# peacock gudgeon



## jackh (Oct 9, 2007)

im really thinkin about gettin a pair for my 20g tank. its fairly heavily planted and i have some fossil rock piled up with a few caves for them to maybe spawn in. right now it contains 10 harlequin rasboras, 6 threadfin rainbows, 15 rcs and 3 amano. i might get rid of a couple of my harlequins if i do get a pair of peacocks, but im concerned they will eat my shrimp or baby shrimp. as i said before, theres lots of plants and i think there are plenty of hiding places for shrimp, but ive read that these things dine on crustaceans. anybody know for sure?


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

they dont get too big, so they'd only eat crustacean spawn i would imagine. i keep loaches and a large siamensis with blueberry shrimp (same size as RCS) and the fish do not wipe out the population and those fish are much more likely to eat shrimp than the goby species you're interested in.

i think you'll be fine. 

gl and cool fish!! a friend of mine bred them in PVC tubes, FYI


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

If I remember right, they require a cold period to simulate winter for breeding.

I'd love to get a few pairs of these....


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## clifford (Jun 28, 2008)

I picked up four unsexed juvie PG's from a member of my local fish club a little less than a year ago, which have now turned into many, many gudgeons. 

There are at least several dozen in one of my planted 20 gallons, along with a healthy colony of cherries. They will pick off the baby shrimp, which are right around 2mm at birth, but so will any tropical fish, even guppies, corries, and SAE's. 

As long as there is plenty of cover (as it sounds like there is in your tank), the shrimp will continue to survive and even expand the colony. I do periodically remove adult shrimp to sell/trade from that tank, and they keep showing back up.

I've never kept threadfins, but the gudgeons are a little teratorial amongst themselves, so I'd keep an eye on your dominant male...I've seen mine pick on other gudgeons in the tank, but again, with the cover you're already providing, they should be fine.

I'd also recommend the PVC tubes Six suggested. Put at least one 4" section of .5" PVC near the front of the tank where you can see into it, but it's not too exposed. The male will eventually coax females inside to spawn, and he'll gaurd the eggs until they hatch. It's fun to be able to watch him fan the eggs with his fins to oxygenate them...he'll also ward off hungry snails and other fish. When they get close to hatching, I usually just pick up the tube with a finger on each end to hold the water in, and move him to a seperate tank or container with some cover plants. Once they hatch he may go after them (having not eaten in a while), so I'd remove him as soon as you see fry swimming around if you're into watching the babies grow up. 

Some fry may survive the gauntlet in the community tank, but if you raise them seperately, it's pretty easy to get 50+ fry per spawn if there are several females in the tank...

Cliff


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## jackh (Oct 9, 2007)

well i was thinkin about just gettin a pair of these fish. i was gonna try my best to sex a male and female at the store, maybe with the help of an employee. 

when i read about the pvc method of breeding on another site i found a perfect place for it. it could go behind this rock so you couldn't see if from the front of the tank. the side of the pipe could be flush with the tank glass though so you could still see inside the pipe.

if these guys are $8 a peice at selling size i think i could make some money if i could raise some fry. what size tank do you move them into, would a five gallon be ok or would they outgrow it fast? do they become territorial pretty fast? tank has to be well established right? does it need plants or can it just have a rocky bottom and peices of pvc scattered throughout? sponge filter or HOB? 

thanks for all the info guys. i didn't want to get any thinkin theyd eat my snails but with yalls responses now i do


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## clifford (Jun 28, 2008)

I move my male into a 10 gallon from the 20 he's in and let the eggs hatch. Then I net him out and put the pipe back in the breeding tank. A 5 gallon would work just as well, as long as it's heavily planted. (this helps oxygenate the water, and provides cover the both the fry and the micro-organisms they like to snack on). 

It took me a couple of tries to get a batch of fry. The first time I left the fry in with the male and he ate almost all of them. The second time I removed him too quickly, and the eggs all died.

The last three or four batches have gone fairly well, they reproduce easily enough that now I usually don't remove the babies, I just let them fend for themselves in the adult's tank. I usually have more fish than buyers.

I'd go with the sponge filter, or no filter. A hob might suck up the fry, and the sponge will promote lots of grazing room for the babies in between feedings. Going with no filter means you need to do more water changing, but doing the extra changes will help more of the fry survive. I change about a quart of water (by dipping a quart sized container with a screen on the top) each day (or when I think about it), and just put tap water back in.

Cliff


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## jackh (Oct 9, 2007)

ok that helps a lot thanks.

what do you use for substrate in the fry tank? do they need lots of little spaces to hide like the grown ones or do they stay at the surface?


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## clifford (Jun 28, 2008)

It just depends on what tanks are available when a new batch of eggs is getting ready to hatch. Typically most of my fry-only tanks are bare, but a lot of my planted tanks have soilmaster select, turface or similar planted-tank substrates.

I think it's good to have a lot of material in a fish tank in general, but many people would probably disagree. Mine are full of plants and pieces of wood, so the fish feel secure, and have plenty of spots to forage around for micro-organisms in between meals. Unless you're feeding the fry 3 or 4 times a day, a heavily planted tank should increase your survival ratio. 

Cliff


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## SpeedEuphoria (Jul 9, 2008)

clifford said:


> I usually have more fish than buyers.


Hey I was just looking for these fish and wondering if you had any forsale, LMK


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