I Have A Baby !

[Guinness]

Have a quarentine tank in the garage, which a few months ago- had a pair of young Panchax in for a few days. Really basic, no gravel/ sand etc, just water with a heater-no filter. The only other thing in there was a mass of riccia which I was going to bring on to use in my main tank. TBH after taking out the Panchax, have taken little or no notice of my quarantine tank as I have 5 others to look after & have swapped one recently to Marine which seems to have taken up most of my time.

Looked yesterday & I have a baby male Panchax- God knows how he has survived without food etc- but he is bright as a button. Now have to suss out what on earth to do with him. He's about an inch long so hopefully he can go into my very peaceful small community tank.

Can't believe it really. I have spent months trying to get offspring from another pair of my killis (Jos Plateau)- separate tank, daily checks,mops, live food the works but nothing.

Perhaps trying too hard

 

[BigC]

What problems are you having with Fp. gar Jos Plateau
Regards
BigC

 

[Guinness]

Hi BigC- glad it's you!

Have a 5 G tank- all water parametres fine, don't have anything too fancy such as real plants, they seem to mate- but after checking the mops daily- nothing.

Can you give me any other ideas? He is just such a beautiful fish- I would love to have some offspring.

 

[BigC]

Ah I see your from Southern England (London way) The water down there is notoriously hard and the is the most likely cause as to why you arn't having any sucess with these. They are quite easy to breed and considered a beginners fish. The reason I lean toward this assumption is that the panchax are breeding fine, they will breed in much harder water than Fundulopanchax.
That said you need to address the water parameters. Now you cant do this overnight. Without going all out and buying expensive equipment try taking a 2 gallon bucket and placing some Irish peat moss in some ladies tights and leave in the bucket for a week or so, drain off the water and refill, leave again for another week and this time use the water to waterchange your Jos Plateau tank. this will give you more of a chance of getting some viable eggs.
Regards
BigC

 

[Guinness]

Yes I'm Oxford based & you woudn't want to drink the water that comes out of our taps!!

Thanks for that great tip- not too difficult will get my old tights out.

Brilliant- thanks

 

[Biulu]

Yes, that is what I did too to hatch my Jos Plateau eggs, and it worked well! Water here has pH8. What has proven to be an even easier way for me is to use water that comes from a tank with a large piece of bogwood in it. The tannins bring down the pH to 6, and a hardness of 3-5.

Regarding to the panchax: I have similar experiences. I also got 1 male from a pair I had. Probably there was an egg that had been dropped on some live plants. Luckily I did find him on time before being eaten by some other fish...... He is now a beautiful juvenile male in one of my community tanks!