L. Hecqui Surprise

[golsama]

Jim was kind enough to give me his Wild Hecqui pair during ACA. I put them in a 15 gallon tank with sand bottom and 5 shells each. I put a smallish rock in the middle to give them a sight break since the larger of the pair was a little aggressive towards the other at first. The male stays on one side of the tank and the female stays on the other. In the past couple of weeks I have seen them together very briefly only to separate back to their own sides. Today I spotted a cloud of fry around the female. There must be 40+ fry (I counted up to 33 and gave in... more kept appearing). She has them corralled in an area between two shells and will gather them all into her shell if she feel threatened. While I was trying to feed BBS she kept attacking the baster I was using. She actually knocked it out of my hand a little, LOL. One tough momma.

 

[Reel Addiction]

Congrats, man thats alot of fry!

 

[minifoot77]

congrats

 

[guarddog5]

Sam,

I'm happy you're enjoying them and glad they spawned for you!

 

[Leffler817]

Congrats Sam! :happy0180:

 

[golsama]

I shot a couple of quick videos of the fry today just before lights out.

The first video is of the female's side of the tank. She is guarding the shell and fry diligently. She will allow the fry to swim freely in her territory but keeps them on her side. If she feels threatened she quickly herds them all back into her shell. There are more fry than what you see in the video but they were too difficult to see so I just filmed the ones closer to the front.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN9sDbk6uXc

The second video is close-ups of the fry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaN8aWmqCrs

 

[mscichlid]

Nice vids. What kind of gravel is that?

 

[golsama]

Its CaribSea African Cichlid Sand. Now, I buy the cheap stuff (pool filter sand, lol)

 

[yourfishstuff]

Congrats! Shelldweller fry sure start out small.

 

[golsama]

My L. Multifasciatus fry and L. Ornatipinnis fry are even smaller when they start free swimming out of the shells.

 

[Spine]

Congrats on the fry.

 

[yourfishstuff]

Yes, indeed, my multifasciatus fry were very tiny. But, I would only get about a dozen or so fry per spawn. I wonder if Hecqui spawns are typically larger? 40+ fry is a nice sized spawn.

 

[toddnbecka]

Now THAT'S a nice surprise, looks like quite a spawn.