Dave Sanchez
Orlando, Fl
--- Mysteryman <bestfish-in-alaweb.com> wrote:
> David Sanchez wrote:
>
> >I collected some Notropis hypselopterus. I am very
> >intrested in breeding them. Can anyone offer any
> >advice?
> >
> >Dave
> >
> >
> First of all, the name is Pteronotropis, not
> Notropis, so knowing that
> may help improve your results on a google search or
> whatever.
>
> Otherwise, boy, did you come to the right place. I'm
> sure that no less
> than two dozen of us have spawned Sailfins, and I'm
> equally sure that
> they'd all agree that it's pretty easy. In other
> words, you couln't have
> picked a better fish to start with in this group.
>
> Some guys will quibble about what is necessary and
> what isn't, but here
> are some things which will help:
>
> 1-- These fish spawn when the water warms up after
> the winter. Actually,
> they'll spawn a few times a year, but late spring
> seems to be the
> biggest season for them.
> 2-- To apply that in aquarium terms, cool the tank
> down to simulate
> winter. Cool it down into the 60's and leave it
> there for a month or
> two, with the photoperiod down to 8.5 hours a day.
> During this time,
> feed the fish very well on good foods. They will
> spawn on ordinary fish
> flakes, but adding some live or frozen stuff will
> certainly help.
> 3-- Simulate spring by letting the temp creep back
> up a degree every few
> days and increase the photoperiod by 15 minutes
> every other day. this
> will stimulate hormone production in the fish which
> will in turn ripen
> eggs and sperm. The fins of the males will grow as
> well.
>
> The tank itself: These guys will spawn in a
> 10-gallon tank, but not as
> well as they will in a 20 or 30 long. This fish is
> fairly picky about
> it's environment; as you probably noticed when
> collecting them, didn't
> you see how they were only found in certain little
> places? You want to
> try to simulate that kind of place in your tank. One
> surefire way I
> found to do it is to use a long tank, and put the
> filter on one end of
> it. On that same end, the tank is lit and planted. (
> a full hood won't
> work for that, so I use a 10-gallon light on a 30
> gallon tank. You'll
> notice that the fish will tend to stay on the darker
> half of the tank,
> away from the strong water current but yet away from
> the dead spot on
> the extreme opposite end. As for substrate,
> pea-gravel works well. The
> gaps in that gravel are big enough for the eggs to
> fall down into, safe
> from being eaten. While the fish prefer sandy
> bottoms in nature, that
> lets them eat the eggs too easily, and they sure
> will!
> The water should have a pH around 6.8 and a
> temperature of 74. Using a
> piece of driftwood or some amazon extract to make
> the water a little
> tannic will help a lot, and the water hardness
> should be low to lower
> medium.
> Water changes stimulate spawning.
> I find that making water changes with distilled
> water a few times a week
> ( 15%) as the temperature approaches 73-74 sets
> them off spawing like
> crazy. The same is true for many other Pteronotropis
> species. They spawn
> for a few days and finally stop, but a water change
> will make them start
> again, and you can usually get quite a number of
> spawns out of them for
> a couple of weeks like that.
>
> Spawning-- these fish are egg-scatterers. A male or
> group of males will
> chase a ripe female around the tank, doing their
> little courtship
> dances. When the fish get near the glass walls of
> the tank, they can
> feel the change in water movement, with their
> weberian apparatus, caused
> by the mantle of relatively still water coating the
> glass. This is what
> they're looking for, and when they find a good spot,
> the male(s) will
> poke the female with his snout, which has some
> little spawning
> tubercules on it, to stimulate her to drop her eggs.
> Sometimes the male
> will wrap himself around the female and spray his
> milt while she drops
> the eggs in a big bunch, and sometimes she'll only
> drop a few and the
> males will scramble to fertilize them before the
> chase resumes.
> You've probably noticed how these fish tend to hang
> down in the lower
> 1/3 of the water column? Spawning fish really hug
> the bottom, so if you
> should notice a few fish swimming on the bottom well
> below the others,
> pay attention because they may be spawning or
> getting ready.
>
> Theeggs hatch in about 3 days. The fry hide for the
> first day, and then
> make a mad dash for the surface. You'll see them all
> along the surface,
> up against the glass. They are surprisingly strong
> and agile swimmers
> for their age and size, which is about half the
> girth of a baby guppy.
> Since the fry stay-in-the top and the adults stay at
> the bottom, the fry
> don't get eaten as much as you might expect. Still,
> it's a good idea to
> scoop them up with a jar and move them to a rearing
> tank where they can
> be fed well. A week of greenwater suits them well,
> and after that first
> week they will eat flake food ground into flour with
> gusto. At that
> point they're as easy to raise as guppies.
>
> This method has proven pretty much foolproof for me,
> but there are
> numerous people here who have spawned them easily
> without going to
> anywhere near that much trouble. Considering that,
> you should probably
> try the methods the others are sure to describe very
> soon and see how
> that works for you before trying my method. Central
> Florida doesn't get
> as cold in winter as South Alabama, so your local
> fish may be a lot
> easier to please without any wintering period
>
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