Paretroplus Menarambo and Geophagus growouts

[FishKing5]

Hello fish lovers. Thought I’d share a video of my paretroplus menarambo and geophagus sveni and red head tapajos growouts. Will definitely be looking to do a breeding project with tha sveni and menarambo but am a few years out before they will be mature enough but will update videos every few months to share with you all.

 

[ciclasoman]

Super cool! I like the bar pattern on menarambo- I think soft water accentuates the markings.

 

[duanes]

I wonder if the problems I had getting proper fry development with Paretroplus was that my Lake Michigan based water was too hard.
Plenty of the genus spawned for me, but I was never successful beyond the egg stage.

 

[ciclasoman]

Maybe you need to try again

Incubating the eggs can be a little tricky because most agents used will zap the biofikter and the amonia spike will kill the eggs and/or the newly hatched fry.
I have tried several regimens over the years- malachite green, formalin+malachite green, copper, acriflavine and methylene blue. All have varying degrees of success and I found out that removing the newly hatched fry to a tank with an aged filter gave me the best survival rates.

 

[krichardson]

I've always liked the pinstriped damba.I'll have to get some one of these days.

 

[SpeedRacer]

Maybe you need to try again

Incubating the eggs can be a little tricky because most agents used will zap the biofikter and the amonia spike will kill the eggs and/or the newly hatched fry.
I have tried several regimens over the years- malachite green, formalin+malachite green, copper, acriflavine and methylene blue. All have varying degrees of success and I found out that removing the newly hatched fry to a tank with an aged filter gave me the best survival rates.

I've had success getting the eggs to hatch a couple of times by removing the stone to a 10g tank and adding Methylene Blue. My issue is keeping the fry alive after that. They just inexplicably start to die off a few at a time. Even after they have been moved to another tank and have hit 1/4" in size. What temps have you used when rearing fry and what foods were you feeding them?

 

[ciclasoman]

Paretropline fry are small and readily die unless live food is available. This is definitely one of the reasons this group of fish is challenging. I use newly hatched artemia. I have to decapsulate the eggs otherswise I loose 50% of the fry about 6 weeks into the rearing process. To decapsulate I use chlorine (100 ml) with 2.5 grams of sodium hydroxide - I dip the eggs in a shrimp net until the solution is amber and the eggs are rusty red. Then incubate in brine solution- normally takes 24 hrs to hatch.
A while ago, there was a small study looking at Malagasy cichlid fry survival at various temps (by Aleksei Saunders)- found that fry survived best above 80F, not past 84 though. I haven’t seen that issue with mine- I don’t use heaters, only in the winter when the water dips below 70F.

 

[SpeedRacer]

Paretropline fry are small and readily die unless live food is available. This is definitely one of the reasons this group of fish is challenging. I use newly hatched artemia. I have to decapsulate the eggs otherswise I loose 50% of the fry about 6 weeks into the rearing process. To decapsulate I use chlorine (100 ml) with 2.5 grams of sodium hydroxide - I dip the eggs in a shrimp net until the solution is amber and the eggs are rusty red. Then incubate in brine solution- normally takes 24 hrs to hatch.
A while ago, there was a small study looking at Malagasy cichlid fry survival at various temps (by Aleksei Saunders)- found that fry survived best above 80F, not past 84 though. I haven’t seen that issue with mine- I don’t use heaters, only in the winter when the water dips below 70F.

Interesting, thank you! With past broods, I did use newly hatched BBS, not realizing that the shells that may have been mixed in could have been the culprit. I did try different temperatures on different batches of fry as well, with the same unfortunate results. Which seems to indicate that the diet may have been the issue all along. Did you use any other types of food while they were small, or exclusively the artemia until a certain size, then switch?

 

[ciclasoman]

Nope, i only use baby brine shrimp- some folks use frozen BB once the fish are larger but it’s critical to use newly hatched bb in the early stages. I start introducing commercial fish food around 10weeks of life and wean them off brine shrimp at about 4 months

 

[SpeedRacer]

Nope, i only use baby brine shrimp- some folks use frozen BB once the fish are larger but it’s critical to use newly hatched bb in the early stages. I start introducing commercial fish food around 10weeks of life and wean them off brine shrimp at about 4 months

OK great, thank you. Looks like I need to hope for another spawn soon! Do you still use an anti-fungal agent for the hatching process? I usually take the stone the eggs are on and put it in a 10g with Meth Blue and an air stone for good aeration in addition to a sponge filter.