Aequidens metae spawn

[xEchOx]

Horrible, horrible pictures I know. Taken with a cell phone this morning. I'll try to get some better ones tonight with the Nikon D3000.

A little background info - 125g tank, 4 metae total 2 males and 2 females I believe. I got these guys from Rapps back in November 2013. They are around 4.5 inches or so. This batch isn't very large, maybe 50-60 eggs? Hard to say for sure, but a small batch of eggs compared to what I'm used to seeing. Tank mates - 7 Geophagus sp orange head tapajos, 1 BN plec, 10 columbian tetras.

I don't plan on doing anything with the eggs for now. If they hatch and become free swimming I'll move them out to a 10g but for now we'll just wait and see what happens.

 

[fug202]

Keep an eye on the male parent. Someone recently posted that their A. metae spawned and shortly thereafter the male killed the female. The eggs may have disappeared first.....I can't recall. The large size of your tank may provide the female with sufficient cover if the male gets nasty, but keep an eye on him in any case.

 

[xEchOx]

Yeah I believe I read that thread - Andicca? I think his pair was in a much smaller tank. Hopefully they don't get too nasy with each other.

 

[Andicca]

Yeah that was me..lol. Just keep an eye on her, look out for any nipped fins on her, that was the first sign, next day, dead. On a happier note, the peruvian tetramerus I got at the same time have spawned and are great parents...especially momma! No violence between the 2. Much more relaxed than the metae.