Originally published in 2012 as oldafricahand on my blog westafricanforests.blogspot.com, lost when hotmail died. This blog does repeat some material below.
We have a breeding pair of A. celiae in a 10 gallon aquarium filled about 2/3rds with aged peat water. The fish eat flightless
Drosophila melanogaster and brine shrimp. The tank has a hinged glass Versa Top lid, with scotch tape covering the airline entrance. The water has had the Calcium and Magnesium ions replaced with Sodium ion via an ion-exchange resin, and so is moderately soft. In the tanks are two light green mops made of synthetic yarn; they are long enough to extend over the floor of the Aquaeon All-glass aquarium. Also in the tank is a Pyrex dish with 1" of peat; the peat was boiled prior to introduction. Both of those media are in the back of the tank. In the foreground is a shallow tray of large pebbles, say 1/2 centimeters in their long dimension. The tank also has a small Penn-Plax box filter from Walmart; it has gravel in it.
I check the eggs in one mop every other day. Checking only one at a time provides cover and minimal disturbance. The eggs are amber, probably from the peat. Usually I'll get 5-8 medium sized eggs; not a lot, but enough for me to process before work. By contrast the A. primigenium and Epiplatys dageti produce about 15 eggs per batch.
I remove the mop eggs and place them in water, in a shallow Pyrex bowl. Then I cover the dish with an opaque top with holes burned in it, and slide the covered bowl onto a shaded shelf near the floor of the fishroom. I can see the eggs with my reading glasses. Meanwhile babies from eggs I did not remove swim around happily with their parents.
No comments:
Post a Comment