Breeding Nicarguenses?

[Mogo]

Has anyone ever bred Herichthys nicaraguenses? If anyone could give me some tips and tricks for these guys, it would be much appreciated.

I have 1 male and 3 females (although only 2 of the ladies are viable, the other ones an old lady). Every three weeks they go through the whole digging and cleaning routine when the females start showing their breeding dress, and start getting all frisky with the male, but they never lay eggs. The first young female I brought home did mate within two days of bringing her home, but unfortunately, I had to bring down my pH to 7.6 and dH to 5, to match the LFS and the eggs never hatched. Haven't had any luck since.

My water parameters are pH 8.0, dH 10 and temp is 81 F.

I have read that they like to spawn under a rock, but I have not built them any caves so far, as they take digging to the extreme and am worried about a massive collapse.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Mogo

 

[StiX]

Theres an article on them in this months PFK (practical fish keeping magazine if u dont know)

 

[Jamnog]

oh cool i should tell my news agent i havet read pfk in years would do me good to catch up on all that. i have to say i wouldnt know anything at all about fish if i hadnt read that along with those dinky books you get with the fish. phill used ot buy it each month and i used to read it.

 

[Mogo]

Thanks StiX,

Unfortunately, I have never seen the magazine on sale anywhere around here, in Canada. I tried going to the website, but it appears that article is not available online I'm still searching around the net to see if anywhere around here, within an hours drive, carries the magazine but it looks like I might be out of luck...

Thanks again
Mogo

 

[semper fi]

nics are great fish. not too aggressive as central americans go. the females are brighter colored than the males. the males grow larger than the females and have larger heads. like to dig though. you could try to silicone the peices of rocks together so they do not crush the fish. that is what i do with the devils tank.

semper fi

 

[Mogo]

Semper,

Yeah, I love them. They're so interesting, always gotta be doing something, eating, digging, eating, picking up the plants and dropping them on the other side of the tank, eating. My male has a really BIG flat head, and if you catch him at the right angle, he looks like a grumpy old man

The silicone is a great idea, thanks, I had never really thought about trying that. I'll probably head out to the LFS some time this weekend or this week and pick up some nice flat pieces of pagoda rock. The flatter the better I would think, more surface contact for adhesion.

Mogo

 

[semper fi]

a little cost cutting trick is to not buy the aquarium sealant. go to a home improvement center or hardware and get clear 100% pure silicone sealant. the seanant in the lfs is a small tube for about 10.00. the other is about 3.00 for a much larger tube and is perfectly safe for fish as long as it is 100% silicone. if it does not say so on the tube, do not buy. use it on my aquariums with no problem to the fish.

found this for you

http/www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSum...ry.cfm?ID=12321

semper fi

 

[Mogo]

Thanks again Semper,

The thing is, I know most of the stuff about the actual species, as I had a male once before, a few years back, after he passed, I got a new one, also a male and decided to make it a species tank and get him some females in hopes that I would be able to get some love action going on . I'm having a hard time in finding information on how to "inspire" them to actually mate, only keep reading that it is quite difficult. I've even tried playing Barry White for them, but still to no avail. They undergo all the courtship and all every three weeks, but never finish the job, maybe the ladies are just a bunch of teases

I'll definately take your advice and pick up the silicone at a hardware store. That will save me a few bucks, as we all know the ridiculous price of rocks. I have this one rock in that tank, a lace rock, and when the LFS weighed it out it was $70 CDN. The rock was so interesting that I just had to have it.

Mogo

 

[semper fi]

another great trick for rocks (shhhh....don't let my husband know i did this!) is to wait til the hubby is asleep. go out to the garage and get a dril and a large masonry bit. make your caves in the rocks! works great. just got to think of how i can get the openings bigger for the larger fish.

i think these fish are about 2 years old when they start to spawn.

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...p?article_id=53

thought you might find this interesting. still looking for info specific to the nics.

semper fi

 

[Mogo]

That's funny Semper, but why wait till the hubby's asleep?

For some reason, the link is not working, I tried copying to my browser and I keep getting a time out error. Don't know what's going on there. Oh, never mind, just tried it again and it worked.

The nic's have to be two years old before they spawn? My male is around 3 years old now, was about an inch and a half when I brought him home, now he's about 9 inches SL, with a caudal fin of about 2 inches.
The young females are about a year and a half old now, one a little younger than the other, and are both about the same size, around 4 inches SL. Mogo lives on the right side of the tank, and Lola lives on the left side of the tank and the male goes back and forth between the two of them. They fight when they both end up at the center point at the same time, nothing serious, just the flaring of the gills and it looks like they are having a tug of war with an invisible rope. The old female just kind of goes where ever she wants, no one really bothers her. But from what I know, once the ladies have eggs, they will form a maternal group and care for their eggs together. Makes sense, cause the old lady always tries to help the young girls in the nest building, they usually let her, but sometimes chase her off.

I'm not quite sure how old the old female is. I bought her at the size she is now, she was in pretty bad shape when I brought her home. I'm guessing that she is old, based on her behaviour, she's not very active, and by the fact that her stump of a left pelvic fin did not regenerate (this was missing when I brought her home). This could be because she is old, or it could be that she was poorly cared for. She does put on her breeding dress when the other females do, but she makes no efforts in building her own nest, or no effort in trying to lure and attract the male.

Thanks again Semper for taking the time in helping me. Maybe I'll PM Stix and see if there is a way to get that article. You're in Michigan, right Semper? You ever seen the Practical Fishkeeping magazine around there? Never seen anyone carrying it around here..go figure, the one time that there is an article about these guys, it's halfway across the globe..

Mogo

 

[semper fi]

yes i have seen the practical fishkeeping magazine here. there is also a link online about a subscription. i bet if you emailed them they would send you just the one article. what about a larger library that has a good selection of periodicals? might try there.

could be that she is past here prime. happens to the best of us women. think she may be in pmfs stage? (putting up with male fish s**t) thought that one up myself, feel free to use it!

oh yeah, your other question, hubby gets so mad when i use his toys! was making a rather large cake for 150 people for my mother in law's birthday last year. stupid thing took 15 boxes of cake mix. my thought? go to home depot and get a new bucket used for paint and a paint mixing attachment for a power drill. he comes home and there i am in the kitchen using his manly tools to mix this cake together. very upset!

semper fi

 

[Mogo]

Hahahaha Semper,

I don't know what's funnier, the cake mix or the PMFS.

Well, I tried to get the perfect angle to demonstrate the grumpy old man face, but as you can tell by the photo, Hoombubbala is a little camera shy. My hubby finally found the tri-pod for me, so I'll set up the camera by the tank for a few days and let the fishies get used to it.

Still haven't had a chance to get out and pick up some silicone and rocks, got a crew of University students here painting the window trim outside, and gotta stick around while they are here.

Mogo