How to breed orange throated darters? (Etheostoma spectabile)

Update: The darters are eating flakes! They react more to the red ones than to the pale green and brown ones. And the 2-4 millimeter flakes are too small for them to see, it seems. The 1 cm flakes get a better response. They eat the flakes more as a curiosity than anything else, though; there are still hundreds of snails in the tank. And the 5 females should arrive today, to be added to the 5 males already in the aquarium. yay

Edited by Okiimiru, 15 July 2010 - 10:31 AM.

Update:
I bought a powerhead, 300 gph, and added it to the aquarium pointing vaguely down and towards the wall. One quarter of the aquarium is extremely high current, one quarter is high current, one quarter is low level current, and one has nearly pool-stagnant water. The darters love it. Their colors really perked up, and they are taking more interest in the flake food now that it dances in circles and stays suspended in the current.

Also, I witnessed the darters attack one of the leeches. These particular leeches are four inches long, a centimeter wide, and dark brown to black in color. They swim like a creepy ribbon from the gravel up to the surface of the water every now and then. Well, I was sitting in front of the aquarium pointing out the brightened darter colors to my brother, and pointing out how they seemed to be eyeballing the ground like a robin does. We wondered if they were mating because a really big bright orange and blue male and a strongly striped female were circling around. All of a sudden, there was a flurry of activity and two or three darters were biting at a big dark leech that was trying frantically to retreat under the gravel! It was pretty intense. Afterwards, the darters were all like, "Aw, shucks, it got away" and my brother and I high fived because the darters are doing their job in keeping the tank leech-free.

Oh, and also, one of the female darters seems to like sitting in the hornwort about halfway up the tank. She doesn't swim, but instead climbs and walks around up there, cushioned on the plants. It's like she's proud she has her own territory or something. It's definitely prime snail hunting up there.

Edited by Okiimiru, 17 July 2010 - 03:45 PM.

Oh, and also, one of the female darters seems to like sitting in the hornwort about halfway up the tank. She doesn't swim, but instead climbs and walks around up there, cushioned on the plants. It's like she's proud she has her own territory or something. It's definitely prime snail hunting up there.

Picture:
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Update: The males are displaying and appear to be having social ranking contests. Before, only one male was vividly orange and blue and striped. Now, there are a whole bunch of strongly banded males, and they sometimes sit next to one another on the gravel, preening, and then one wiggles his body and the other swims away. Sometimes they almost nip at one another, but don't make contact or cause damage.

I was surprised because the biggest male, the vividly colored one, is submissive to this very strongly banded black and white one that does not express a bright orange throat. It's definitely a male because there's orange in the tail, but it's smaller and I would think the bigger more colorful male would be dominant. But I guess aggression matters more. The small one is definitely a trouble maker. He swam up to the big colorful one and stole his prime spot in the current. Now the more colorful male is relegated to a position in the back, and the strongly banded male sits preening in his former spot.

The females still prefer being up in the plants to being on the ground. One female ate dried blood worms from the surface, she was so high in the plants.

Hi Erica, If you have a spare 10 or 15 gallon tank, you might want to move your most ready-looking pair into it for a week or so to spawn, then move them back to the main tank and watch for fry in the small tank. Since orangethroats spawn in gravel (rather than under a rock like johnnies and fantails) you'll probably never find eggs or fry in your big tank. I'd use a shallow layer of clean gravel in the spawning tank, not kitty litter, because you don't want fines filling up the interstitial space. An air-powered sponge filter would be good for the breeding tank; run it awhile in the main tank to get it cycled.

Hi Erica, If you have a spare 10 or 15 gallon tank, you might want to move your most ready-looking pair into it for a week or so to spawn, then move them back to the main tank and watch for fry in the small tank. Since orangethroats spawn in gravel (rather than under a rock like johnnies and fantails) you'll probably never find eggs or fry in your big tank. I'd use a shallow layer of clean gravel in the spawning tank, not kitty litter, because you don't want fines filling up the interstitial space. An air-powered sponge filter would be good for the breeding tank; run it awhile in the main tank to get it cycled.

Ooooh. That is an excellent idea. I do happen to have a spare 10 gallon tank. I'll keep my eye out for any pairing off. Thank you
Question: Does the 10 gallon need a strong current to make the darters want to spawn? Or the sponge filter okay the whole time?

Edited by Okiimiru, 23 July 2010 - 01:16 PM.

Update:

The majority of the darters are not afraid of me any more, like they were when they first arrived after being caught in the wild. They have become less wary of me and are more adventurous during feeding time. As a result, they now actually eat the sinking pellets after they have dissolved a bit. The darters also try for flakes, but usually don't catch them in the current. The snails are still being eaten, but seem to be benefitting from the leftover pellet bits that the darters don't eat. The snail population is in the hundreds and seems like it'll stay that way.

Update: The darters who chill out in the plants in the upper levels of the aquarium are definitely eating the baby swordtails. I think they don't find it a priority to eat boring flake and pellet food when there's nice tasty swordtail fry to eat instead.

Update: Some of the darters are smarter than the others. They readily eat flakes and pellets. They're plumping up and getting nice and fat. But some of the darters are just... picky eaters? Or perhaps just too stupid to realize that it's food. So when it's feeding time (I feed them at the same time of day every day) they can smell that there's something going on but they don't eat the food I add. They instead, smelling that nice food smell, attack the snails. They're surviving on the snails right now, and aren't as fat as the few that swim right up at feeding time and eat flakes. Snail population still in the hundreds. I think I have more now than I did before (from leftover food). But there are also hundreds of empty shells laying on the bottom.

Also, the males are beginning to inhabit the plants, not just the females. At first it was very divided; only the females were hanging out in the plants, and the males stayed on the gravel. But now this one smaller male seems to spend all of his time up there. I think it helps him avoid the larger males, who don't seem to like him. The dominant males aren't particularly mean; they will just occassionally barrel out of their niche and nip at a darter they don't like. This aggression seems confined to the males. The females are all chillin' in the plants, and don't interact with one another. They do, however, stare at me whenever I'm staring at them. They're not afraid at all. It's like the plants give them confidence.

I've also started simulating dusk in the tank when it's dusk outside. The tank is in front of the window, so at night when the lights become bright relative to the outside light, I turn half of them off. The half that remain on are a rosy tint, and are dim. Then I turn those off when it's full dark outside. I don't know if this is helping to maintain the darters' natural biorhythms or not, but I figure it can't hurt.

Edit: Oh, and the swordtails seem healthier with the tank at 70 than they were at 80. (I used to keep it at 80 to decrease gestation time and get the largest number of fry possible. That's pretty standard in livebearer breeding programs, but the moms get a little stressed out and their life span decreases). So I think the addition of the darters to the tank has increased their life quality. The females live longer when they deliver every 2-3 months instead of every 1, and now they have a powerhead to swim and play in where they didn't have one before. So the darter-swordtail combination tank seems better for everyone all around. Oh, and about the swordtail fry that were getting eaten: I added some caves with fry-sized escape holes and rearranged the tank to give fry some places to hide. I think the tank is fry-friendly again, even with the darters eating what they can. They simply can't wedge themselves into the deepest recesses of the plants anymore, which gives the fry somewhere to escape to. And now that [some of] the darters are finally eating prepared foods regularly, they will probably be less inclined to chase fry so persistently.
These changes will benefit the darter fry, I hope. When they're born, that is.

Edit #2: Oh, I saw the big fat brightly colored male and a large female chillin' by one another, but she didn't have eggs in her. You could tell by looking at her abdomen. When/if she gets plumper, I might remove them to a 10 gallon as was suggested. But I can tell by looking at her that she's not ready right now. It's good that everybody's filling out and starting to behave like normal, though. I think they're finally adjusting to tank life.

Edited by Okiimiru, 11 August 2010 - 12:13 PM.

Update: I moved the tank to its new home (the school year is about to start, so I'm back on campus). I lowered the water level with a gravel siphon and was unpleasantly surprised to find leeches in the substrate. I guess the darters can't exactly burrow down and get them, so some still live there. Oh well. Well, I lowered the water level, bagged up the filter media, the plants, and the fish. I did lose one darter because I didn't see it, and it got left in the tank as the water was removed. Poor darter. It blended in perfectly with the substrate. I did rescue it at the last minute and put it in water, but a few hours later it was dead. All of the other fish lived, except for a female betta that got too curious about the industrial-sized gravel siphon I used to empty the tank (O_O! Oh no!) and a single fry that I guess was weak.

The tank is looking good in its new location. Here's a couple pictures to show it settling in:

Edited by Okiimiru, 17 August 2010 - 03:09 PM.

Oh no, those dreaded swordtails are in with the darters!

Woe unto your poor darters. WOE, I says!

I'm sorry for the derail but I gotta hand it to Martin. It takes skill to be controversial and funny with so few words.

I'm sorry for the derail but I gotta hand it to Martin. It takes skill to be controversial and funny with so few words.

I regret saying that. Actually, dreadFUL is a much better word! I should have been more careful.

Anyway, the irony was just too much for me to pass up! Now, on to other controversial topics...

*shrugs*

That's a pretty neat looking tank regardless of those rancorous swordtails.

Update: Photo of the tank completely settled in:

Edited by Okiimiru, 21 August 2010 - 12:37 PM.

The darters are happy in their (moved) home:

Edited by Okiimiru, 21 August 2010 - 12:41 PM.

Yeah, those are happy-looking darters.

Mmm, all is not as it seems. They SEEM happy - this is always a harbinger of doom.

how is it they eat the snails?