[nel]

For now there're 3 little ropefish, every has it's own little "home" (plastic container as a small tank). There might be more in the main tank, there're so many plants now it's hard to find something so small. I'm using Aquarium Logger for android to note params once a week, more or less steady:
pH 6.2-6.4
KH 3
GH 7
Temp 25 C
PO4 1.0
Fe 0.15 (need to add a little)
NO3 2.5 (need to add some too)
K 18
Mg 18
Ca 30

I believe that most important thing to be able to breed ropefish is their age. Mine are with me for 8 years and when I got them they were around 15-20 cm long. So probably more than 10 years old. Every other documented mating was with fish about 15 years old. They're maturing pretty slowly. Bad news is nobody could get them to adult. Best result was 5 months old, then dead. I'll be trying everything to keep fry alive, but it may be hard. Maybe in the main tank some will surprise me?

 

[nel]

Decided to do a small fry session!
Kribensis with fry - movie.

Kribensis protecting fry photos:

Baby rope (not much to look at for now):

One of blue gularis fry (just look into his cute little eyes... and murderous smile):

 

[HybridHerp]

You sir, are making me debate adding more ropes to my 75. Very nice tank and very excited to see how those fry progress.

 

[nel]

Small journal entry:
What lives (fry):
2 out of 3 ropefish. One observation - looks like they need "dirt", sand, some moss, maybe they're eating some microorganisms from dirt? One little fry was in a "sterile" tank, same water, but without sand, plants etc. This one is dead now. Didn't add salt for now, I'm scared of experimenting on my only 2 little ropefish. They're not eating BBS for now, but started moving around more.
8/8 blue gularis - started heating up the tank (now it's 22 C) and they're growing like crazy now.
5/5 kribensis - it's really odd! First day I saw kribensis pair with 5 youngsters... And with all those scary fish around they're all alive! Parents are really fighting everything getting nearer than 15 cm fro the fry.
Plants: new bolbitis browning a little, probably waited too long in a bucket, will have to cut some leaves.

 

[WaterLife]

Any updates?

Sucks to hear about the loss of one baby ropefish. Mature tanks definitely provide a bunch of microorganisms that fry do really well on. Not too sure how much factor a stress really is on little fry with catching and separating and all.

 

[nel]

Today I'm doing some cleaning - CO2 bottle ended and tank was without CO2 for 3 days (weekend), some algae occurred :-/
Two young ropefish are alive and moving much, but not eating BBS... Young gularis growing like mad and so are kribensis. It's really odd, that with so many predators parents are doing such a great job!
Tomorrow I should be able to make some photos.

 

[Nordic]

Get some green water from a pond or green pool, as long as it doesn't smell off, it should be good.
Lots of visible water organisms is a good sign. I don't even bother trying to feed BBS for egg born fish for at least a week generally.
They get just as fat off micro organisms. I was just checking out some of the larger peppered cory fry out earlier. It appears they already are showing signs of having their mother's long fins. She is a great fish, with lots of personality, and the only cory that comes to meet me at the glass rather than dart away.

 

[Alyssa]

OMG! This thread has me "fangirl squeeeing" hardcore!!! :::::squeeeee!!::::: Ropefish! <3

And what a glorious tank for them! And they are breeding for you in it just takes the cake, lol. Totally am loving that tank bigtime man!

 

[gregorylampron]

Get some green water from a pond or green pool, as long as it doesn't smell off, it should be good.
Lots of visible water organisms is a good sign. I don't even bother trying to feed BBS for egg born fish for at least a week generally.
They get just as fat off micro organisms. I was just checking out some of the larger peppered cory fry out earlier. It appears they already are showing signs of having their mother's long fins. She is a great fish, with lots of personality, and the only cory that comes to meet me at the glass rather than dart away.

Do you test water when you do this before you use it? Which fry have you fed like this? My bronze cories and panda molies are always having fry, so it sounds like an easy replacement for farming diatoms and brine shrimp. I have never tried, would I use mountain pond water, maybe?

Please keep hands off glass.

 

[Nordic]

Nope, you can see if the water is healthy by the amounts and type of aquatic life in it... Frogs and tadpoles are a very good sign.
When they grow green water for feed they use a disk which should just barely be visible at arms length.
I always keep some level of green in my egg layer tanks, the fry are just so much healthier for it.
It must never smell off.

You should see when I feed the pink danio. I put a light in the corner then pour the water in.
After about 10 minutes all the fish are in that corner, you could scoop 50 with a net. The little water critters go after the light like BBS. I would say there are 4 stages of food for small fry. Microscopic, then things like those little stink worms and BBS, then they can go up to something larger like ground First Bites..before flakes. I sometimes use powdered livebearer food too once they can take First Bites. I like to moisten the tip of my finger put some First Bites on it, then dip it under the water quickly and shake it a bit... It goes down looking like a cloud of BBS, which draws the fishes' attention, they don't always want to take food at the surface when very small.

I plan on keeping the smaller cory fry in the breeding net with the adults for now. Shortly after feeding, the big ones go up to the net and suck all the left over food through it. So, things stay nice and clean. It is an unfiltered tank too, so there is quite a bit of microscopic life in the water.

 

[nel]

I used green water for small blue gularis (worked like charm, never bothered with BBS), added some to ropefish fry tanks, will see what happens next. Found another 4 in the main tank, only 1 was cooperative enough to get it in smaller tank, the rest - maybe they'll live somehow on their own. It looks like ropefish are not wasting their time!

 

[Smooch]

I love this tank. I keep coming back to this thread just to look at the pictures. The way it is planted looks like a inspiration piece for a children's books.

 

[nel]

Right now I'm a little busy and won't be able to do photos (sorry guys!). Here is small update on everything:
- young ropefish are in greater number now, 3 are in different tank, don't know how many in main tank, but saw at least other 3. Maybe in dense cryptocoryne, where they tend to be, there is a chance to live.
- blue gularis are growing great, started to understand that seeing me means food! All alive.
- odd, but great news - all 5 kribensis alive and thriving! There is always something to nibble on. Parents are having hard time, fry is starting to be disobedient. Good news - ropefish won't even look at them, sometimes even bump into some fry and nothing happens (maybe scared of angry parents? ).
- some algae problems, got a CO2 leak and ones again had to replace the bottle, everything should be OK in a week or two.

 

[nel]

Sadly - all little ropefish never tried eating and died as soon as yolk sack disappeared. Today adults spawned once again, so maybe this time... Well, I'm working on it and ropefish are working on it too Blue gularis are growing more and more quickly and so are kribensis, but only four of them, one probably got eaten by gularis.
I'll try to get some photos as soon as possible!

 

[nel]

Sorry for no updates. I'm leaving for a month on vacation and had so many things to do before it! Right now some small ropefish appear and disappear in my tank, after vacation I'll try once again to breed them and I'll be back with more regular updates. 4 young kribensis are living and growing, even though their mom is not caring for them any more. She is ready to lay more eggs, so she became a little aggressive even towards her own babies. 7 blue gularis are alive - one jumped out, now there is a lid, so the rest is safe. They're growing nicely - 4 males, 3 females (slightly disappointed, they would be happier with something around 2 males plus 5 females). Bad news is I lost adult female and male gularis - . I knew 2 males and 1 female wasn't the best proportion, but it was caused by 2 females jumping out of quarantine tank half year ago. Fact to remember: gularis jump even when happy (ropefish don't jump out when happy ).

Do you think that if I do big water change before, restrict light (2x39W will be on for 7 hours, other 2x39W will be permanently off) and CO2 (should I leave low bps or cut it off?), no ferts for this month, food 2-3 times a week (bought pill container and this way parents will know how to feed), no water changes, no cleaning for a month. Will it work? Anybody with suggestions? Something I should do before leaving? Something I definitely shouldn't do?

 

[second]

Do you have any youtube vids of this tank? looks awesome

 

[Aenglaan]

That's a cool tank with some interesting livestock. Are the ropefish ever predatory towards other fish or do they just ignore everything else?

 

[klibs]

YES thank you for doing ropefish. Very rare to see that.

I would also like to know if they are predatory? Do you have a lid? I read they are escape artists.

 

[nel]

I have a lid, they never tried to run away, but sometimes they jump and bump onto lid.
About predatory - normally yes, they are. In my tank they aren't hunting, but they eat much live and frozen food. When I went on vacation for a month and they were eating once every two days, small portions... Somehow two congo tetra females disappeared... So probably it's rope's fault.

 

[nel]

Hi guys!
I wasn't posting here for some time, well things went mad for some time. 4 weekend on vacation, later 2 weeks without CO2, 2 other weeks without half of the light... So many disasters.

Ropefish are ok, that's most important for me. Spawning regularly too. In a month or so I should have more time and I will look more into breeding them.

There're only 9 congo tetras - when I was on vacation some disappeared... Feeding was extremely low, so maybe one of the ropes ate them. Same goes for young blue gularis. Now there're two males and one female, waiting for my lfs to get some females. Odd thing is all kribensis are doing great. All four youngsters are growing nicely.

I'm saving some money to get bigger tank for everybody - 200x50x50 cm would be nice. In the meantime I bought 30x30x30 cm cube - now it's in dsm phase. There will be some CPD's and probably blue velvet or yellow shrimp (for now I can't decide).

Later I'll try to do some photos, maybe some videos of both tanks