A reader based in the USA has become the world's first fishkeeper to successfully spawn the rare Indian cichlid Etroplus canarensis.
Tim Dooling from San Diego reported his spawning of Etroplus canarensis, the Canara pearlspot, last week and now has a brood of tiny canarensis growing on in a separate tank.
As far as we know, nobody has previously bred the species and very little is known about its reproductive biology.
Says Tim: "I have a large 834 l./183 gal. tank over-populated with 20 Etroplus canarensis and seven Puntius denisonii. The canarensis are two groups. The oldest is now two years old, and the younger group is about a year and a half. I acquired the second group a year ago and they were very small, presumably from the December 2004-January 2005 season. A pair formed from the older group and I had an earlier unsuccessful spawn about 6-8 weeks ago."
Both parents guard the clutch of eggs.
"This time, the water temperature had been 78F for some time, and we had a week of warm weather which caused the temp to perk up to 83F, this was followed by some initial courtship behaviour.
"Noticing this I made two significant (25%) water changes and fed them heavily with Mysis. The water changes were made on Thursday and Friday, by Saturday afternoon the oviduct was visible on the female, and nest-building had begun in a manner very reminiscent of Etroplus macalatus. Sunday evening the spawn occurred late in the day."
Like most canarensis owners, Tim is keeping the species in moderately hard pure freshwater, as it's not found under the brackish conditions of the other two Asian cichlids, E. suratensis and E. maculatus.
The eggs were removed from the parents to save them from predation by the other fish last week and are now being raised in a tank of their own. Hatching started after 96 hours at a temperature of 27C/80F.
Lost cichlid
The Canara pearlspot is one of the hobby's rarest cichlids and was once believed to be extinct in the wild, only to reappear at a far east trade show in the early 1990s.
Due largely to the efforts of the exporter Malabar Tropicals, the species became available in the trade once again in 2004 with small numbers of fish appearing on sale in the UK, the USA and Singapore.
A number of cichlid keepers had been trying for some time to persuade their canarensis to spawn, but Tim appears to have been the first. Late last week, another fishkeeper based in Greece also reported an unsuccessful spawning of his fish.
Breeding denisonii
Tim is no stranger to spawning difficult species, as he's previously reported eggs from his Red-line torpedo barbs, Puntius denisonii.
Tim's denisonii have also been spawning in his tank.
"I did in fact have several episodes of denisonii spawning", explained Tim, "followed immediately by feasting by the other members of the tank. Something about egg scatterers and cichlids in the same tank doesn't bode terribly well for raising a brood of denisonii. However, I am convinced that the same conditions are ideal for them. If I had the room I'd do it properly."
During spawning, Tim says that the ripe female would be chased around the tank by several males, who would constantly via for prime positioning. "The eggs would be scattered and immediately fertilised and immediately eaten by whoever was nearby. My problem is that I (like most hobbyists) am a sucker for buying too many fish, and although I have a very large tank it is crowded with 20 canarensis and seven denisonii."
Tim says that he believes someone near him has already been successful in rearing the species and he suggested that the marble-technique might work when breeding this Puntius, as it does for most other species in the genus.