> >it almost seemed that I
> >had gotten only males...
> On the strain I have, the females can readily be told apart by the
> black edge on the anal fin. This is 100% true with mine, but I have
> heard of other strains where this isn't so (some females lack the
> black).
Thanks!!!
Several years back I had some peacock gudgeon follow me home from an
area shop and the females had the black margin on the anal fin. In time
I passed their fry on to others.
Last spring a bag of youngsters showed up at a local Chicago area
auction and I purchased them again. Quite small, but equipped with
remarkable appetites they grew relatively quickly. I got a couple of
spawns when they were smaller, pulled the pvc pipe from the well planted
10 gallon tank and saved some fry. This summer there haven't been any
spawns. I couldn't believe my eyes in that there seems to be nobody
among the five residents with a black stripe. (I hear them laughing at
my consternation.)
Here then is a question for the thread: do high summer temperatures
discourage spawning as elevated metabolisms use up the food? Although
water changes were not as aggressively done as with the rainbows, they
were kept up. Are there others who have noticed that they may just
switch off for a while?
A small observation from when I had them before and couldn't get them
to stop procreating... After the pair had spawned the female was removed
from the tank and dumped, with some tank water, in a temporary plastic 2
and 1/2 gallon Lustar tank. In time, as the fry became free swimming,
the male and pvc pipe joined her. Frantic work demands precluded doing
much for them that week so a small bunch of blackworms (lacking sifted
Daphnia) were squirted in with them and they were left to their own
devices for a time. When I checked back some days had elapsed. Most of
the blackworms (from a uniquely good batch - I wish I had time to grow
them in a tank of their own like one local does) were gone. The gudgeons
not only had spawned, but were going about their business oblivious to
the small cloud of fry they shared that little tank with.
The few articles that have been published in the slicks have never
mentioned that happening. (Maybe those people were too fastitious.) This
tolerance of fry has happened for me with M. praecox and a bunch of
other rif-raf (mostly killies, livebearers and even generations of
king's tetras) so I wasn't too surprised to see it happen except in such
confined quarters. Have others observed this with Tateurndina? Thanks
for your time.
All the best!
Scott Davis
Park Forest, IL