wormboy Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 OK you people who have spawned peppies, I have a question for you. I have 6 peppermints, whcih I believe to be 2 boys, 2 girls and 2 as yet unsexable. The fish are shown in this thread but are now 3+ y/o and the boys are a bit more bristly. They are in a 4 ft, bare bottom tank(200L) by themselves with lots of didgeridoo wood, some slate peices and some large java fern pants. Filtration is an 1800L/hr internal power filter (Mozoo) with large sponges. I, in the next 6-12 months am going to spawn and then raise at least one batch of these little blighters (can you tell I'm trying to use the power of positive thinking? ). And now to the question. What does everyone believe the most important factors determining the success of this undertaking will be? More succinctly, what can I do to make this thing happen? Any advice on any or all of the following (or any I have not though of) would be greatly appreciated as this is a challenge I would love to meet. water parameters filtration tank size tank furniture other equipment (e.g. RO unit) diets water change regimes male:female ratios lighting regime spawning triggers etcetera ad nauseum San-shoe all very much -Mat- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colfish Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 hi matt don't mean to be a bore, but if you go lookies in the cat archives i'm sure you will discover all the little dark cattie secrects that have been let out of the bag previously. Planet Catfish would also be worth a look. going by some of your questions, you have heard some tips and rumors before although i could give suggestions to most of your queries, it would take me all night to do so and look like an ezine cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemosfinder Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Surpries........There are no secrets at all in breeding them!You could try and split them into trios,but i have had plenty of spawning in both prs,trios and colonies[3m and 6 or 7 f].The best thing to do is try different things for yourself as different things work for some and not others.I have bred the little suckers in all sorts of tanks[bare bottom,3fts,4fts,6x2x2s....everything].Are you feeding them heaps of vegies I would take the 2 unknown sexes out and put them in another tank,cause they may be males and wont bristle up cause there is already 2 dominant males in there.Sounds like your doing everything right so just start playing around a bit with them.Try doing a water change when it rains[about 30% or so]Also try feeding them up as much as they can eat for say 2 weeks than dont feed them for 2 or 3 days and than do a water change... All the best with it and i have to say when you do get your first spawn it will have been worth the wait....Peppermint kittens look awsome,specialy when there are 40 or 50 of them sitting together on a peice of driftwod..Cheers...Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Hey I'm new to breeding peppermints but I will try my best to help: temp 26 degs nirtate = 0 nitrite = 0 ammonia = 0 kH = ? (need to get this test kit ) - ppm defintiely <= 120ppm I have 3 ceramic logs in the centre of the tank. The ceramic logs need to be closed at one end and wide enough for the female to slip past the male blocking the open end. I have witnessed alot of spawning behaviour over the last 3 weeks. The female appears to be fighting with the male. what is actually happening is she is trying to get past him to dump her eggs in the log. I think this is peppemint 'courtship'. He ir they are NOT good fathers becasue they have booted the eggs out of the log every single time. I have: 1. one 500l/h internal filter 1. 1000l/h canister which often gets blocked up from gunk 1. 300l/h sponge filter weekly 50 percent water change. Water is cooler than the tank tempeature and is trickled into the tank directly from my R/O water filter. Funnily enough no R/O'd water was used to trigger the spawns. What i beleive to be the key is - I have two bags of 'Purigen' in my canister filter. This removes all nitrates as well as phosphates and other nasties. The water is quite pure and regarless of all the crap in there, remains very good quality. The 'pure' water has probably simulated a wet season - because rainwater is very pure without phosphates and nitrate etc. Result = 200+ lil pep Kittens chewing hard on wood. I've moved the first batch onto cucumber, the second one is gettign a atste for cucumber and the third batch will be moved onto it in a day or two. Anyways, HTH Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormboy Posted January 17, 2006 Author Share Posted January 17, 2006 cheers all, Brad, some good tips there, I'll give a few of them a go. Mike, thanks especially for What i beleive to be the key is - I have two bags of 'Purigen' in my canister filter. This removes all nitrates as well as phosphates and other nasties. The water is quite pure and regarless of all the crap in there, remains very good quality. The 'pure' water has probably simulated a wet season - because rainwater is very pure without phosphates and nitrate etc. this is exactly the kind of opinions I am after A couple of Qs though. What size tank do you have them in and are the maintained in pair/trio/colony? Also, as a slight tanget, what brand of RO unit do you have and do you have anything good/bad to say about it? This last also applies to anybody else wanting to chip in. -Mat- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 I'm glad to help out where I can Basically I have 11 of them in a 3ft tank 5m 6f 3 ceramic logs as mentioned in the previous post a load of filtration feeding them on cucmber I can recommend a PSI aquarium grade 3 stage R/O water filter with adjustable TDS. Look in all honesty, I dont think u need this to breed peppermints, just keep the water clean (purigen will help and its cheap) do regular water changes... dont overfeed and get some of those larger size ceramic logs. Basciallly what happens is the female tries her best to get into the males cave. The male 9/10 times tries to block the cave off. You wants something just big enough so the female can slip thru past the male and lay her eggs. 7-8cm diameter is great. when u see a bit of female and male fighting and see a female with a few scrathces on her back... they are in spawning mode. the female gets the scratches from scratching herself trying to get past the male blocking the cave. They need to be 9-10cm min before they will breed efficiently. HTH Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormboy Posted January 17, 2006 Author Share Posted January 17, 2006 Ta again, The four sexed fish will all be pusing the 9-10 cm / 3 year barrier now so I dont think that should be a problem. Maybe its my logs. Mine are only 5-7cm diameter open at both ends and and wooden. The fish have taken to them but perhaps its not big enough or secure enough for them to spawn. I'll try changing that too -Mat- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemosfinder Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Hi Mike, just reading your reply. A word of advice if you are interested.If your males keep kicking the eggs out it is either because you have too many males in too small a tank and/or the breeding logs you have in there may be too smooth for the eggs to stick to. This happened to me once before and if you maybe try a different log or 2 it should fix the problem of kicking the eggs out each time. I have also found a 50% water change for BN's that often, can lead to disaster,and if you can leave the water a little on the[how can i say]un-clean side,it will promote slight alge growth and your catties will love you for it .These same "rules" go for all the different varieties of catfish i have bred including normals,albinos,peppermints orange-spots and just recently.....Longfins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormboy Posted January 17, 2006 Author Share Posted January 17, 2006 hey Bret, I'm catching up on your maintained species list. I have normals, albinos, peps and orange spots now (just juvies for the last). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuong Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Definitely get some logs which are closed at an end. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemosfinder Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Oh yeah, it doesn't matter on the size of the fish weather it will breed or not, but it has to be of age [peppermints are around 2 years of age] Also you do have to close your logs up at on end and if both males are fighting over the same spawning site[log] that will also cause them not to breed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Thanks mate... just going on what works for me. They kept the eggs the last time they spawned. ceramic logs are quite rough. I forgot to mention that the other males have ceramic pot caves, liek the BN caves. The girls seem like they prefer the ceramic log in my particular setup. The only fighting that happens in my tank is a courting and male/female tail slapping each other etc. Thanks for the the tips tho (don't know about the water changes causing disaster tho... havent expericnced it.) Only losses I have had is when the logs were too small and the female got trapped inside and the male wanted her out and bashed her etc. If they can both fit in there, I guess it eliminates that problem. Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Hey Mat; What worked for my trio was some protein in their diet, got my first spawn off them after about a week after introducing the food. OR it could have been the preminition dream of pepper kittens in the tank i had the night before i found free swimming fry. True Story. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Mat, Being a good W.A. catnut, surely you have looked at the Auscat site on the Perth Forum. Pardon the mix up in chronology that happened when the forum was moved, but there is more information, photos and statistics on that site refering to Peppermints than any other site in the world.. If it isn't there, it isn't known. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gianniz Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 i think one of the biggest challenges for breeding peppermints are the time it takes for them to sexually mature. clean water and not too much distourbance will help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormboy Posted January 17, 2006 Author Share Posted January 17, 2006 Being a good W.A. catnut, surely you have looked at the Auscat site on the Perth Forum. Sure have Alan, like you say i'm still trying sift through the chronology and figure out exactly who is talking about what and in what order . Lots of info there but I just thouhgt I might send out a few more tentacles and see what the ace members who dont frequent that site had to say on the matter. Richard, what protien did you feed them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted February 1, 2006 Share Posted February 1, 2006 I may be wrong, but I don't think there are too many real "Cat nuts" in Aus who don't poke their nose into 'Auscat' now and again. If you keep a watch you may even see a few World renound names bob up on that forum (if you know who you are looking for). and there is a 'Hot' topic. 'Auscat' used to be a "stand alone" dedicated catfish forum years ago. With contributors from around the world. It was not until after the Perth Society agreed to host 'Auscat' that ACE introduced "catfish Corner" and Qld Cichlids started "Ozcat". They both had the opportunity to take "Auscat" on board but Sicklids clouded their vision at the time. I don't know that the three catfish forums are such a good thing, we have not had any real dedicated information exchange in the catfish community since the clones appeared. If there is a specific question you have re Peppermints, just ask, I'm sure all the dab hands are watching. Alan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phear Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 are u referring to Chapter 2 Peppermint Bristlenose Spawn Chronology or something else??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wormboy Posted February 3, 2006 Author Share Posted February 3, 2006 are u referring to Chapter 2 Peppermint Bristlenose Spawn Chronology or something else??? Yeah, there are 4 sticky threads regarding peps, all have some useful info. -Mat- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codyg Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Mat, Being a good W.A. catnut, surely you have looked at the Auscat site on the Perth Forum. Pardon the mix up in chronology that happened when the forum was moved, but there is more information, photos and statistics on that site refering to Peppermints than any other site in the world.. If it isn't there, it isn't known. Alan ← What is this so called forum's address Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Mat, Being a good W.A. catnut, surely you have looked at the Auscat site on the Perth Forum. Pardon the mix up in chronology that happened when the forum was moved, but there is more information, photos and statistics on that site refering to Peppermints than any other site in the world.. If it isn't there, it isn't known. Alan ← What is this so called forum's address ← Hey check this out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codyg Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 thanks for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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