Accidental whiptail catfish breeding

[chka]

4 days ago in my 180l community tank I found whiptail male protecting eggs on the glass. I did not mean to breed them but since it happened I will try to save them.

 

[Lindy]

What fantastic footage of babies!

 

[Claire]

We used to breed these. The fry are easy to raise, if a little sensitive to any poor water conditions (ie don't skip your water change!). They are easily fed on courgette, algae wafers or pleco pellets such as tetra or new era. They grow quickly at first up to about 1-1.5" and then grow more slowly. If any have malformed tail extensions once at this size then they will not grow out of that, so you may consider culling as you would with any breeding young to get the best stock to sell 🙂

 

[chka]

They are easily fed on courgette, algae wafers or pleco pellets such as tetra or new era.

So infusoria, Liquifry, artemia are not for them?

 

[Claire]

No, once they hatch they will be complete miniatures of the parents as with nearly all pleco species and will be able to eat the same food as the parents right away. They will no longer be guarded by the parents but are quite hardy in that they have their full pleco armour 🙂

 

[chka]

It was about 50 eggs at the beginning. Half of them dissolved. And it seems half of fry escaped the net after hatching. I attached breeding net in normal position and now it seems 8-10 fry are alive. No good photos seems possible 🙁

 

[chka]

unfortunately all fry died and dissolved in second week 🙁 I did not notice any growth either. Seems like they did not eat anything...

 

[Claire]

I would advise to leave them with the parents in the main tank instead of trying to separate them next time. We raise plecos in tanks with neon tetras and they leave them alone. They are too tough to eat and when eggs the male will protect them from other fish (but not snails, esp assassins!). The fry can then graze in the tank on algaes instead of trying to immediately get them onto prepared foods. What did you try feeding them?[DOUBLEPOST=1400602217][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, keep an eye around the rest of the tank. If many escaped at the start, there may well be survivors hiding in the plants.

 

[chka]

I would advise to leave them with the parents in the main tank instead of trying to separate them next time. We raise plecos in tanks with neon tetras and they leave them alone. They are too tough to eat and when eggs the male will protect them from other fish (but not snails, esp assassins!). The fry can then graze in the tank on algaes instead of trying to immediately get them onto prepared foods. What did you try feeding them?

I leaved them in same tank but put them in breading net. I put some java moss inside, I added pleco pellets, courgette, also I was dropping liquifry inside. Breading net was placed in good water current since I read these species required good current. Without breeding net I afraid they would be eaten by Angels, Siamese algae eaters, red fin tetras, or dwarf puffers. That community tank quite populated 🙂 Anyway half of fry escaped the net when I tried to put them inside but non of them seems to be survived either...

 

[Claire]

I'm not sure as we always leave ours in the tank. Then they can access any algae that is in the tank, as opposed to the breeding net which is very sterile. I would definitely not use liquifry though as it very quickly pollutes the water. I have raised many pleco and cichlid species and never used it as I find it very messy.

 

[sciencefiction]

Those nets are death traps for sensitive fry. The net gets clogged by biofilm and stuff flying from the flow so eventually the water inside gets way worse quality than in the tank water surrounding it. Even guppy fry won't do great inside them unless you pro-actively flush the water several times daily. Best is a mature tank with no predators.

 

[chka]

there was another attempt. This time I put newly hatched fry in two mature acvariums with small fish and shrims. First week fry felt good, activly eating algae from glass and leaves. I thought they iven become a little bigger. But then they disappeared in both tanks 🙁

 

[Claire]

You could try, in the tanks you are wanting to put the fry in, putting a lot of light over so that there is lots of algae built up for them and growing for them to eat as it seems that they aren't moving well onto prepared foods.
I don't know if you already tried this as well but if you boil the thin slice of courgette for a few minutes to soften it before adding it to the tank, it will sink on its own and will also smell better in the water. This can encourage many wild caught plecs that I've had to eat, so may work for the fry.