Satanoperca Leucostica Media Project
- Thread starter RonBurgundy
- Start date
Terrific videos and information. I especially liked seeing the babies all go into mom's mouth, very cool. Congratulations on a healthy successful pair and spawn!
Two Week Update: It's been two weeks since the parents started releasing the fry and 3 weeks since the spawn. The fry are doing very well and looking at some of the first video, you can notice some slight growth compared to the new video below. When you look at the video below, notice the male is surrounded by the fry and the female is guarding the parameter. This has been the normal day to day routine for the last week. In fact the female helps out very little in collecting the fry other than picking up the ones the male cannot fit into his mouth. Some people have asked about the tank, the water parameters, feeding and daily maintanence so I will detail this below.
Tank:
-40 Gallon Glass, (well seasoned and up and running for 6 months)
-AC-70 HOB filter, (foam, koi micro polishing pad, just a touch of Black Diamond carbon and a good amount of ceramic bio rings) I'm running this filter on the slowest setting. DIY foam strainer so the fry don't get sucked up.
-Generic brand of foam filter run by a Hagen 801 pump full blast no air stones.
-Hagen Aquaglow 18'
-Pool filter sand (this will be coming out of the tank when I return the parents to the main tank in 1-2 weeks. The fry will be grown out in a bare bottom tank until at least 1.5 to 2.0 inches. This will help in keeping the tank cleaner with the goal of keeping the nitrates down and to prevent the fry from getting sand lodged in their gills.
Water Parameters:
-PH 7.0
-Temp 80
-GH & KH (not sure but I'm primarily using R/O water) have not tested this yet
-Amonia and Nitrites 0
-Nitrates 10-15 ppm (Keeping the nitrates down is the key to rearing the fry).
Feeding: 3 times a day
-baby brine shrimp (frozen)
-First Bites Flake
-Crushed and powdered NLS
-Crushed and powdered algae wafers
-Detritus squeeze
Water Changes:
-25% every other day (4.1 mix down od R/O water and regular tap) treated with Prime. In my area the city treats with Chloramine.
-Gravel vac lightly every waterchange. This is a must as the adults are getting a minimal amount of food daily but still producing a significant amount of waste. Anyone who has kept adult Leucosticas can attest to how messy they are.
In reality, this tank is way too small to house the parents and about 125 fry for much longer but it's what I have right now so the sooner I get the parents out the better. Hope this helps the people that asked. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0k-R3P64e8
Tank:
-40 Gallon Glass, (well seasoned and up and running for 6 months)
-AC-70 HOB filter, (foam, koi micro polishing pad, just a touch of Black Diamond carbon and a good amount of ceramic bio rings) I'm running this filter on the slowest setting. DIY foam strainer so the fry don't get sucked up.
-Generic brand of foam filter run by a Hagen 801 pump full blast no air stones.
-Hagen Aquaglow 18'
-Pool filter sand (this will be coming out of the tank when I return the parents to the main tank in 1-2 weeks. The fry will be grown out in a bare bottom tank until at least 1.5 to 2.0 inches. This will help in keeping the tank cleaner with the goal of keeping the nitrates down and to prevent the fry from getting sand lodged in their gills.
Water Parameters:
-PH 7.0
-Temp 80
-GH & KH (not sure but I'm primarily using R/O water) have not tested this yet
-Amonia and Nitrites 0
-Nitrates 10-15 ppm (Keeping the nitrates down is the key to rearing the fry).
Feeding: 3 times a day
-baby brine shrimp (frozen)
-First Bites Flake
-Crushed and powdered NLS
-Crushed and powdered algae wafers
-Detritus squeeze
Water Changes:
-25% every other day (4.1 mix down od R/O water and regular tap) treated with Prime. In my area the city treats with Chloramine.
-Gravel vac lightly every waterchange. This is a must as the adults are getting a minimal amount of food daily but still producing a significant amount of waste. Anyone who has kept adult Leucosticas can attest to how messy they are.
In reality, this tank is way too small to house the parents and about 125 fry for much longer but it's what I have right now so the sooner I get the parents out the better. Hope this helps the people that asked. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0k-R3P64e8
Great fish and documentation RonBurgundy. I enjoyed reading through it and watching the videos. If you have small wood chips and sticks in the tank, when the fry are wrigglers, and when they can barely swim, the parents will dig pits, collect all the wood pieces into them and store the fry there. I've read that they will lay their eggs on leaves too, and move the clutch around, but I've never actually witnesses it.
Ed
Ed
Thanks for the warm comments Ed. I did notice some intersting behavior that might be related to the gathering of chips and sticks. As the male was the main holder of the fry, I noticed the female completly burying her snout in the sand and moving throughout the tank this way vigoursly searching for something and would continue to return to the male where there was a small pit dug.edburress;4202897; said:
Below is a video of the fry before I removed the parents. At this point the fry are 4 weeks old and becoming a stress on the parents. In fact, the female has pretty much left the rearing to the male. I noticed last night when I turned the tank light out both parents objecting to the fry entering their mouth and were darting around the tank trying to avoid the fry. I've read that 4 weeks is usually the time the fry are left to fend for them selves. When I introduced the pair back to the main tank they were attacked by another pair of Leucosticas that are courting so I had to remove the attacking pair and reside them to their own tank. I figured the parents have been through enough and needed some well deserved down time as they have been really good parents. Below is the video, the parents resting in the main tank and the newly courting attackers in their own tank. Enjoy! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYKPIxXj3Dw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYKPIxXj3Dw
Just a quick update. The fry are approaching 7 weeks and are growing pretty fast. They are about .75 inch.
