Botia Sidthemunki Spawning.

[mikev]

Thank you very very much and sorry for bothering you (you seem to know more about them than anyone I talked to yet). I hope you would not hate me for a few more questions:

How high are your females approximely (in their non-gravid state)?
(It you are right about the slimmer ones being young -- you are probably right, they also tend to swim more -- it remains unclear if they are mature. If not, I perhaps should try to find few larger ones; the one I would like to see breeding -- seen here http/img18.imageshack.us/img18/9994/albertwithclown6po.jpg -- is the slim kind and does not seem to be growing.).

You mentioned that you had three spawnings: over how long? (I have 9 in a 65g for about 4 months now and saw nothing that looks like a sex behavior or pairing. But 65g has no real plants and other fish, I am not really expecting much)

I think I understood the R/O idea. Do you happen to know a good source where it is layed out in details (what unit to get, where to get the right mineral mix --- everything I googled so far seems to be about marine fish)?

Is it true that there is no simple solution like adding something to the tank to soften the water?

 

[Lateral Line]

Hardness in water cannot be reduced by "adding" something. You need to take things away. It is true, you can run your filter return through an ion exchange resin or similar which absorb certain "hardness" causing ions. The real point is that these resins are very expensive, and so unless you have a particular requirement, are economically unviable.

You are better off starting with pure water, and adding the required salts to get your pH, "hardness" and buffering right. The salts I use with my RO are Kent RO Right. Very pure water is unstable, it can swing in pH wildly, like from neutral, to 4 and back at whim.

I do have experience with running ultra soft unbuffered tanks in order to breed some of the "impossible" fish, but you need to be on top of your water chemistry 24 hours a day. This means simulating the wild, open systems, thus almost continuous water changing, and gas control.

Hardness is not a simple topic. There are various "types" of hardness, some useful, others a damn nuisance. Some carbonate hardness is useful for stabilising your water, but Ca++ and Mg++ hardness will stop eggs hatching as these ions interact with the egg shells making them too tough for the fry to emerge.

 

[mikev]

Lateral,

Thank you very much -- I hope you don't mind answering dumb questions; unf. at this time I do not have any experience with either breeding or water hardness...

Before I ask too many dumb questions (starting with "what is pure water exactly == do I need to get an R/O membrane, or simply distill water myself, or try distilled bottled water"), any chance you could point me to some page or book to read on this?

Is this
http/www.h2ofilter.net/product.asp?i=595
the kind of system one would use?

Or perhaps write a small summary of what I should do exactly?

Some dumb questions (sorrrrry!):
Is Kent right for this? The description mentions that it includes Ca and Mg (http/www.aquariumsuperstore.co.uk/mall/kentroright.asp). Are Ca and Mg the only things I need to worry about eliminating?

I will greatly appreciate any instructions you would provide.

I do have experience with running ultra soft unbuffered tanks in order to breed some of the "impossible" fish, but you need to be on top of your water chemistry 24 hours a day. This means simulating the wild, open systems, thus almost continuous water changing, and gas control.

Uggh. Hopefully, this is not needed (I doubt I can do this right), but I was thinking about implementing day/night temp changes.