Tropical Fish Forums

[unissuh]

Bought a few of these at the start of the year to try my luck with, or rather, I was challenged by a friend to attempt breeding these. Ended up with 3 males and a female. Nice fish, very territorial though. Soon had a dominant male after quite a bit of sparring.





Soon started to see courtship between male and female. Involves the male performing a very cute see-saw motion and nudging the female mid-body.



I think spawning has been going on for a while, but only just started to see these yesterday:



Thats about as far as I've gotten, but I think the biggest problem is going to be collecting more than a few eggs. They hide them all over the tank and it's practically impossible to find them. Took me half an hour to find 3. Going to have to take a more controlled approach to spawning that doesn't involve me hunting in a fairly heavily planted tank.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[deborah_claro]

Well, I know this is an "old" post but it's new to me. What beautiful fish! Pencilfish are lively and interesting to keep. Wish I could find some like yours around here.

So, how did this project turn out?


Deborah
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[unissuh]

I ended up going on holiday, so never raised any fry. I've had these fish on the backburner for a while now, was focusing on Otocinclus mainly. Am just about to revisit them though...set up the spawning tank yesterday so hopefully will have further progress to report soon.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[deborah_claro]

That's great! It would be nice to be able to buy some fry from you if and when but I suppose the export laws prevent it? It's not a forbidden species so maybe it's possible?

I started to read your O. cocama profile in Submissions. A long and thorough report which I have not finished but am working on!

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[unissuh]

Actually I'm not sure if there are any export laws here (mainly import)...but I'd have to go through a transhipper or something. Got to wait until I have enough fry to spare! Not sure I want to get into the shipping business though, maybe if I become a more professional hobbyist.

Still no second round luck with those cocama either, though I have about 300 regular Otocinclus fry going at the moment. I can't help but think the triggers must be different. Going through another dry season simulation right now to see if that helps.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light