Breeding Ropefish?

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dan2381

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 14, 2006
23
0
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South Africa
Does anyone know if it's even possible?

I have 2, i know the male has 12 - 15 dorsal fins and the female about 9 or am i wrong?, what does it mean if my one has 5 and the other has about 10? there is a clear difference in colour the smaller one is olive in colour and the other is a much lighter almost caramel brownish thingy, its my first time keeping ropefish, so just bare with me. They both seem very close, they're always chilling very close 2 each other, the one lighter coloured one has a bigger and flatter head, and is only slightly longer than the olive one, its head is almost twice the size, it doesnt have the same appetite as the olive one, it seems to be less interested in food although it does eat like a lil pig when it decides to eat.

How can i tell which is male and female? does the colour mean anything? maybe the size of the heads? i know in nature most of the time the females tend to be bigger in size in most animals, they were about the same size when i got them, which was about2 weeks ago, and the lighter one has grown very rapidly while the other has stayed the same, but then again my rainbow shark dissapeared without a sign overnight, maybe thats why its grown so quickly? i need help, has anyone ever bread a ropefish, is it possible and how would i go about doing it?:confused:
 
I can find no record of them being bred, they are believed to be live bearers.
 
i dont know if anyones actually bred them in aquaria yet. they like to be with there own species though, they like the company
 
They are eggscatterers and I haven't heard of them breeding in captivity.Sexing them is the same for any polypterid the males anal fin is approx.twice as wide as the females-Anne
 
You will need multiple tanks if you hope the young will survive.The breeding pair need to be alone in the tank during breeding and the fertilized eggs removed as soon as possible to a second tank.

The hatching tank-When the mating is concluded remove the plants with the eggs or any eggs you may find scattered about as quickly as possible and place them in the hatching tank .This tank should be kept at 82 degrees with a PH value between 6.5 and 7.0.If things have gone well you should see hatching within 60 hours . The young resemble tadpoles and will adhere to
plants and rocks , and live off yolk sacs for approx 6-7 days after which they will need feeding.
Foods include
baby brine shrimp
finely chopped bloodworms
mysis shrimp .
It is sadly at this time death rates increase do to fighting and canibalism if possible the fry should be seperated in individual containers for several weeks or raised in a tank with lots of
Java fern (Microsorium pteropus)to hide from eachother . Once they reach approx.4 cm the odds of survival increase -Anne
 
Sexing them is the same for any polypterid the males anal fin is approx.twice as wide as the females-Anne
exactly...and this is possible only when they reach a certain level of maturity. you can't tell sex by head size/color/dorsal finlets count.

do you have pics of your ropefish? how big are they? i'm curious about your comments on the dorsal finlets count and head size on the two you have.
 
here are the two rope fish, if u look carefully u can see the second one lying on top of the darker olive one, they are about the same length lying almost right ontop of each other, had great difficulty getting a good pic, still cant get a pic of the dorsal fins.

fish 006.jpg
 
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