Hello, friends!
I got some questions about the reproduction of Channas gachua:
A couple can be formed even if initially the female fight with the male?
I think I got a couple, but the (possible) female gave no mercy to the (possible) male (who is very shy) and I separated them temporarily.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Cheers,
Successful pairing is normally achieved by starting out with several very young immature channa and allowing them to grow up together. With 5-6 fry you'll normally get a pair or 2 out of the mix , when they pair it's very apparent because the others will becomes targets and need to be separated before or they end up killed off.
Pairing when older is tricky most channa will be too territorial once mature to ever pair up, more often then not one will kill off the other.
First trick for success would be to make sure you have a male and female, if you haven't owned a few and seen the difference it can be tricky to sex them. If your not sure of the genders I'd recommend you post a few pic's and I'm sure I and other members could weigh in on guessing genders. Try to get a nice side shot showing head to tail with the dorsal fin flared, and if possible a head shot from above, between the angles there should be enough to sex them.
Your description of what happened is exactly when I would expect. You can continue to attempt introductions but the female will likely continue to drive the male away. Putting the 2 into a new tank that neither of them has laid claim to will also help lower the territorial aggression but again I would expect this simply delays the aggression once they settle in the female will likely go after the male again.
My advise is to keep these separate and if you want to breed them pick up several small ones and let them pair young, sell the rest after a pair forms (if you get them out in time to save them)
Helped yes, Devon.
I have to try with this couple for a while. Why get a small group of youngs is not easy where I live.
Yeah, I like to shoot what I believe to be a femal. But the male, as said before, is very shy. I'll try to get a picture of it and post it here as soon as I can.
If they are a couple, and still not stop fighting, I'll keep only one.
Thank you,
Ed
P.S. The supposed female:
I'd say your probably right on the female. She has a nice blue band on the dorsal fin, but it's still fairly narrow not as arched and not as blue as other males I've seen.
Just curious what does the fin in the top of the 3rd pic belong too ?
So, Devon ... a sad story ... This fin belonged to Channa bleheri that appears in my avatar. I had to replace it (I live in Rio, a city very hot, even) by a male gachua who died. I don't want this new male gachua (I bought now) dies too.
Ahh, that's why I asked, It looked like a bleheri tail they are one of my favorits ! I was wondering if that was the male you were trying to pair.
Gaucha are more tolerant of higher temps then the bleheri, but many if not most varieties are sub tropical just like belheri so I'd recommend keeping the temps as low as your can.
If it's a variety from a subtropical area then high temps might also be adding to your aggression levels. You might also struggle to breed them if you can't lower the temps for a winter period. I'm not sure if this is absolutely necessary with gaucha since some of it's range does venture into tropical areas i suspect it depends on the collection point.
I plan to pick up a few Bleheri this summer when they come into season and forming a breeding group. But here in Canada keeping them cool is no problem !
I try to keep the temperature at a tolerable level for the summer in my town (about 28 º C). But it was too much for bleheri ... The gachua showed no signs that he is suffering from the heat, maybe it was collected in a tropical region.
Good luck with your quest for bleheri and reproduction with them.
Hi, friends,
The Channa (which is supposedly the male) went into the main tank and became very dominant.
Can you identify the gender on video?
[YT]http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_rtj0-AKp8[/YT]
Ops! The video don't appears! The link: http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_rtj0-AKp8
It's less shy (with the other one, at least), but very suspicious to take pictures and even do a good video.
Cheer,
Thanks for the suport, Mr. Fishyman! Very nice... I'm so noob!
This new one has a broad head, but I do not see a triangular shape. Not enough to bite the old, but that is scared and is beating up on the woods of the aquarium... There is a minimal chance to accept one another?
