Widebar Question

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Loubard;1809257; said:
It's that easy.

Just like told, it's just a matter of finding out the size/length/weight/whatever they are ready to breed (because you would really want to minimize the chance you make your breeding stock un breedable...) and how to raise the eggs, wich can take a long time to grow to a good size, seeing the grow rate's of small datnioids.

Thank you, some one else knows some basic facts
of hormone breeding! Hopefully we get some eggs fertilized and see what happens. With all the hootin and hollerin about it being impossible and that there is no evidence that it has been done, where is the evidence of failed attempts? We wont know what happens unless we try, and yes T1 it is really easy get eggs of pretty much any large fish fertilized!

[/QUOTE]
I believe some people are hard at work finding this out as we type....maybe also hoping a bit to get a tankload of small st's :naughty: [/QUOTE]

If there is, no one in the U.S. is doing it for sure. No reason too. And like I said above the lack of evidence of even failed attempts is pretty strange, but like Ive said a couple times now a fellow told me it has been done and I have no reason to doubt him because of what he does.

[/QUOTE]
Another thing, with all the sceptic about indo's being st like, even if you breed st's it would be very hard to convince some people here they are real st's :ROFL:
[/QUOTE]

Damn, I never thought of that!! :ROFL:

T1, since you have kept dats in a glass box for years now what kind of insight can you give me?

Lets change it up a bit...cichla kelebri...that fish would be EASY to do, all large cichlids are so why isnt any one doing that?

Quick run down how this works cause I think some people believe that hormone breeding is wrong. Here is how it works in a nutshell.

Certain environmental factors such as the onset of the rainy season trigger mature fish's pituitary gland to release a certain "XYZ" hormone. This hormone triggers the maturation of the eggs and sperm and that takes no time at all around a day or two with most fish. So the way hormone breeding works is, you take the exact "XYZ" hormone the fish's pituitary gland produces (carp pituitary glad is often used, even human growth hormone but we have the exact "XYZ" hormone and its the same in all fish) and you inject it in the proper amounts into the fish.

By injecting the fish, you are essentially "over riding" the environmental triggers that induce fish to spawn. In other words YOU are the environmental factors needed. Often times all one needs to do is inject the fish and they will just spawn and raise the eggs on their own and of course this would be best case scenario for us! Other times the eggs and sperm need to be harvested...pretty easy. The hard part comes after and that is keeping the eggs and very young fry alive. Before some one chimes in and says, "you didnt do this or do that...," I know I left out many things on purpose...just in case! :naughty:

A story to relate how environmental factors trigger fish to spawn. A LFS of mine had about dozen HUGE true green snook cichlids in a 300 gallon display for years...no breeding. One night the tank crack and all but a couple inches of water leaked out. The fish were thrown into another tank and boom, eggs instantly and they had so many young green snooks that I kid you not it took them probably 18 months to sell/kill them all! You see, the cracked tank triggered the release of the "XYZ " hormone (again this hormone is UNIVERSAL) which caused the fish to spawn in less then 24hrs.

I will be picking up an 8" ST and a 10" ST Monday. These fish will not be injected until we are certain we know if they are mature or not. My NTT will be the guinea pig and Im 95% certain we will see results from that fish as at 12" that is approaching max size and most perches mature well before they reach max size. And who knows we may fiddle fart around with what comes out of the NTT with what comes out with the STs. :naughty:

You see T1, I'm no keyboard commando like you. I have done my research, I associate my self with and talk to people that do this kind of stuff for a living. I have high hopes that this will work but I also fully understand that a million things could go wrong. Unfortunately, the only thing holding us back right now is money.
 
im not going to be neg hear :D

if it works it works

but what makes you think that what you are talking about hasnt been tryed before

lets face it alot of the asian countrys have more tryed and test ways of working with hormones than you and they have not been able to breed ST what makes you think you will be able to breed the ST were other MUST have tryed and failed
 
Can't wait to see the results of your work JD! I'm sure you've already considered this but pls let us know what type of behavioural changes you notice prior to any spawning activity. I'm glad someone is making an open attempt at this and you have my full support (be it only verbal and moral) Good luck to you!
 
JD7.62;1807454; said:
Thanks. We already have the correct hormones needed to induce egg and sperm developement, the right chemicals to keep the fertilized eggs seperated and the equipment needed to harvest the sperm and eggs and the rearing tanks, all we need now are some large STs.

The only critical info we need is size at maturity. If we inject the fish and they are not mature we can permanently damage their reproductive systems.

I have a 12" NTT that Im sure is mature based on max size so I may go ahead and inject the fish with the hormones and see how he/she reacts. Maybe if I can prove with photos that we can indeed get the eggs/sperm some one would like to help us out financially for a little kick back! ;)

BTW, the fish will react to the injections as it is universal. It is commonly used on barramundi which is the closest related fish to dats (I think) that I can find information on inregards to breeding in this manner.


We have high hopes we will get fertilized eggs, its the survival rate that could be a problem. We have no idea what its like. generall though with perches it is good but we will see.

Where abouts in the US are you at, JD7.62?

To be exactly sure, you catheter. Females probably loaded with eggs at 10-11 inches. Age not considered, they don't grow that fast. And then, age plays a part in egg quality, I'm sure you know.

Males? Usually earlier and not that it matters, you don't inject if you don't find milt so you are safe there. Strip check all the males.

If you are using LHRH based hormones, inject 10 x less than the recommended dosage. You are pretty safe there.

I think your concern might be on the feeding. How to feed fries that are so small and tiny? Rotifers gut loaded and stuff i'm sure you know as well but I think if you are going intensive you may give up before you make something economically viable out of ST.

If i can advise, try it low tech after the high tech in-vitro part.
 
LongQ;1813459; said:
Where abouts in the US are you at, JD7.62?

To be exactly sure, you catheter. Females probably loaded with eggs at 10-11 inches. Age not considered, they don't grow that fast. And then, age plays a part in egg quality, I'm sure you know.

Males? Usually earlier and not that it matters, you don't inject if you don't find milt so you are safe there. Strip check all the males.

If you are using LHRH based hormones, inject 10 x less than the recommended dosage. You are pretty safe there.

I think your concern might be on the feeding. How to feed fries that are so small and tiny? Rotifers gut loaded and stuff i'm sure you know as well but I think if you are going intensive you may give up before you make something economically viable out of ST.

If i can advise, try it low tech after the high tech in-vitro part.

That is our main concern right now and unlike alot of people on here, we realize there is no real demand for these fish to do something like this.

We will be using LHRHa. One thing is dosage, if I remember correctly, it is around 1microML/1kg of fish? If so, and because we dont have the most sophisticated of equipment, it is going to be hard to dose a fish that weighs maybe .5kg.


I will be getting contact with you to work out a few kinks we have run across! BTW, I am in Louisville, KY and my buddy is currently working on his Masters in fisheries Mgt at Arkansas Pine Bluff. We will be doing this over the summer at my house.

Islander and Bryantt, thanks for your words of support and encouragement.

Lets all just hope for the best that STs really are actually pretty easy to spawn! My personal goal isnt to gain money, but to get that "perfect" ST! Of course I dont want to waste alot of money either!
 
a baby??? no no mate!..SOME baby.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com