Breeding Simpsonichthys Santanae

So,I purchased a pair of these at an auction, and I would like to know if anyone has any information about breeding them. chromedome52 and RobM , I saw the thread you guys posted on about
simpsonichthys magnificus. JMDuti, if your still on fishlore, have you had any luck?

 

I haven't had these for a while now and don't really remember the specifics, sorry. They were easy to breed and I didn't have to do anything special. Any info you find for South American annuals would apply to these.

Good luck with them! They are spectacular little fish!

 

So what I have found is that I need pear for them to lay their eggs in.
Can you let me know if I have this right?
First I put peat in a glass container.
I wait for them to put eggs in the peat.
I collect the peat in a net, and squeeze it out.
Then I label a baggie with the date and name and put it on a shelf.
And then x months later I introduce the leat to water, and bam I have babies?
What is the amount of time they should be dry for?

 

Your plan looks good for the most part. Will you be using a BBS net? You could just use paper towel instead.

SAA's in general prefer aged peat so they might take a while before they start spawning.

This page doesn't list an incubation time for them but going by the other Simpsonichthys they do have listed it should be around 6-8 weeks. I would check for eyed up eggs at 6 weeks and go from there.

http://info.killi.palo-alto.ca.us/ref/breeding/annuals/times/

 

Ok, I might just use the paper towl.
Thanks for all your help so far.
My only other question is what kind of peat moss should I buy? Is the everyday stuff at a garden acceptable, or should I buy stuff labeled on eBay specifically for killies?

 

The garden type is fine, just remove any sticks or whatever else may be in it. You can also use coconut coir. Either one will need to be boiled first to help it sink and kill any critters that might be in it.

Oh, be sure to double or triple up the paper towel so it doesn't burst open when you squeeze the water out of the peat.

 

Ok, thanks
Will try to get some of that tonight.

Does the peat moss need to be organic?

 

Not real sure, you wouldn't want anything with fertilizer in it.

 

I will go with organic, but I also saw Petco had sphagnum moss for sale meant for reptiles. Could I use that?

 

The Petco stuff should be fine. They wouldn't sell anything that is harmful for animals.

 

Ok, thanks for all your help. I'm going to pick some up tomorrow and go from there. I'm going to get some sort of glass container at ac more, would that be ok? Or should I use a plastic bowl?

 

Glass or plastic shouln't really matter, just so long as it sinks, LOL

 

This going into the tank today.
How will I know when there are eggs in there?

This is a lot harder than I though....
Would this work?

 

Remove the gravel or they'll try to spawn in that, even though the stones are relatively large. The dish should be deeper for SA peat spawners because they are divers and will blow the medium up into the water column. I used large, deep butter tubs, put a layer of marbles in the bottom for ballast because they will float otherwise. About two inches of fine peat from compressed peat pellets, though sphagnum will work just as well. Soak it a couple of days, and just use the stuff that sinks.The lid of the container had a hole cut in the center, big enough for the fish to easily enter. The lid turned the blown substrate back toward the bottom, so that not much was tossed out of the container. An alternative was a standard half gallon fish bowl in a deeper tank, the shape of the bowl again keeps the substrate from being blown out. The bowl has the advantage of staying submerged on its own. Just remember that SA annuals are divers, and need at least a couple of inches depth in the substrate to dive into.

Placing a container full of peat into a tank is a skill all to itself !

 

Ok, thanks for the advice.
I will try to do that

 

So I check on these guys and the female is like this, and the Male is noticeably more colorful than her. How can I tell if eggs have been laid?

 

If they are in the peat and wiggling around there will be eggs.

Usually after a week you take out the bowl/peat and strain off the water. Then you should be able to carefully dig around and find some eggs. If you quickly find 5 eggs, there is usually a lot more than that. Sometimes the peat will stick to the eggs and make it hard to find them.

 

So now the Male was wiggling around in there. I think I will wait till tomorrow though to pull the moss and give them the weekend w/o moss. I saw this on the Male today. Is this some sort of sex organ or is it possibly a parasite of some sort?

 

Yep, that is a good sign that they are breeding.