Hatchetfish

[NEON98101]

I am wondering if anyone here ever bred the hatchetfish. I research books and web but there are many information out there. It SEEMS you can breed marble hatchet fairly easy although there are no detailed information I have not encounter. And even more so about the silver hatchet. Which I have for like 2 years. i know I am supposed to keep these guy in group like 6 but I got 2 and they seems like a pair. I see them chase as the way pair would and not the 2 males. I had been feeling but about not have good live food for them until recently. When I finally obtained the "WINGLESS" fruits fly culture. Which I had been looking for a quite a while. Not the flightless fruits fly culture you might see at the big chain pet store. Which I see them flying. So I never bought those. Anyway, I bred all the fish in my tank except those guys, the silver hatchetfish. So I'm wondering if any of you out there have bred any hatchetfish before. I am not sure if anybody in the world have bred the silver hatchet in captibity yet. This information seems unclear. So I don't know. But it seems Marble hatchetfish can be done. And I think I can get some rough idea from that.
Anyway, I would be appreciated if anyone know anything about BREEDING ANY HATCHETFISH. Or even know the place I can find the detail information about that.
Thank you.

By the way, I only have few tetras(neon, glow-light,and lemon) and few corys(panda, melanitius) and silver hatchet fish. But I like them. The peaceful tank.

 

[ryan]

C.strigata has been breed in captivity. They require very soft, acidic water. The eggs are deposited on the roots of floating plants but will fall to the bottom. They hatch in 24-36 hours and the fry require very small live foods. Just keeping the parents healthy can be a challenge, so breeding them is even more so.

 

[Lateral Line]

I am unaware of any captive breeding of the Silver Hatchet, Gasteropelecus sternicla. Searching around, I did find this comment..

>>>
Research has shown that Gasteropelecus sternicla only breed for a short period coinciding with the start of the rainy season. The eggs are laid by the female, then the male will swim near the eggs and release his sperm. It is not known if the female releases all of her eggs at once, or if they are deposited at different times during the breeding season. It is known however, that all of the eggs are developed at the same time in the ovaries. The unusal shape and body cavity size of the species may account for the fact that its brood size is generally smaller than other tropical fishes of its size. Females as small as 33mm, and males as small as 31 mm, were both found to have mature gonads (Alkins-Koo 2000).
<<<

... so as with other seasonal spwaners, researching the water conditions before and after the rainy season starts, and other possible environmental changes, (daylength, appearance of different foodstuffs, etc.), may give a lead.

Frequently a drop in temperature and water level in the tank followed by a temperature rise to a degree or so above the original can induce seasonal spawners to co-operate, not as perverse as it sounds, the rains increase the amount of water, sure, but then flood to shallow depths large areas of forest. The shallow water then tends to become warmer then the original deeper water.

A number of subtle water chemistry changes occur when thé flooding happens, the pH for example dropped from 6.6 to 5.7 in one area I was collecting, presumably because large amounts of partially rotted rainforrest litter was suddenly in the water and contributing tannins and acids.

The sudden innundation also causes a lot of insects and other small animals, etc. to drown and float on the surface, so there is a food glut, which may also be significant.

A very worthy project, good luck, and keep us informed.

 

[NEON98101]

Thanks for your reply, Ryan & Laternal Line
I appreciate that. Although I was and still hoping the first hand experience if anyone out there have done that.
And also, I would like to make myself clear that I would like to try to breed them but I don't think I can do it right away. Since if I seriously consider breed them, I need to set up their own tank and right now all my spare tanks are full of Panda cory babies and I got some glow-light tetra frys not long time ago. And for my hatchetfish, I need to make the tight cover for the breeding tank which itself is project for this lazy ass.
Although my hatchetfish never jumped out the tank yet, but I read all the time about their tendency to jump out. Maybe because I have pretty good cover for the tank they live in right now and also most of the sueface is covered with floating plant and also they are the biggest fish inthe tank except few Melanitus corys so there is no threatning fish.
Anyway, so this is not immidiate project. Like I said, I don't even know if anyone in the world have done breeding the silver hatchetfish in the captibity. I read some done with Marble hatchet but even that I can't find the detailed information.

So if anyone out there who done breeding any hatchetfish or know some detailed information, please let me know. Like where I can find the detailed information, books, web, etc.