Phenacogrammus interruptus (Congo tetra) spawn attempt

[cichlid-gal]

My Phenacogrammus interruptus (Congo tetra) attempting their 1st spawn...this a young group that I just purchased from Aquarium Co-op last month. I'm super happy to see this but what will I do with these silly (but very lovely) mollies...my clean up crew...sigh ... no eggs survived this melee that I could find. The primary pair in the video traveled all over the tank looking for some quiet space but really none was to be found so I think ultimately things just happened with flashby's so to speak.

Time to think about a molly tank I guess.

[flash=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/v/SBSgQ32kr3U" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true[/flash]

 

[Anonymous]

Wow , I have a hard time getting snails to breed. How did u get CONGO TETRAS conditioned to spawn?! Anything special?

 

[lloyd378]

As always Awesome looking tank and fish! I personally, just can't wait for you to venture into the wonderful world of ca/sa cichlids!!!!

 

[cichlid-gal]

Wow , I have a hard time getting snails to breed. How did u get CONGO TETRAS conditioned to spawn?! Anything special?

Chad...I'm not doing anything different with these guys than with all my other fish. Flake food (DRAF), Tetra tropical granules (I use those for all my tetras as they float a little as they fall and the tetras seem to be able to see the pellets pretty well), Repashy Shrimp Souflee or Omnivore, and some frozen bloodworms once in a while (like every two weeks or so and just a few). 50% water change once a week. That's it.

As always Awesome looking tank and fish! I personally, just can't wait for you to venture into the wonderful world of ca/sa cichlids!!!!

Thanks Lloyd...I had those three beautiful GBR's in this tank but I have now lost all of them. They were gorgeous. And I would love to have some of those big CA/SA cichlids. Contemplating a change in one of my 125G tanks but not quite ready yet as I'm still enjoying my groups that I have in them but I have given it some consideration. The time will come. Future things.

 

[Squirmteben]

How many Congo Tetras do you have in the tank? My problem (one of many) while trying to spawn them was after I moved all of the other fish out of the tank the Congos became skittish and too scared to spawn. It seemed like they were only willing to spawn when the lights were just right and there were plenty of hungry mouths around to eat their eggs. But maybe this could be avoided if you had a big enough school of them and you have highly adjustable lighting.

 

[cichlid-gal]

I have 7 congos total...2 males and 5 females. I also have 4 mollies and that's it.

I have noticed that the spawning behavior occurs early in the morning when the lights on the tank first come on. This tank has a timer on it and the tank usually gets a little bit of daylight/roomlight before the bright lights come on. Yesterday I sat for 1/2 hour or so in the morning watching the beautiful spawning behaviors with the group. Don't know that I will ever get viable eggs/fry but just watching them is special either way. The primary male/female pair found a nice niche behind some plants and rocks on the right side of the tank. They made a number of passes over that area so I suspect there were eggs but the mollies were over there pretty quick as well as some of the other congos after a bit.