T. candidi with eggs: water change?

[raymond82]

Hi,

My T. candidi female is guarding some eggs, it's time for their weekly water change but I'm not sure if it would be too disturbing for her. I'm asking because I read that candidi's don't like water changes too much (although I haven't really noticed that with mine).

The water change I wanted to do because the female had eggs before that didn't develop well and I thought it could be that the pH wasn't low enough. That's why with water changes I'm slowly lowering the pH.

Water values now:
pH: 6.5
conductivity: 81 microS/cm

Thanks!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I'd carry on with the water changes, but just change a smaller volume (~10%) more regularly. If the tank is lightly stocked and heavily planted nitrate (NO3) levels won't rise and you can wait until the fry are active.

cheers Darrel

 

[raymond82]

Hi Darrel, thanks for the advice! There are not too many plants so I rather keep doing the water changes.

Not long after I posted the question I noticed that the female was already not guarding the cave anymore. I took the opportunity to move the aquarium to a nicer place yesterday, today I found that one of the females has some eggs behind the spongefilter. This seems quite peculiar to me, the filter hangs halfway the aquarium wall. It's the third time in not even three weeks that one of the two females has eggs, hopefully I'll see some fry this time...

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

It's the third time in not even three weeks that one of the two females has eggs, hopefully I'll see some fry this time...

Brilliant news and very promising so far. You could try adding some Alder cones (Alnus incana, A. glutinosa or A. cordata), they seem to work pretty well as a fungicide, and may lower pH.

I added a handful to a small tank with 2 Parosphromenus "Sentang" in the lab on Friday, and when I came back into work on Monday it looked like black coffee, but the fish were fine and the dominant male has started displaying to other fish (which I think is also a male).

Best of luck.

Cheers Darrel

 

[raymond82]

Alder cones are no problem, I have lots of these that I picked up end of last winter. I didn't use them that much since I thought they stained the water a bit too much.

I'm sure this has been discussed many times before, but do alder cones release anything that is not released by peat and oak leaves? The water I have in the tanks has all been filtered over peat, I thought peat, alder cones and oak leaves release more or less similar substances.

I added a handful to a small tank with 2 Parosphromenus "Sentang" in the lab on Friday, and when I came back into work on Monday it looked like black coffee, but the fish were fine and the dominant male has started displaying to other fish (which I think is also a male).

This is also very valuable information, my girlfriend bought a pair of Parosphromenus ornaticauda not long ago and she wants to try to breed them. I read everywhere that it's quite difficult so hints like these she'll appreciate a lot!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I'm sure this has been discussed many times before, but do alder cones release anything that is not released by peat and oak leaves?

You could try contacting UK Corydoras expert Ian Fuller, he was the person who recommended Alder cones to me initially <http://www.ianfuller.com/index.html>. (PC post at <http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11145&hilit=Alnus> (Ian is "Coryman")).

I'm not sure any-one has worked on them as antimicrobials for aquariums, but there has been some ethno-botanic work <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3263052/>.

from: SAXENA G. et al, (1995) "Antimicrobial compounds from Alnus rubra" International Journal of Pharmaceutical Botany 33 pp33-36.

The methanol extract of the bark of Alnus rubra showed antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Diarylheptanoid and its glycoside (oregonin) were identified as the two constituents responsible for this activity."

I've still not had a proper look through it, but Citarasu, T. (2010) "Herbal biomedicines: a new opportunity for aquaculture industry" Aquaculture International 18:3, 403-414 looks very interesting <http://www.springerlink.com/content/tv4284j427251t68/fulltext.pdf>.

cheers Darrel

 

[rocioamsterdam]

Cheers Darrel, looks very interesting. Indeed, I'd be very happy if my P. ornaticauda bred!

I am going to test how much the pH will drop when I add 2-3 Alder cones to 5L RO water. Filtering RO water through peat does the trick, but I'd like to know whether Alder cones can do the same, and maybe they are even more acidifying.

Thanks for the info!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Should also have said about the Parosphromenus that I don't know much about them, but there is a very good forum and web site devoted to them at:
<http://www.parosphromenus-project.org/en/forum.html>, with a link to "Amazonas: Liqorice Gourami".

I'm just treating them as if they were a very small black water Apistogramma, which only eats live food, doesn't like Daphnia, loves mosquito larvae and will eat Grindal Worms at a pinch.

Here is their tank, I've struggled to get a picture of the fish:

You will have to excuse the Hydra on the front glass.

cheers Darrel

 

[raymond82]

Thanks Darrel, they are two very interesting papers. It's quite impressive the amount of substances released by the alder cones and the review on herbal medicine is very nice too. I'll read it more carefully at a later stage.

The candidi female lost the eggs again, now I don't know if it's related to the pH (which is still 6.5) or if adding alder cones would do the trick. I think I'm first going to try to lower the pH (I think the species prefers a lower pH anyway), then if I keep having the same problem I'll try with the alder cones.

 

[Gwendal]

Nice tank, love selvatic ones!






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