DiscusnAfricans
Past President
My Lwanda breeding colony has been dormant regarding breeding for the past few months. The heater on the tank stopped working but I hadn’t had time to buy a new heater. The colony consists of 2 happy males, and 7 large females. A few weeks ago I put a new heater on the tank and started feeding heavier.
About 2 weeks before ACA, I noticed a holding female. About a week later, I noticed another holding female. I didn’t have time to strip them before the trip, so I decided I’d strip them when I got back. I didn’t want to lose any fry, so I stripped them last night when I got back from out trip.
I pulled the first holding female I noticed and stripped her. The fry still had most of their yolk sac left, so they were wigglers or hoppers. I wasn’t worried as I have extra breeder nets around just in case. I pulled the second holding female to strip, and all eggs came out. I realized this must have been a recent spawn that occurred while I was away. Luckily I had an egg tumbler sitting around for such a situation.
I looked through the tank and found a third holding female. I stripped her and released free-swimming fry. I placed them in a breeder net to grow out until they were ready for a 10 gallon tank. I added one of the wigglers, but one of the fry started attacking the yolk, so I realized this wouldn’t work. I had to put the eggs and wigglers in the tumbler.
Each female had about 35-40 fry/eggs. The wigglers and eggs went into an egg tumbler until the first batch is large enough to separate and add to the breeder net. It will be interesting to see the fry development. I was surprised how large of a factor temperature played in the reproduction rate.
I realized I needed to look at each female closely to determine how far along the fry development process was. Females holding fry have a much darker throat than females holding eggs. I looked through the other tanks and found 1 Ndoka female ready to strip, and 2 Blue Orchid females holding. Apparently 5 days with no light or food lead to hot fish action.
I will have plenty of Aulonocara sp. ‘Lwanda’ ready for sale in a few months. Extra fry were a pleasant surprise on my return from a great ACA trip.
About 2 weeks before ACA, I noticed a holding female. About a week later, I noticed another holding female. I didn’t have time to strip them before the trip, so I decided I’d strip them when I got back. I didn’t want to lose any fry, so I stripped them last night when I got back from out trip.
I pulled the first holding female I noticed and stripped her. The fry still had most of their yolk sac left, so they were wigglers or hoppers. I wasn’t worried as I have extra breeder nets around just in case. I pulled the second holding female to strip, and all eggs came out. I realized this must have been a recent spawn that occurred while I was away. Luckily I had an egg tumbler sitting around for such a situation.
I looked through the tank and found a third holding female. I stripped her and released free-swimming fry. I placed them in a breeder net to grow out until they were ready for a 10 gallon tank. I added one of the wigglers, but one of the fry started attacking the yolk, so I realized this wouldn’t work. I had to put the eggs and wigglers in the tumbler.
Each female had about 35-40 fry/eggs. The wigglers and eggs went into an egg tumbler until the first batch is large enough to separate and add to the breeder net. It will be interesting to see the fry development. I was surprised how large of a factor temperature played in the reproduction rate.
I realized I needed to look at each female closely to determine how far along the fry development process was. Females holding fry have a much darker throat than females holding eggs. I looked through the other tanks and found 1 Ndoka female ready to strip, and 2 Blue Orchid females holding. Apparently 5 days with no light or food lead to hot fish action.
I will have plenty of Aulonocara sp. ‘Lwanda’ ready for sale in a few months. Extra fry were a pleasant surprise on my return from a great ACA trip.
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