7 replies to this topic

[Louie]

Hello

            I have a pair of Orange throats in a 30 gallon long , filtered  by Emperor 280 , day temp 75 , night 71 , just plants no driftwood . fed scuds , poor quality cherry shrimp and they eat white cloud fry .

 

I keep them with a few white clouds . They are over a year and a half old and get 20% water change every week .

 

Male has great colors but they have never bred .

 

Temps to high ? 

 

 

 

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[Sean Phillips]

Definitely to high to breed, at the least id try to get it below 60 with 55 or lower being better. Pretty much as low as you can go without freezing the tank will give you a good chance of spawning action. I'm trying to get my Johnny darters to breed at the present and the male is already showing signs with a cold period of only 62-64 but they're also an easier species of darter to spawn from what I've heard. Give yours a more varied diet as well, try feeding live blackworms and glassworms as well.

[centrarchid]

Depending on source, you may need to push termperatures down further.  What have you done to simulate winter through spring photoperiod conditions?

[fundulus]

Also consider photoperiod, it looks like you have a strong lighting system. Many darter researchers like Clark Hubbs have felt that photoperiod was the prompt to darter spawning, while higher temperatures were the prompt to stop. Beyond that I have no specific advice beyond mimicking what's happening outside now...

[Louie]

Thank you very much everyone .

 

I'm in Miami so going down further as far as temps isn't possible unless I get a chiller .   It is of course an unheated tank and those are the house temps during the course of day .

 

I have had Florida Brown darters breed , they would mate all the time (not successful as far as getting fry)thus thought perhaps the Orange might also .

 

I am adding floating plants later as trimmed the over grown plants and tank bit too bright .

 

I also feed them defrosted blood worms once a week and years ago had access to glass worms which my old darters went insane for but have not been able to find them in some time and you cant get them shipped here because they die or defrost .

 

I guess they wont be breeding . I suspected temps too high for breeding which is why I asked .

 

I imagine those of you who get temps low use basements in Northern states ?

 

Thanks

[gerald]

I had some sort of "orangethroats" (Missouri) in the 90's that bred at room temp without any serious winter cooling.  Tank was usually 65-70 during the cold months  and 75-80 during summer.   I did not realize they were breeding until after I removed adults and found fry in the supposedly-empty tank a couple weeks later.  Gravel-spawning darters might not be as obvious as crevice-spawning or plant-spawning species.

[Louie]

At one time the tank was bit more planted but I removed some plants to give them more room yet left enough for them to hide in , etc .

 

I would have noticed gravel moved about or plants dislodged .

 

They have never shown interest in breeding yet the male has great colors and both eat daily .

 

At this point I might add another pair but due to temps I'm limited .  I had mud darters years ago but very aggressive (great darters) so researching a darter which can thrive at those temps and that type set up .  Tank does have great water circulation but again temps are mid 70s during day .

 

 

Thanks

[Louie]

Some cell phone pics

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•  darter 2.jpg   105.81KB   0 downloads