something I have never heard of till today

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chefjamesscott

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 16, 2008
2,457
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38
regina saskatchewan canada
Hi there, today I went to my 180g sw where I have a bunch of fish that are brackish that I have converted to full sw. 3 columbian sharks, 6 green spotted puffers, 1 mono, and 3 archer fish.

I notice that my one shark has a really huge bump in its jaw and I was think damn did it eat one of my puffers. This really sucks because now I am thinking that I am going to lose one of my fish to choking. So I got one of my staff members to get me a plastic spoon and I netted the fish.

When I managed to get it to open its mouth, what was in there looked like a clear plastic suction cup. This fish is looking real skinny, so I was wondering how I could have missed this. I then try to get the end of the spoon behind the cup to try to dislodge it. At this time it looks like the plastic is disintigrating, so I am about to write off this fish and leave it be in the hope that it will spit it out. Then the "suction cup" comes apart and oh my goodness it is a bunch of eggs.

I know absolutely zip about columbian sharks and their breeding habits and am really hoping that I can get these eggs to hatch and grow any thoughts????

I took some pics and will post them up as soon as I get them onto photobucket.

edit: I know now that I have 2 males and 1 female in my tank because of a difference in the fins on them.
 
what'd you do with the eggs? did the shark spit them out?
 
Wow, this keeps happening more and more! I hope one of us finally succeeds in raising the fry. We need more info on where the adults deposit the eggs in the wild to know the best way to raise the fry. It's easy to assume the eggs must be hatched in fresh water, but it's just an assumption. Maybe they hatch in salt and swim upstream.
 
ok so here are 2 pics from my first post. Forgive the water spots I have to do a clean on the front and evap is causing a bit of run down on this corner.

IMGP9496.jpg

the reason I thought it had swallowed something

IMGP9494.jpg

and there we go eggs in the mouth

As of today still holding the eggs. I am rushing my butt off to get another tank set up so that no one will be able to eat the babies
IMGP9501.jpg


The fish is gettting super skinny. I am wondering if one could use a tumbler for this or no?

edit:from what little I could gather on this the male mouth broods the eggs. which is one of the reasons why I have left them in the sharks mouth.

I have a 20 g right beside this tank that I am going to turn into a slight brackish tank and I also have a 100g that is brackish that I have now set up for the other fish out of this tank. I want there to be only the 3 sharks in the tank to see if I can get these babies to raise.
 
For an answer for anyone wondering how I keep the tank water. I do water changes this way. I keep the tank around 1.020 and usually only add fresh water to the sump to replace evaporation. I figured since these are brackish converted to full sw that they can handle the fluctuations in salinity. My plan was to do a regular pull 50% and add 50% sw mix once every 6 months.

From what my studies since this has happened have shown me the key to triggering a mating response in brackish fish seems to be varying the salinity of the tank they are kept in.

I have found a home for the puffers, and will be putting all the other fish in different tanks. Here is to hoping that all goes well with the future fry.

I will update this thread with pics every week or so, unless the fry show up.
 
Well the fish is still mouth brooding the eggs. I was able to rehome the puffer fish the other night so no worries about them decimating any babies.

Does anyone have any idea of the time frame involved with the eggs turning into fry and when I should be looking for the fish to spit the fry.
 
as far as i know, your the first one to have any with succesful eggs. the only other time ive seen columbians breed was on here and they actually laid the eggs and didnt keep them in there mouths, however i dont think the eggs ever actually hatched
 
I will take some pictures today and post them.

It is interesting to watch the behavior modification that has been going on.

The female will actually swim right underneath the male and gently put the top of her head under his belly and swim with him helping him to swim. I have also been keeping a close eye on the tank to see if the fish is ready to spit or not.

From the way the bump in the jaw has changed it looks to me that it is no longer a mass of eggs as it has become less rounded and the fish is doing mouth movements almost exact to that which my various africans do when they are holding a batch of fry.

I am tempted to see about looking into it's mouth this weekend but do not want to spook the fish and have it swallow the babies.

I am going to change the salinity by pulling out 40% of the water and adding in fresh since the male will swim upstream in the wild to plant the fry in fresh water I want to cut the salt content to help make it so.

will post up pics later.

I almost have my spare 100g set up for the other fish to move out so that there will only be columbian sharks in this tank.
 
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