RE: [Killietalk] Re: odd things in my spawning tank

[Chris <cgraseck at optonline_net>]

Diane,

If you want to see your J. floridae spawn, just keep a male and female
separated for a few days.  When you put them together you will see
instantaneous spawning (provided conditions are to their liking), at
least this is my experience.  I have never seen fish spawn on command
like these guys will.  I spawned mine in warm, around 80F, soft water.
The spawning tank was shallow, probably only 4" deep, with lots of Java
Moss and H. polysperma. 

As for your ostracods, some fish will eat them.  I had a male
Simpsonichthys adornatus that loved them.  My ostracods are up to 3mm
long.  Some fish love them, others spit them right back out.  They are
not completely harmless.  They are capable of damaging stem plants and
will kill ramshorn snails by scraping holes in their shells.  Some of my
daphnia cultures are infested with these ostracods and the snails fare
very poorly in those containers.

Cheers,
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: killietalk-bounces+cgraseck=optonline_net at aka.org
[mailto:killietalk-bounces+cgraseck=optonline_net at aka.org] On Behalf Of
Diane Brown
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 1:02 PM
To: killietalk at aka_org
Subject: [Killietalk] Re: odd things in my spawning tank

Thanks to the helpful microfauna experts out there!
I believe they are cyclops and ostracods (and I hope they're tasty to 
my fish!).  There were excellent photos at  the following site:

http://members.aol.com/moresciencestuff/microlife.html

I'm not sure why Wright had trouble accessing my albums on the aka.org 
members area site; checking it myself today, the first screen says 
"contains 1 item" but clicking on that leads to 2 pages of pictures, 
including the three of the cool ostracods and cyclops.

And I'll try to make the tank homier next time I put the flagfish in 
it.  The spawning tank may have been a bit too spartan to make them 
comfortable--it just had a bit of peat in a pot, and lots and lots of 
java moss.  Right now I've got several pairs on algae patrol in my 
community tanks, and although the pairs tend to stick together, I 
haven't seen any specific spawning activity nor gotten any 
spontaneously appearing fry, unlike my gardneri and a. loehnbergii.   
But the gardneri get next crack at the spawning tank, so the flagfish 
will have to wait for a bit.


Diane Brown in St. Louis


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