Dwarf loach breeding?

[leokiss]

Hi all this my first post so hello to everyone
I've got quite a few questions so bare with me!
First of all does anyone know anything about their breeding behaviour? The egg size,what they look like. How many eggs? Is it common for them to breed in captivaty? Whre do they lay eggs? Also what triggers there breeding,temp,food?
I,ve also been wondering why some of them have started to lose their pattern is it age? It seems to be the larger ones. Or maybe through mood as i,ve seen them either fighting or some form of courtship and the colour almost completely goes leaving them yellowy white all over,but some colour does come back.I realise there is a lot here so i would be very grateful if someone can answers some or all!

[Mark in Vancouver]

This is the cue for Mad Duff, I think...

[Mad Duff]

Yes they do or have bred in captivity, I have recently found at least 4 juveniles in my 75 gallon Sid tank

As far as info about the eggs goes I cant say as I never actually saw any, I can be pretty certain that the eggs were laid under bogwood in clumps of Anubias and Java fern roots or in amongst cobbles. Again as for how many eggs I don't know but although the fact that I have 36 sid's housed with 8 M. guentheri and about 20 Kuhli's there must have been lots off eggs for some to survive.

As far as triggers go the suspected spawning of my sid's took place about a week after 7 shredded Indian Almond Leaves were added to the tank, my sid's are kept at around 79' and they eat pretty much anything but mainly get frozen foods.

Occasionally some of my bigger fish lose their colour when they are having little disputes among themselves which comes down to dominance thing but usually they regain their colour afterwards, I have had mine turn totally silver and be like that for hours and then their colour comes back.

I have been meaning to do a definite head count of all the sids but have done two so far and counted 40, once Christmas and everything is out of the way I will do a more detailed head count and see if I have more than 4 young.

[zmo63]

Madduff that is incredibly exciting! congratulations!

[NancyD]

Wow, fabulous! Maybe I need more sids soon.

[leokiss]

Wow cheers for replys especially mad duff i know a bit more about my sids now! As my sids matured i'd noticed behaviour change didn't know if they having some kind of courtship or summat and when searched net for info on them breeding nobody knew,so thanks again this is the first time i've had my questions answered.
I may get lucky with breeding my tank dosen't sound too different to mad duffs,my temp about 79 plenty of bogwood n java fern amongst others.Maybe i need more numbers,i have 9 sids,10 cardinals,4 ottos,4 zebra danios,5 endlers and a few of their fry in my community tank

[leokiss]

Oh i forgot to ask 7 shredded indian almond leaves? A kind of aquatic plant or something used for cooking And where do you get them i may give it a try!

[Mark in Vancouver]

MD's achievement is the first that we've heard of this, to my knowledge, so it's particularly important. As sids are endangered (if not gone) in the wild, this is the kind of historic discovery we like to see on LOL.

Much congratulations!

[Emma Turner]

I have *heard* of an instance before in a heavily planted tank, but it was never ever proven. A "Granville" as it were.

Mad Duff has pics of his little ones, which I'm sure he'll add soon.

leokiss, the Indian Almond Leaves are dried leaves from the Terminalia catappa tree, abundant in many parts of Asia. I buy my leaves from a reputable seller on e-bay: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Amys-Ketapang-Inc (I purchase Grade A, but the Grade B's are apparently also very good).

Emma

[Graeme Robson]

I've herd from one of our lfs lads over 3yrs ago when we had the old forum format and i posted his *sightings of the breedings* You could always search the old Archives. I'm pretty sure that a well planted environment was included.

Pictures are the Money shot though. We'll leave that to Mark (mad duff)

[leokiss]

Well i had an idea sids breeding was rare due to the lack of info about it but didn't realise it was to this extent so a congratulations is in order.
Cheers emma for reply on almond leaves i searched net for info on them and got linked back here to a pic MD took of some he bought on ebay.
We have house in thailand with one of these trees in garden!Some of family has rice fields with these trees in grounds maybe i'll bring some back when we next go!
Oh and back to MD doing his head count good look i was convinced i had gravel vac'ed one up for about 3 weeks they are just so quick n hide really well too!

[Mad Duff]

Oh and back to MD doing his head count good look i was convinced i had gravel vac'ed one up for about 3 weeks they are just so quick n hide really well too!

I had hoped to get things sorted by now but have been really busy with family stuff, the official head count is today which means the tank will probably get totally stripped

I have taken plenty of pics of the original layout so I should be able to get it back pretty much the same, I have managed to get a couple more pictures of the small ones and at least two pictures actually with a smaller adult.

Once I know a definite number of young I will post up all the details

[piggy4]

This is fabulas news Mark , cant wait to see the piics, in fairness there have been rumours about this before i.e. people finding babies , BUT as far as i am aware nobody has presented the pics ! FANTASTIC !

[Mike Ophir]

wow, this should be quite interesting! Looking forward!

Mike