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Breeding Etheostoma edwini!

Started by Guest_manticora_* , Apr 18 2011 10:57 AM

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7 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_manticora_*

Guests

Posted 18 April 2011 - 10:57 AM

Hello,
this is my first post in this Forum. I have some Etheostoma edwini and would like to breed this species.
Has anyone experience in breeding them? Which temperature, which water... them need. Who can help me?
Thank you
Knut :-)

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#2 Guest_EricaWieser_*

Guests

Posted 18 April 2011 - 01:04 PM

According to fishbase.org, they prefer a sandy bottom, and will attach their eggs to the substrate.

Most darters spawn in the spring, and can be induced to spawn in captivity by a period of colder temperature water, usually for at least a month. If you do this cold water simulation and are feeding yours high quality foods like worms, insect larvae, etc, and if you have clean water with 0 ppm ammonia and nitrite, then they should spawn when you gently raise the temperature back up from the winter chill level.

The question is, will they eat their own young? Many darters do, since in the wild their young are far away from them and their normal diet is small wiggling insects. If you choose to put the adults in a breeding tank and then remove them back to their normal tank after spawning, babies would have a greater chance if surviving without the adults present.

Edited by EricaWieser, 18 April 2011 - 01:05 PM.

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#3 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 18 April 2011 - 01:19 PM

Hello,
this is my first post in this Forum. I have some Etheostoma edwini and would like to breed this species.
Has anyone experience in breeding them? Which temperature, which water... them need. Who can help me?
Thank you
Knut

Welcome Knut,

I don't know of anyone that has raised edwini... but I have a small group of about 8 or so that are doing quite well... very small, but very nice looking fish... with such an unfortunate common name 'brown darter'... they should have been called 'red-spotted pygmy swamp darter'... they are actually very colorful. I kept mine alone for about a year hoping they would breed, but never really did much to induce breeding... and now there are other fish in the tank with them, so there is no way any fry would survive.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#4 Guest_manticora_*

Guests

Posted 18 April 2011 - 03:34 PM

Okay, an extra aquarium for them is no problem.
To keep them cool for some weeks also no problem. So I will try my very best.
Thanks,
Knut.

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#5 Guest_Doug_Dame_*

Guests

Posted 18 April 2011 - 08:42 PM

Okay, an extra aquarium for them is no problem.
To keep them cool for some weeks also no problem. So I will try my very best.
Thanks,
Knut.

Most of the edwinii I have caught have been UP IN the vegetation (which is relatively uncommon for darters), in spring runs in North Florida. The temperature in spring runs doesn't vary more than a couple of degrees throughout the year, so an extended cooling probably isn't necessary for breeding, even if they might appreciate the seasonal hint. Goldstein devotes a lot of description to where they're found, and concludes "In aquaria, E. (V.) edwinii attached adhesive eggs to aquatic plants, one egg at a time, when mounted by the wall (Williams 1976)." (Not sure what he means by "when mounted by the wall," but perhaps he means the plants ought to be smushed up against the tank side; in nature, I often find them in the plants or roots on near vertical banks.) He says nothing about diet, or conditioning foods.

The Mettee Alabama book confirms/repeats "single egg", and states that the diet includes copepods, cladocerans, mayflies, migdes, water mites, and stone flies ... sounds like the typical darter live-food diet.

Hope this helps.

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#6 Guest_manticora_*

Guests

Posted 19 April 2011 - 12:49 AM

Yes, that helped me a lot. I will make a aquarium with sand and gravel on the bround and put a lot of Vesicularia in it to.
Is a permanent water flow necessary for darters at all?
What is the temperature range darters esp. the edwini need? Which temp Darters start to breed normaly?? Because in a spring runs the temperature can , also in summer , be very, very cool ... At the moment I have about 20°C (68°F) I can cool down to 17°C (62°F).
Thanks,
Knut:-)

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#7 Guest_Doug_Dame_*

Guests

Posted 19 April 2011 - 09:07 PM

Is a permanent water flow necessary for darters at all?

Yes for most darters. Edwinii are often/usually in low flow areas, in plants or sometimes around leaf debris.

What is the temperature range darters esp. the edwini need? Which temp Darters start to breed normaly?? Because in a spring runs the temperature can , also in summer , be very, very cool ... At the moment I have about 20°C (68°F) I can cool down to 17°C (62°F).
Thanks,
Knut:-)

In Florida spring runs, if they're near the spring, the temp might be 71-72 F all year round. But they're found in non-spring creeks too, and those probably vary (around here) from 60s to mid-80s, depending on season. So edwinii probably are fairly flexible. Have not seen anything about what temperature will start them breeding, but Mettee citing Williams comments "a protracted spawning season, lasting from winter to late summer."

d.d.