Archers spawned - Now what?

[Zoodiver]

I've got 4 archers (Toxotes jaculatrix) in a 75 gallon holding tank waiting for their display to be completed. Last night they spawned. Obviouslly, I have no idea if they were fertilized or not. I pulled out what I could and set them up in a small tank with an air stone to circulate.

Suggestions or ideas? I didn't really expect these fish to live after the shipping blunder. Is there anything special I should be aware of or can they be cultured like any other fish egg?

Thanks.

Matt

[T]

wow interesting how big are ur archers when they layed the eggs?

[Oddball]

There's not much out there on raising archer fry. Here's all I found:

Breeding

Captive breeding has been accomplished accidentally on a few occasions. The pair spawns close to the surface and about 3000 floating eggs are laid. The eggs should be transferred to a rearing tank where they hatch in 12 hours. Feed the young small insects and live food that can be taken from water surface. It is believed that in the wild the more solitary adult fish will head out to coral reefs to breed, while the smaller juveniles will form groups in the brackish mangrove swamps of southeast Asia and Australia.

I would imagine you could feed them on FD cyclop-eeze or any other FD floating small food. Ideally, you want to have a wingless fruitfly culture for them. But, if you don't already have one going, that's a pointless concern.

[rottbo]

There's not much out there on raising archer fry. Here's all I found:

Breeding

Captive breeding has been accomplished accidentally on a few occasions. The pair spawns close to the surface and about 3000 floating eggs are laid. The eggs should be transferred to a rearing tank where they hatch in 12 hours. Feed the young small insects and live food that can be taken from water surface. It is believed that in the wild the more solitary adult fish will head out to coral reefs to breed, while the smaller juveniles will form groups in the brackish mangrove swamps of southeast Asia and Australia.

I would imagine you could feed them on FD cyclop-eeze or any other FD floating small food. Ideally, you want to have a wingless fruitfly culture for them. But, if you don't already have one going, that's a pointless concern.






:iagree:
couldnt have siad anything better than that of course oddball knows alittle more than i do about the subject

[guppy]

As Oddball said, it happens occasionally by accident, a couple hints I found on getting them to survive, watch for fungus on the floating eggs, it can happen quick and they are prone to it if the salinity is below 1 tsp salt/gallon. At 82 degrees F. they should hatch in 12 hrs, feed with floating live foods at first, one site suggests brine shrimp naupuli and wingless fruit flies. They also suggest powdered flake foods at the same time. Good Luck!

[halofishboy]

gj thats nice



ur now a archer fish breeder he he


i think you mightneed brackish water pretty soon no??

[Zoodiver]

This morning some of the eggs have clumped together (similar to how frog eggs look). I removed some with a fungus yesterday. The water is in the low 80F range. However, it's been about 20 hours now and nothing has hatched. I'd guess they weren't fertilized. I have no clue on the ratio of the fish that are in together.....well, one female :D

As for the fish size, they are all 5-7 inches. They're in freshwater (75 gallon holding). I've got a canister filter and twin powerheads (one on each end) for circulation. Temps stays between 80-82 F. Lighting is twin 48" flor. They've got a dark brown gravel bottom with lots of tall plant cover. They've been eating crickets very well...almost from the first day. They don't seem to be too interested in anything else I've tried.

For those that didn't hear the history, these fish should be dead by now. They came from a zoo on the Eastcoast. The airline shipping them decided "LIVE TROPICAL FISH" weren't a priority, and set them aside when the flight was full. Of course, they then vanished from the face of the Earth because the paper work said they were still on their first flight. The two boxes they were in got set outside for awhile, then stored in a non-heated hanger. They were missing for 2 days. I was frantic the entire time trying to locate them. The airline kept telling me they were on the "next flight" and to get them then. When I got them a couple fo days later, the water they were in was in the low 40F range. I lost three of the seven shipped with in 24 hours. One of the boxes had been crushed and a bag was broken.

I'll keep an eye on them. This spawning might have to be written off as 'practice' and see what happens at a later time.

Thanks for the help.

[Oddball]

Hell of an adventure these guys went through. Try again to spawn them. But, I'd go with the writeups I've found and, at least, try in heavy brackish. I would imagine the eggs require salt to fend off fungal attacks and maintain proper osmotic regulation for development.

Oh, pics of these large specimens would be nice. And, PM me if you wish the eggs checked for viability. I can stain them and check under a scope to see if they were fertilized.

[Zoodiver]

All of the eggs have gone bad. I'm not really going ot push to have them spawn again. Right now I'm so tight on space for the fish I do have and so short on time (I work seven days a week because I'm the only fish guy here), that raising fry is almost out of the question at this point. Maybe down the line.

[Don4921]

pics of Archer plz

[Legacy]

Here's some information from the book, "Aqualob Special: Brackish-Water Fishes" - by Frank Schafer, that you may find useful if this should occur again in the future:

Archerfishes have been successfully bred in the aquarium(Herkner, 1987). Four-year-old specimens of Toxotes microlepis(termed T. chatareus in the article) spawned for the first time in October, in a 600-litre aquarium with a density of 1.010, but at this salt content the eggs weren't viable. Only when the density was reduced to 1.006 did the eggs remain clear (the previous clutch had turned whitish) and started to develop. At 25C the approximately 3mm long larvae hatched on the fifth day after spawning. Unfortunately rearing proved unsuccessful on the account of the difficulties with the food supply, although the fry which were left in the spawning tank fed well on the copepods present there. Unfortunately the adults were highly cannibalistic, so that rearing in the spawning tank failed as well. But be that as it may, the report does demonstrate that breeding archerfishes in the aquarium is possible. These fishes exhibited no external sexual dimorphism except that the female, at 18cm long, was significantly larger than the two approximately 12cm long males.

- Frank Schafer (Aqualog Special: Brackish-Water Fishes)

I'm an archer keeper as well, also with four 2.5" true T. Jaculatrix. I hope to be this lucky to have them spawn in the future. I keep mine in 1.012SG right now in a 40G Breeder. I'm currently in the proccess of setting up thier new display tank, also. It's a 200G (84"x24"x24"). I was wondering if you could give me some info on your display... maybe I could get some ideas on how to improve mine. Mine would techincally be considered a Paludarium.

Anyway, I hope this might help you or any other archer keepers in the future. I wonder what triggered the spawning? I wonder if the freshwater encouraged it. I have read that they'll spawn after the first rainfall of the season. Maybe the very cold temperature stimulated something they experience in their natural enviornment.

[Zoodiver]

I wish I could tell you what kicked them into gear. But I never expected them to even live.

The display is in progess. It's a 500 gallon tank, with about 300 gallons of water to give a half/half look. I'll run in brackish at that point. It will be a single pump drive into a large canister, inline heater and then back into the tank via a 2 ft water fall over some decorative rock work. Still working out the lighting details for the display. Decar is a wood stump and some tall narrow branches to simulate a mangrove area. A few plastic plants as well. The substrate is 1/8" dark brown gravel.

Here's the current set up (Just cut and pasted from an earlier post):

They're in freshwater (75 gallon holding). I've got a canister filter and twin powerheads (one on each end) for circulation. Temp stays between 80-82 F. Lighting is twin 48" flor. They've got a dark brown gravel bottom with lots of tall plant cover. They've been eating crickets very well...almost from the first day.They don't seem to be too interested in anything else I've tried.


I'll try and find some pictures of the display to post.

[Legacy]

Your tank sounds great! One of these days I want to go something in the 500g area. For now they'll have to live in my 200g with only about 100g of water. I made a 3D background simulating mangrove roots with polystyrene and concrete(SikaTop Seal 107), this is working out very well so far but it doesn't look nearly as natural as authentic wood.

My tank has two tall sand bed that were made possible by sheets of polystrene that were stacked up. I also have 15 Red Mangrove Saplings on the way from Hawaii that my buddy's dad has been sprouting for me.

Is this tank for home use? I'm very interested to see how your tank comes out. I'd especially like to see photos of it and possible compare notes with you in the future on your experiences with the archers. As for feeding I've noticed that mine will eat anything. I offer them Crickets,Frozen Bloodworms/Mysis and about once a week I drop a couple cichlid pellets in to ensure they're getting enough vitamins. I have a feeling that larger specimens would enjoy eating wax worms.

Are you 100% sure that your species is T. Jaculatrix? T. Microlepis is more commonly sold on the market but always mislabelled as T. Jaculatrix. T. Microlepis looks very similar but only inhabits areas with a SG of 1.000-1.005sg. This could be why they were so quick to spawn in freshwater and probably why they're doing so well in it right now. T. Jaculatrix is best kept in SG of 1.010-1.015. Do you have a pic of one of your archers?

[Zoodiver]

Yeah, mine are jacs. It's not a home set up, it's at work (a zoo). I don't have my camera at work today, I'll try to remember it tomorrow. This group was known to be picky eaters at the zoo they came from, so I expected them to not like much. They said krill would work every now and then, but I have yet to see it. I think once they are in a tank with more room and a more friendly environment, they will do better.

[guppy]

Live crickets/grasshoppers scattered on the top should tempt them.

[Legacy]

May I ask what qualifications are required for the career position you're in. I'm totally into that kind of stuff but I really don't have too much of an idea on how to get started. I see that most Aquarists require an AA minimum. I most interested in building the display enclosures.

[Zoodiver]

A lot of places require a 4 year in biology (or related) OR the same amount of time PAID experience. (Volunteer stuff doesn't float anymore). But that's for animal care. For jobs like that, check out the AZA joblisting (www.aza.org).

If you like designing/building....look into places that do zoo construction. (A company like CLR for example.) There are a TON of them out there. Find out what degrees/training they look for.

[Don4921]

that is so kool wi8sh i could do that

[brackishdude]

Wow, that's my dream job!! Lucky bastid