Norman Lamp Eyes

[lilacamy931]

Had these a while now and the little back story goes, moved my 8 from the 10g to the 160 litre and found three fry. Lost 3 to some gobies eating them so for now they are back in the 10g, have managed to distinguish that I have 3 males left and 2 females, regularly see what I thinking is displaying action and dearly would like them to breed again. Have made own spawn mop out of blue acrylic yarn and added but they seem to really love a limnophila aquatica in there. My questions are as follows

1. What do the eggs look like and how do they come out of the female? Read the breeding guides but cant gather much
2. What sort of behaviour should I see if breeding mode, read they gain silvery eye look, sure seen this today in fact?
3. I have a female that looks little eggy (hope so) do the females get plumper at the front, again how do the eggs come out?

Thanks for any help, really appreciated, they are in with a betta at the moment, but he is a relatively old man that doesnt take notice of them much.

We want to bring the shoal up and also replace the ones we lost and breeding our own would simply be amazing, once the culprits of eating my others has gone, will be putting them back in the 160 litre

 

[BigC]

Hi lilacamy,
I have never been one who was interested in Lampeyes let alone Poropanchax normani, but I know quite a few people are.
That said I can only quote from the literature I have at hand for to reply to your questions. They are not my personal findings and should be taken at face value.

1. What do the eggs look like and how do they come out of the female? Read the breeding guides but cant gather much

They like moderately hard and alkaline water with a pH of around 7.4 - 7.6, temperature in the range of 24-27'C
Higher pH provides a problem in itself in that Ammonia levels rise faster in a higher alkaline level. Which probably explains why a lot of folks lose quite a lot of these fish when they acquire them.

2. What sort of behaviour should I see if breeding mode, read they gain silvery eye look, sure seen this today in fact?

The males have a very active courtship ritual will drive the females quite hard into the mops sometimes torn fins may be witnessed.
According to any breeding reports I have to hand they are quite easy to introduce to spawn providing the above criteria are met. The problem arises when fry rearing. The fry are very very small and will not take artemia from hatch, in fact the wont even feed for a couple of days which means they must be relying on a yolk sac. After this time provision must be made for feeding these minuscule fry. either by infusoria or Liquifry products.
Sorry I cant be of more help due to my limited knowledge on the subject but I hope I've provided you with a little information to get you started.
Good luck with the project and let's know how you get on
ATB
C

 

[lilacamy931]

Thanks very much BigC, really appreciated that input! I had heard of some sayign these produced a string of eggs and was getting throughly confused. I have a ph8 and hard water, we do have a RO Unit, so may introduce a little RO water to spark things off. Mine have thrived since I have had them growing pretty big in short amount of time with weekly water changes, so relatively lucky. I will watch their behaviour closely though suspect they may breed when someone isnt looking. Thank you very very much, you have been a great help giving me pointers, watch this space to see if I can sustain a spawning

 

[lilacamy931]

Well the three males have really been displaying to each other and budging each other out of the way, looking now a female and one male have gone very silvery eyed which I read is a sign that they have mated, the female taking longer to recover? Looking hopefully around but think either blind or no eggs or am I reading the signs wrong??