i'll get the remaining 20 through.

Have a look at the frysavers on http://www.thefishcave.com.au/
Thats what I have my royal fry in and I have very few losses of fry. I also leave a couple of the older fry in the saver to teach the new young ones about where the food is and how to eat.

I feed a mix of agar agar and spirulina powder and I freeze it thin in sandwich bags and break it into suitable food amounts fed once a day. I do not remove the food unless it is looking really off, which takes days.

Oh BTW the fry are small enough to wiggle through the sponge at one end of the saver so I covered it with filter wool. After several weeks it looks gross but the fry love picking the food off the wool.
I siphon the saver with airline hose about once a week. The tank is 4ft and only has half a dozen adult whiptails in it.
The floating food in the bottom pic is an old bit of zuccini and cucumber. I do not remove it unless it really starts to break up.