[AGA-Member] SAE Breeding Behavior?

["Kirsten Klinghammer" <klingham@pacbell.net>]

I hope no one minds me asking about fish, but as aquatic plant nuts are the
most likely to have Siamese Algae Eaters (Crossocheilus siamensis)  in their
tanks, I though I'd start with you ;-)  Mostly I'd like to know if anyone
has had successful spawning of SAE's, as I haven't found any records of it
yet.   The best resources I've found so far have been:

http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/ 

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?ID=50435
<http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?ID=50435&genusname=Cross
ocheilus&speciesname=siamensis>
&genusname=Crossocheilus&speciesname=siamensis 

 

I have a number of SAE's in several tanks, most of them still quite young
and small.  In my 38 gallon tank, however, I have three SAE's, the largest
of whom is about 5 inches long.  The next largest is perhaps 4 1/2  inches
or so, and the third is just a hair smaller.  The two largest ones have been
occasionally chasing one another around, but they don't seem very aggressive
about it (i.e., maybe it's a beginning stage of courtship?).  Occasionally
the two largest ones will have their stripes go pale while they're
interacting with one another, and they never seem aggressive when this is
going on.  Yesterday the two largest SAE's were hanging around some large
Cryptocoryne lutea.  One had very pale stripes, while the largest one was
positively glowing with yellowish highlights and extremely dark stripes.
They were both doing the wiggly-fin dance with each other (that fin flutter
that seems to serve for species identification and bonding or whatever
else), but the largest one escalated to incredibly intense fin-wiggling
along with body gyrations which kept bringing its vent in contact with the
edge of a C. lutea leaf.  I didn't observe any eggs actually being laid, nor
did I see any ventral contact between the two, but this could only have been
spawning behavior.

 

Tonight I'm seeing some more interactions between the two, with the
medium-sized one approaching the largest one, them both swimming vertically
while the medium-sized one turned pale.  Then they both took off to the
corner with the C. lutea again.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll keep
this up and that they actually will spawn!

 

FYI, the tank is heavily planted with crypts, vallisneria types, java moss,
and a few stem plants.  The pH stays around 7.9 - 8.0, and the water has a
carbonate hardness of about 14.   Tankmates are a Royal Farlowella
(Sturisoma panamense), two large male angelfish, six otos of at least two
different species, and five adult Corydoras sterbai who have been spawning
like crazy this spring.  There are also an unknown and probably fairly large
number of cory fry which keep appearing once they get about an inch long or
so.   The SAE's love eating the live California blackworms I feed the corys
and the angels, and they have also been nipping the fins of the angels (but
I upped their supplementary feeding of different algae tablets,frozen foods,
and Spectrum wafers, so the fin-nipping has died again down now).   The
SAE's look healthy as all get out, and they have a lovely sheen, even when
they're not out-and-out-glowing like the largest one often is.

 

So here's hoping on the possibility of a successful spawning.  If any of you
have any further information, I'm all eyes and ears!

 

Thanks!

 

Kirsten

 

 

Kirsten Klinghammer

Rescue, California, USA

 

 

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