Hello Troy,
I thought I'd give a few personal observations on breeding the Peacock
Gudgeon. I have never successfully raised fry with the adults but have
know people that have. One observation I have noticed between my lack
of luck and their good luck in this regard is the peacock gudgeons
appear to be different strains. I know a few people here say don't
depend on strains by color alone and this is what I'm judging by. I do
not know where mine were originally collected from or the other strain
I've seen. But I do know they have had the parents raise the fry and I
haven't.
I keep mine in a bare tank (multiple males and females) with pvc tubes
for spawning. They seem to go through spawning sequences when they are
quite prolific and times of know spawning activity. Temp is usually
about 75 f (sorry I'm to lazy to convert to C). GH 150, KH 120 pH 8.0
They always eat all the fry from uncollected spawnings. I do let the
males care for them until they hatch. The males seem to generally
leave the fry alone for about a day after hatching. I move the eggs
and the guarding male by picking up the entire tube with my fingers
blocking the ends. Then I set the male, tube and eggs right into the
hatching tank. I've even moved more than one spawn into a hatching
tank and had these spawn hatch out over a week apart with no fry
predation. It appears that males guarding eggs usually show little
interest in eating fry.
But after the eggs hatch things can change rather quickly with my
strain.
Later
Cary Hostrawser
Minnesota Aquarium Society
http://www.mn-aquarium.org/
Rainbowfish Study Group of North America
http://home.earthlink.net/~sbuckel/index.html