Re: fish husbandry, dithers and predators and explantation.

[coenga@infonie.fr (Dujardin Colin)]

Hello again,

> I've just spawned my P taeniatus moliwe pair with part of their
> precedent brood in the tank. I won't do this again, because the
> juveniles are the most efficient predators of their little bros and
> sisters. They share the same part of the tank, darting off whem the
> parents chase them, but their's allways a little one sneaking and
> lurking. The other dithers are A australe, D rerio, H axelrodi, and they
> are very well put under control by the parents.

Following the thread. The dithers were not under control !
I wrote that the P taeniatus had learned, sure they did, but the dithers
learned too. learned to become the predators that they were not for the
precedent spawn.

I think that the best one were the cardinalis, a dozen "flying" 10 cm
above mum and the fry. When she was daching against one or another of
them, there was one which dived with a very acute targeting speed to
grab a little one. I saw the last of them caught this way.

Poor mum!

I had a few thoughts to tell about this episode.

1/ Dithers are potential predators, especially if the parents are not
able to "destroy" them. My Moliwe parents never killed any other fish.

2/ I probably missed leaf coverage of the ground for my taeniatus pair.
For the first spawn they had a better plant coverage separating the
upper water and the ground. this time i managed for aesthetic purpose to
make a "beach" of sand in the middle of the tank, the pair had often
their fry herded on the beach and they were of course in good eye sight
of unwelcomed hungry dithers.

3/ I was imagining  a solution for the next hatch, without taking the
cardinalis of the tank. I read that (i think it had been done with some
apistos) it was possible to explantate (i mean the "t") mother and very
young fry in another tank, catching all of them in their spawning cave.
As i have coconuts with a lone 2cm diameter hole for caves, i was
thinking it might be possible to take the coconut with female guarding
inside and young fry or old eggs too, to rear them in another tank
without dithers.

Does anybody around the AML have any experience or opinion with this
tactical spawnfare ?

Colin DUJARDIN

Please excuse my continental english :-)



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