Crenicichla sp. Orinoco

[dhm325]

Does anyone have any information on this species? I picked up a group at the ACA convention last summer. I now have 3 females, 3 males and one runt. Although two of the females look like they have swallowed a marble, there have been no signs of spawing. All of the fish were originially in a 55 gallon tank. I moved what looked like two pairs to two separate 30 gallon long tanks. After each pair had been in their own tank for about a week, I replaced about 30% of the tank water with RO Water that was 10% F cooler than the tank water in order to trigger a spawn. Its been about two weeks and nothing has happened. I was following a TFH article about dwarf pikes. The TFH article was about c. regani, c. nothophthalmus and c. compressiceps. I think that this species is similar to c. regani in temperment (I have kept and bred this species) but closer in appearence to c. nothophthalmus.

The other inhabitants of the tanks are white clouds, which I use as dithers. There is also plenty of plant cover.

I have been feeding them frozen blood worms, black worms and bbs.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[element]

i imagine they are quite a bit like regani , sounds like you are doing all the right things . I would certainly be interested in some of the fry if you manage to get some good luck!

- jason

 

[Mike Wise]

You don't mention the pH of your tank. According to Stawikowski & Werner (2004) this species comes from the Rio Caroni, Atabapo & Inirida of Venezuela & Colombia. These are blackwater streams for the most part.

 

[retro_gk]

Do you have any other species of cichlids with spawns? If yes, try feeding them some of the fry.

 

[dhm325]

Thanks for your responses. The pH is 5.8 and the tds is approximately 50 ppm. Do you think I should lower either of these parameters?

 

[retro_gk]

I would lower the tds a bit more, closer to 30, and bring the pH down to 5, if you can keep it stable. Try it in a separate tank/bucket for a week (to ensure stability) before doing it in the tank with the fish.

Also, you may need to do multiple water changes to fool the fish into thinking it's raining. Some fish will spawn at the first water change. Others need water changes every 2 days or so for a week or longer.

 

[lbireley]

Hi Retro Geek!
The orinoco we got from you are starting to show sexual dimorphism. Glad I caught this thread - Rich and I were just puzzling over the C. regani pair and thinking maybe we needed to cut their neutral/soft water with some RO water in there. I'm going to send him this info.
Take care!
-Laura

 

[retro_gk]

Hey Laura,
I just told Rich he needs to drop his pH a bit over on another forum

Am I to assume you will soon be commandeering most of his tanks?

 

[lbireley]

Hi Rahul,
Not all the tanks, just that last rack next to the sink. :wink: Yeah, I've cleaned and filled the whole bank of breeder flats since you were here but Rich talked me out of the Scarlet Badis:biggrin:
See you at ACA2007 here in SAC-town.
-Laura

 

[Aquatico]

I imported the parients of those fish last summer. I think one of the tricks to breed them is to put them in a ten gal. tank, packed with java moss. I think they need to be forced to be close to each other. I have a group of them too. This fish gets about 6 in. long, so you might have to wait till they get a little bigger. Mine are only 2 inches long now. How big isthe ones in your group?

Don

 

[dhm325]

The largest male and female are between 4.5 and 5 inches. The other two pair are smaller at about 4 inches each. The large female chases the large male all over the tank. She is definitely the dominant fish.