# Gymnogeophagus meridonalis...spawned!



## frugalfish (Apr 20, 2005)

Well after noticing that two of the four of these that I have decided to escavate a corner of my sixty gallon I figured something must be up. I really wasn't sure how to sex these fish, but now that they are paired there are some slight differences in color and fin shape. The male is slightly more colorful and the dorsal and anal fins are a bit more pointed than on the female, similar to firemouths. After a little research I found that they, like a lot of cichlids, prefer to lay their eggs on a flat surface so I introduced a flat stone next to where they were digging. Yesterday they started really digging hard and this morning I actually caught them in the act of spawning. Very cool! Got to watch the female lay eggs and then the male come in and fertilize. Looks to be a good size batch...somewhere around two hundred eggs. I'm not sure if any will survive as there are six botias that they will have to fend off from eating the eggs, but we'll see what kind of parents these two are. For reference these fish are approximately 3.5" in size.

Here's the male, notice the distended organ.










The female, again notice the distention on her.










Here's the female laying eggs on the rock, while male keeps guard and waits to fertilize.










Checking out their work.










I just like this shot, shows front and back, etc.


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

Congrats!!! Beautiful fish! Can't wait to see the results.


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## K20A2 (Aug 12, 2006)

WOW, nice looking fish. I hope all goes well with the eggs.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Congrats! Beautiful fish, and great pics.


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## pnchowdary (Jul 27, 2006)

Beautifull Fish. Please do post photos of the little ones once they hatch.


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

Absolutely beautiful! Thank you. I look forward to the next batch of photos.

Boy, that is exciting!

Amazing camera work!


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## frugalfish (Apr 20, 2005)

Thanks to all for the nice compliments on the fish and photos. My wife is more of the photographer, but since she wasn't home I had to take the shots. I'm happy a few of them turned out well enough. It's a little hard to get good shots, because this tank is only lit by a single 40 watt fluorescent bulb and I don't have an extra flash. As for the fish they are guarding the nest well enough. Seems the female never leaves the eggs and the male guards the parameter. So far so good.


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## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

> It's a little hard to get good shots, because this tank is only lit by a single 40 watt fluorescent bulb and I don't have an extra flash.


 Take this as a compliment. - I find that hard to believe.

When I can do with my Kodak EasyShare C330 what you can do with what you have, I will be in Fishy Nirvana!

Absolutely Amazing and Beautiful! :thumbsup:


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## frugalfish (Apr 20, 2005)

I used my wifes Canon Rebel XTi DSLR, with the basic 50mm lens, zoomed in, and manually focused. Had to put it on 1600 ISO. There's some ambient light coming through a window that's covered with a light shade behind the tank.


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## frugalfish (Apr 20, 2005)

Yesterday I noticed that the eggs had darkened and appear to be getting closer to hatching. There are (for reasons I'm not exactly sure of) quite a few less eggs. Possibly bad ones removed by the parents, eaten, or preyed on by the botias. The botias were removed yesterday. From what I've read the eggs may hatch on day five today is day four. I also put a sponge over the intake of the filter as a precaution should fry survive the hatch.


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## frugalfish (Apr 20, 2005)

Posted too soon...babies are hatching. Interesting so far, the female dug out a small hole under the rock and is depositing the fry into it. Also she seems to either help the fry out of their casings or something else that requires her to mouth them and then drop them into the hole. Very small fry and I"m not going to be able to get a photo, there is simple no angle to shoot. The male hangs around, peeks in on the fry, chases her back onto the nest, and generally patrols the parameter. The female pectoral fins are getting ragged and she obviously does most the work. When she is not checking the eggs and fry she is digging more holes around the rock. Forgot how cool cichlids are when they breed.


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## riverspryte (Sep 16, 2006)

*Good Luck with the fry!*

I hope that all of your fry hatch and survive!!! I have been trying to breed my bettas, but the fry have not survived past one month. Good idea to cover the filter. Nice photos, beautiful fish; I have a 20D, but so far your pics are much better than mine.

Good Luck with your babies!


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Well that's a very good start since they have hatched and the parents are doing their duty. 

Not to veer off topic, but have you had any troubles with the Xti? I've heard of quite a few having problems with them either over or under exposing the shots, but you're obviously not having those problems looking at these photos at least.


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## frugalfish (Apr 20, 2005)

JanS said:


> Not to veer off topic, but have you had any troubles with the Xti? I've heard of quite a few having problems with them either over or under exposing the shots, but you're obviously not having those problems looking at these photos at least.


We (wife and myself) are still learning how to use this camera. It is our first DSLR and haven't used it enough to be that familiar with all it's functions. When we do shoot it is mostly in manual modes. I will say that when using the auto function it has seemed that some shots are overexposed, but we've had that trouble with other cameras in auto mode as well. I guess we are not auto mode fans. Again, my wife is more the photographer and she has taken some awesome pictures with this camera. I tend to get lucky with my shots.


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## nonamethefish (Feb 25, 2004)

Cool fish! Do they have a common name? The pattern is strikingly similar to that of Jordanella floridae.(American flag fish)


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