Ctenops nobilis

[beta]

Had moved a couple of Ctenops brooders to a separate tank and finally spotted the fry yesterday. I have fed them on BBS today. Fingers crossed

Attached files

[nuchal man]

Congrats on the spawn and those are some great pics, it’s not an easy fish to get fry from. Here are some bad photos of the ones I was working with at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago when I was interning there. The babies have an adorable color pattern.

Male

fry from one of our spawns

another bad photo of one of the fry

[Colin]

Good pics none the less!

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[Stefan]

Well done both of you!

They certainly represent an interesting ‘niche’ in labyrinths Colin!

[Matt]

Brilliant.

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[beta]

Sam: Those are some excellent pics. Do you recall how many fry per spawn you got. I count less than 10 in my tank. What did you offer as a first food?

Matt: I keep mine in fairly hard water and the temp is around 28 C. I think we need to update the knowledge base article as I feel they are paternal mouth brooders. Maybe Sam can verify?

[nuchal man]

They bred in a community 500 gallon asian community display. The water at the aquarium is from Lake Michigan and is about 7.6-7.8 pH and it’s very hard, pretty much liquid rock. There actually was an ich outbreak on the display and some salt was added to the tank. They spawned after a few water changes from this point.

Water temp was around 78-80F. I completely agree with Beta, they are a paternal mouthbrooder. I was surprised at the amount of fry the male was holding. He spit about 70, and they are pretty good size. First foods were baby brine shrimp and copeopods.

I found this species to be jumpers and I had issues with high levels of conspecific aggression, even in a 500.

[Matt]

Thanks for the info guys, will make the necessary changes asap. Are both sexes aggressive towards one another?

[nuchal man]

I didn’t see any difference in aggression between males and females. For such a fragile fish, they can be quite nasty to each other.

[beta]

Only 3 survivors!
Here is a video of one of them taken on my mobile cam.

View Original Movie

[Matt]

Oh no.

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[Matt]

Colin and others, what level of intraspecific aggression have you experienced with this species?

[Colin]

A lot!

Once you get a dominant fish they keep harrying the rest of them, I have 6 in a tank now and you always have a dominant fish

BUT there are no injuries and no split fins, just chasing

[Matt]

Is the alpha individual male or female Colin, or does it vary?

[Colin]

I dont know how to sex them yet…. will keep an eye on the ones i am keeping though

[Author]

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