And i thought I'd seen small fish before...

[GaryE]

Last summer in Gabon, we found a small African Anabantoid, Microctenopoma nanum, in almost every river we fished. I wanted to bring some home to see how they 'worked', but I was going to wait til the end of the trip so survival rates would improve. They weren't a priority on my killie hunting trip, but were an interest. On one of the early days, an Ichthyologist friend netted the usual few, and when he was looking at them in the tiny photo tank, noticed the patterning on the body seemed different from the species description. We'd brought 5 up to photograph, and he handed them to me and told me they'd be perfect for my interests. He was right.
And so, Microctenopoma aff. (meaning a lot like but maybe different) nanum arrived in the hobby.
I got 3 home, and they are on their second spawn. I mistimed the first spawn and saved nothing, and this time out, was almost as bad. I saved half a dozen.
I have never, in 200 plus species bred, seen fry this small. They really are incredible, and I don't know if I can raise them. They are that tiny. I probably should have had an infusoria/micro-organism culture ready. I have my finest of fine powder rainbow fry food, and a lot of bacteria and infusoria covered plants, so we'll see.
No photos are possible. They are THAT small.

So next, I fire up a culture, and hope they can spawn again. They seem really into the idea of taking over North America, and aren't hard to spawn. Raising them will be the challenge.

 

[Magnum Man]

I like to see pictures... appears the adults max out about 7cm... surprising the fry are so small...

 

[GaryE]

I don't have the lens that would let me take a photo. I'm not kidding about how small they are. I am glad to breed a 'new' fish, but I am astonished at what I saw when I scooped up the remnants of the bubble nest.

I'll try for a photo of the adults. They look significantly nicer than that bedraggled one in the photo. They are higher bodied and my male is a black fish with attitude.

I also have M. ansorgii (which I have bred before, but didn't see the fry at this stage of - they appeared as one cm juvies in a community) and M congicum - similar to nanum. As you can tell, I like African fish...

 

[Back in the fold]

@GaryE You are living the dream . Bringing home wild caught fish and having them spawn in your home aquarium . That is way more than just cool . I applaud you !

 

[GaryE]

@GaryE You are living the dream . Bringing home wild caught fish and having them spawn in your home aquarium . That is way more than just cool . I applaud you !

Thank you. This is really fun. I didn't ever set up this fish group as I did after seeing the habitat. They are kept cooler than in 'bought fish' attempts, at 21-22c, and the tank is a complete plant tangle, since they were in plant roots when caught.
So now I have one Cichlid, an Epiplatys, two lampeyes, one Anabantoid and one Aphyosemion spawned out of 12 species I bagged up in Africa. One, a single pair of Aphyosemion caught after my friend and I ran over a 5 foot patch of quicksand to get to the stream died almost immediately. All I have from them s a good story. I still have an Aphyosemion that has been infertile so far, 2 Neolebias tetra types that haven't cooperated, a barbs that is still too young and a dwarf Cichlid left to breed.
That will keep me busy.
It's just the first generation I'm working on here. You don't really know a species well til your fry grow up and breed.

 

[Sgooosh]

Last summer in Gabon, we found a small African Anabantoid, Microctenopoma nanum, in almost every river we fished. I wanted to bring some home to see how they 'worked', but I was going to wait til the end of the trip so survival rates would improve. They weren't a priority on my killie hunting trip, but were an interest. On one of the early days, an Ichthyologist friend netted the usual few, and when he was looking at them in the tiny photo tank, noticed the patterning on the body seemed different from the species description. We'd brought 5 up to photograph, and he handed them to me and told me they'd be perfect for my interests. He was right.
And so, Microctenopoma aff. (meaning a lot like but maybe different) nanum arrived in the hobby.
I got 3 home, and they are on their second spawn. I mistimed the first spawn and saved nothing, and this time out, was almost as bad. I saved half a dozen.
I have never, in 200 plus species bred, seen fry this small. They really are incredible, and I don't know if I can raise them. They are that tiny. I probably should have had an infusoria/micro-organism culture ready. I have my finest of fine powder rainbow fry food, and a lot of bacteria and infusoria covered plants, so we'll see.
No photos are possible. They are THAT small.

So next, I fire up a culture, and hope they can spawn again. They seem really into the idea of taking over North America, and aren't hard to spawn. Raising them will be the challenge.

what a prolific fish!
about how many of the microscopic fry are still alive?

 

[GaryE]

what a prolific fish!
about how many of the microscopic fry are still alive?

When I look at their size, the brood was large, given the nest size. But it'll be days before they venture out enough for me to know. Anywhere from zero to dozens or more, I expect. The tank is a tangle of plants, and the fry like the head of a pin with a tail. I scooped with a white bottomed container, so I saw a few, but once they went into a dark bottomed tank, they entered the land of mysteries.

I imagine in nature, very few fry this size would survive.

 

[Sgooosh]

When I look at their size, the brood was large, given the nest size. But it'll be days before they venture out enough for me to know. Anywhere from zero to dozens or more, I expect. The tank is a tangle of plants, and the fry like the head of a pin with a tail. I scooped with a white bottomed container, so I saw a few, but once they went into a dark bottomed tank, they entered the land of mysteries.

I imagine in nature, very few fry this size would survive.

will the parents stay around the fry?

 

[GaryE]

The male defended the nest. It was when he stopped that I tried to save some fry. Once they are free swimming, most Anabantoid young are on their own, and may even be eaten. I decided my efforts were too little, and moved the adults to another tank in the hope the original tank would be a better home for the fry. I'll feed it blind for a few weeks, and keep an eye out. I hope I'll see signs of life.

That would leave me with a fish almost no one wants, in numbers. That's problem two. I live in an out of the way place, and don't know a single adventurous aquarist closer than a 9 hour drive away. I can ship any fry I get and grow to an importer I know, and hopefully get them into the hobby.

There are a lot of "ifs" there though. First, there have to be fry still alive and well!

 

[Sgooosh]

The male defended the nest. It was when he stopped that I tried to save some fry. Once they are free swimming, most Anabantoid young are on their own, and may even be eaten. I decided my efforts were too little, and moved the adults to another tank in the hope the original tank would be a better home for the fry. I'll feed it blind for a few weeks, and keep an eye out. I hope I'll see signs of life.

That would leave me with a fish almost no one wants, in numbers. That's problem two. I live in an out of the way place, and don't know a single adventurous aquarist closer than a 9 hour drive away. I can ship any fry I get and grow to an importer I know, and hopefully get them into the hobby.

There are a lot of "ifs" there though. First, there have to be fry still alive and well!

nice! I hope they go well.
Are these the type of anabantoids that live together in groups? or only in pairs?

 

[GaryE]

Watching them, they are loners, only getting together for spawning. But the population densities have to be reasonable. They don't seem especially social, but they haven't damaged each other.

We caught them by ramming our nets into the stream backs and pulling up under the overhanging bushes. I broke my net doing that - it was a very tough habitat to get them out of. We caught Epiplatys killies, barbs, tetras and dwarf cichlids in the overhangs. Most of the streams looked empty, except for the odd gaggle of lampeyes or larger barbs, but the bushes along the edges were hopping with life.

 

[GaryE]

Signs of movement in the fry tank. I don't know if they are eating the ultra-fine powder I'm adding, or infusoria from it, or the jungle of plants in there. But I saw a few moving on the surface, for a second, before they vanished. How many are in there? At least 3, but possibly a hundred times that. I just feed the tank, and watch. There are tons of hiding places, and at their size, a lot could hide.
These today were the first sign of life in a week.

 

[Back in the fold]

Awesome ! They’re eating something . I’m curious as to how many will appear . Time will tell .

 

[GaryE]

It's a weird way to keep fish. Blind.
I can't monitor if I'm losing them because I don't know how many I have.

I moved the parents to a tank at eye level, on an upper rack, where I can see and hopefully photograph them if there's another nest. The male turned black and became very aggressive this afternoon, so I think I may be lucky.