Some recent talk about breeding made me think I should pass this on... Although not a big accomplishment it was rather interesting.
At the end of the Mingo Swamp Trip during the 2006 convention several of us were able to collect E. zonatum in a ditch that connected directly to the main swamp. I brought home about four or five smallish (sex undetermined) individuals. They when into a heavily planted (with water lettuce... I know not a great plant for everyone... but looks great in an aquarium... and I keep it controlled). They grew up some and a dominate male seemed to take over the whole tank, eliminate his rivals, and left a female or two alone. Then apparnetly there was some breeding, and I noticed a young fish, too small to be one that I put in originally.
Well, while cleaning their tank this weekend I saw, the following fish:
1 large male (well large for a pygmy)
2 apparently adult females (one might be his original mate, but hte other wold have to be a daughter)
1 small fish about half the size of the adult females
1 very small "eyes with a tail"... actually even at this size I could see it fluttering its fins and swimming just like an adult
So apparently I have multiple spawnings of a three year old E.zonatum male.
They are maintained in the heavily planted 10 gallon with lots of snails. Fed frozen foods (brine, mysis, tubifex, whatever). No filtration on this tank, just thelettuce roots and snails. And for the most part the tank is just left alone. There is a lot of mulm and loose algae looking mulm on the bottom of the tank which I have seen the young fish dive into when scared. The three adults seemed to have partitioned off the tank with the two females reigning over seperate areas much larger than the male defends, but his small area is righ where the food norally falls in, so I am sure he thinks he has the "best" spot in town (and based on the young, apparently the females agree that he is great).
E. zonatum breeding
Started by
Michael Wolfe
, Feb 02 2009 01:22 PM
3 replies to this topic
#1
Michael Wolfe
-
- Board of Directors
-
- North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage
Posted 02 February 2009 - 01:22 PM
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#2
Guest_Elassoman_*
Guest_Elassoman_*
-
- Guests
Posted 06 February 2009 - 09:46 AM
Congrats! I've not observed females maintaining territories, good stuff. This is very similar to how I've spawned E. evergladei, minus the killing of rival males. Rubenstein did some behavioral work with E. evergladei in the early 1980's. His results agree with the territoriality pattern you describe, whereby the dominant fish sets up shop where the food is provided. He found that territoriality is strongly dependent upon stocking density, but he had up to eight evergladei in a 10 gallon. I think it is safe to say that E. zonatum would need a much bigger space for this experiment!
#3
Michael Wolfe
-
- Board of Directors
-
- North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage
Posted 06 February 2009 - 08:13 PM
Congrats! I've not observed females maintaining territories, good stuff. This is very similar to how I've spawned E. evergladei, minus the killing of rival males. Rubenstein did some behavioral work with E. evergladei in the early 1980's. His results agree with the territoriality pattern you describe, whereby the dominant fish sets up shop where the food is provided. He found that territoriality is strongly dependent upon stocking density, but he had up to eight evergladei in a 10 gallon. I think it is safe to say that E. zonatum would need a much bigger space for this experiment!
Maybe, but there may be even more fish in this tank that I thought... last night while feeding I saw another of the half size fish... so that is three full size and two half size... I'll bet if I broke up the territories better for them... and over fed them a bit, I could hit that stocking density... but I am pretty sparse in my feeding sometimes... which seems to make for healthy, long lived fish... but maybe mot the greated breeding set up.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#4
Guest_Drew_*
Guest_Drew_*
-
- Guests
Posted 06 February 2009 - 08:59 PM
I know I talked about my E. evergladei in the past but can't remember with what detail.
I was given a reverse trio of them at the '07 convention which I took home and placed in a 2.5g with sand bottom and java moss. I had a small sponge filter driven by air. I never really did water changes, just topping off with tap water. I fed primarily live blackworms twice a week. The java moss eventually filled the tank and I noticed fish of varying sizes. At one point I was able to count 4-5 fish at any given time which seemed like a lot. I decided to upgrade so I set up a 5g with sand bottom and java moss, migrated a lot of the sand and java moss from the old tank as well. I transferred a total of 13 individuals!
One of the original males and lone female died within a few weeks of transfer, so at last count, I have 11. Nowadays, I rarely ever see a fish but will occasionally see 1.
I know the zonatum are much large and tend to be more aggressive so you may not hit that density but I imagine in your bigger tank, you should have quite a few.
I was given a reverse trio of them at the '07 convention which I took home and placed in a 2.5g with sand bottom and java moss. I had a small sponge filter driven by air. I never really did water changes, just topping off with tap water. I fed primarily live blackworms twice a week. The java moss eventually filled the tank and I noticed fish of varying sizes. At one point I was able to count 4-5 fish at any given time which seemed like a lot. I decided to upgrade so I set up a 5g with sand bottom and java moss, migrated a lot of the sand and java moss from the old tank as well. I transferred a total of 13 individuals!
One of the original males and lone female died within a few weeks of transfer, so at last count, I have 11. Nowadays, I rarely ever see a fish but will occasionally see 1.
I know the zonatum are much large and tend to be more aggressive so you may not hit that density but I imagine in your bigger tank, you should have quite a few.
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users
NANFA Youtube Channel 
