Australe pair

Hello everyone!

I have a large pair of Australe and Ive never been able to successfully raise any fry from the eggs that they've laid, the eggs always fungus. I breed them in the exact way as a pair of Gardneri and the Gardneri have several fry, so I assumed the male Australe was infertile. I have a friend who lent me his male to try and breed with, but his male is very small in comparison to my female, the same body lengths including his finnage and half as wide as her, when I introduced him the female was flicking him with her body. Will she kill him? and do you think they'l be able to breed? I know its not much help without a picture but sorry I cant get one. This male cant die because it was only borrowed to me and I think it cost alot.
(@Herve you havent been replying to my messages, I hope all is well)

Thank you,
Mitchell

 

Hi Mitchell,

If your eggs fungus what have you been doing with them, because there is no reason to think that your australe is not fertile, I have yet to see an infertile australe and they are easy to breed. Do you keep the eggs in the mop or are you trying to raise them separately. What are you feeding the adults, how large is the aquarium, which filtration are you using. Please answer these questions and I may be able to help.

In principle, I do not think that the female will kill your borrowed small male, but I actually do not think that your male is the problem, I think that you are making a mistake in your aquarium and how you are keeping them.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Ive tried water with a ph between 7 and 8 (tap), tried mixing in some rain water ph 6.5-7, temperatures from 22 to 25 degrees celcius. Ive incubated eggs in water on spawning mops, and just hand picked, tried incubating out of the water on spawning mops and PFP. Only recently got some peat moss so I will try that. The female's egg count is slowly reducing as I think she is getting old. Filters never make strong currents, usually a sponge filter or just bubbles. I feed them a mix of flakes, your GS2, BBS and time to time some bloodworms.

Thanks,
Mitchell

 

Hi Mitch,

You need to change a number of things before this is going to work. The nutrition needs to be spot on for breeding of australe particularly if they are getting a little on in the years. Feed them exclusively with bbs for a week and feed them lots of it. Then after that feed still with a lot of bbs, but no more flakes, only a little GS2 once per day and some bloodworms every second day. Your female needs this to put on the bulk for good egg production. Keep on using the sponge filter and do not only use bubbles, there must be some biological filtration. Then do not use tap water if this means that your pH is above seven, use some rainwater instead. Also you can use some peat, say two tablespoons (what sort of peat is this?) you can put this in a corner filter with some filter wool and a few stones to weight done the filter. Then I need to know how much light this tank gets, it needs very low light in actual fact. Then I would advise that you have floating mops in the tank, and that you let a few lie down on the bottom of the tank. Some australe males force the female to spawn on the bottom, others in the floating mops. Whilst feeding the fishes as described above, check the mops every second day, squeeze the water out of the mops, but do not remove the eggs and don't touch them with your fingers, just check eggs numbers, put the mops back where they were in the tank and leave the eggs in the tank. Often they are much better off in the tank with the parents and not removed. Also the peat releases antifungal components so this will help. Report back after a few days to inform me what is going on. What I am aiming at is that after about two weeks, when you see enough eggs in the tank, you remove the parents and then the eggs will hatch in that tank and you can raise them. The less manipulation with the eggs the better.

Keep me updated.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks for all the info.
Water is 50% rainwater ATM. I have many sunken mops just need some corks to get some floating. Is Sera super peat okay? I can only get some on the weekend, Ill get a corner filter at the same time. Is it okay if I leave out the sponge filter and only have the corner filter? I dont know how Im going to do it but I have to try and fit peat, filter wool, rocks to weigh it down and some biological media in the canister. The aquarium has a lid to stop jumping and thus there is very little light entering it. Im already starting 2 BS cultures daily for killifish and other fish, now Ill start 3 .

 

OK fine, sounds good what you have done. Given what you explain, I would recommend that you just simply put the peat directly into the tank and that you let it settle to the bottom. Then you do not need to worry about the corner filter, leave it undisturbed. In the meantime just start feeding the bs and ask your dad to drink a bottle of wine so that you can get the cork for your mops.

Much fun. Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Ive done everything except adding the peat, I still need to get it. Since my last post not 1 egg has been laid. I have been feeding the BBS. I have about 5 spawning mops in the aquarium, would it be better if i reduce this to 1. My Gardneri setup only has 1 and it works. The female might be hiding from the male behind the others.

 

Don't remove the mops, he can find the female if he wants to but the extra cover of the mops is important. Just feed more bs and do a couple of repeated 10-20% water changes over a period of days and just watch them, they will begin to spawn, believe me.

Gardneri are like rats or rabbits, they will breed in a puddle on the floor, but not so australe, this is a little more complicated, but also not that much really. Just perservere.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

This morning I watched the male display to the female, enhancing his colours and spending alot of time around her. Just a bit slower than I remember, when he was younger he would chase her around the aquarium so quickly you couldnt keep your eyes on them. This afternoon I added a tablespoon of peat, its still floating, Ill probably add more as time progresses. I also did a 20% water change. I was going to check for eggs, but I only got home at night and its a mission to search for eggs in the dark, so I left them undisturbed. I will check tomorrow.

 

Sounds promising, feed more bs and be patient.....

 

I checked for eggs this morning. I found 3 whole and about 5 squashed, which is weird because I barely put pressure on the mops when I squeze water out. The squashed eggs are very soft and are basically like indented eggs. I know Australe are different to Gardneri but Im going to make this comparison, Gardneri eggs are even with nothing inside when I collect them, the Australe eggs have a thickened wall on one side and what looks like 2 or 3 tiny air bubbles that have collected in an area within the egg. I havent tried peat incubation with the real stuff which I only got recently, so I put one egg in some peat to see if it will develop. Fingers crossed.

 

Mitch,

You blew it! Those squashed eggs were the ones that were laid this morning. Australe eggs take about 12 hours to harden enough so that you can squeeze the mop. What looks like bubbles are fat droplets inside the eggs and that is fine. My advice is not to take out the eggs. All this fiddling just makes them more susceptible to infection. Forget about peat incubation as well. What you must do is to take the mops out carefully and just let the water drip out and then carefully check for eggs without pressing water out of the mop. In that way you do not crush fresh eggs. Check for eggs and put the mops back into the tank with the parents again. Then you can watch the eggs develop as you take the mops out ever so often and when you see highly developed embryos, then take the mop and put it into an ice cream bakkie with aeration and then let the eggs hatch there, they then hatch within a day or two and then you can take the mop out of the bakkie again and start feeding with bs. Keep on feeding more bs to the parents and follow instructions, I see we are progressing!

 

Sorry for highjacking here.
When hatching the eggs must it be aerated?

 

Yes Jacques, aeration would be important.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Yes Jacques, aeration would be important.

Kind regards,

Dirk